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ISBN 9780553804379 Published March 2010
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Posted Feb. 4, 2011 3:40 a.m. by sally-haldorson
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
Don't miss your opportunity to sign up to win a free copy of Stephen Fried's Appetite for America: How Visionary Businessman Fred Harvey Built a Railroad Hospitality Empire that Civilized the Wild West.
Why is a business book seller encouraging you to get your hands on a biography? Well, in our Jack Covert Selects review of the book last year, Jack wrote: "I’m a huge believer that history books make for some of the best business books. History books teach and inform through the re-creation of a lost time. We’re able to learn from the actions and reactions of real people over the span of their lifetimes." And Appetite for America is ripe with business lessons, both implied and overt. In fact, Fred Harvey's business acumen is truly one of the key characters in the book. In one section, Fried enumerates a set of rules for businessmen that Ford, Fred Harvey's son, collected and regarded as the backbone of the Harvey brand. These rules are both representative of the Harvey brand, and fine examples of pragmatic thinking at its best.
1. Never buy a cheap thing: Everything you buy, you in turn sell. If you buy the best, your customer gets the best.
...
11. Always please the cranks: Anything which suits a finicky customer is bound to be more than satisfactory to the great run of folks who take what is handed them without complaint.
12. Never take yourself too damn seriously.
What becomes very clear is that Harvey knew something about branding in addition to his commitment to service. From the very early days, "[h]e wanted there to be a 'Fred Harvey way' of doing everything." And because he had such a clear vision of what his company would be good at, and he had trusted associates and family around him, the evolution of the Harvey brand survived many changes and disruptions, holding on until World War II.
Still not convinced? Check out a small sampling of the honors Appetite for America has received:
Wall Street Journal, Ten Best Books of the Year
Philadelphia Inquirer, Ten Best Books of the Year
Amazon.com Ten Best Business Books of the Year
Kirkus Reviews, Best Books of the Year
Click here to read more about Appetite for America and sign up to win your free copy on inBubbleWrap!
Amazon's Best of 2010
Posted Nov. 4, 2010 9:28 a.m. by dylan
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
As they've done in previous years, Amazon has broken the books into separate categories and listed their editors' picks next to the customer favorites. I always enjoy seeing the differences between what editors choose and customers vote for with their pocket books. And I would enjoy it more if I were Michael Lewis, who topped both lists in the Business and Investing category.
The customer favorites were:
- The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis, W.W. Norton
- Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh
- Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip Heath & Dan Heath, Broadway Business
- Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink, Riverhead
- Rework by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson, Crown Business
- Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin, Portfolio
- The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness by Dave Ramsey, Thomas Nelson Publishers
- On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System by Henry M. Paulson, Business Plus
- Doing Both: How Cisco Captures Today's Profit and Drives Tomorrow's Growth by Inder Sidhu, FT Press
- 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown by Simon Johnson & James Kwak, Pantheon Books
The editors' picks were:
- The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis, W.W. Norton
- Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip Heath, Broadway Business
- The Art of Choosing by Sheena Iyengar
- The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires by Tim Wu, Knopf Publishing Group
- Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation by Steven Johnson, Riverhead
- Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy by Raghuram Rajan, Princeton University Press
- No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller by Harry Markopolos, John Wiley & Sons
- The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home by Dan Ariely, Harper
- When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead: Useful Stories from a Persuasive Man by Jerry Weintraub, Twelve
- Appetite for America: How Visionary Businessman Fred Harvey Built a Railroad Hospitality Empire That Civilized the Wild West by Stephen Fried, Bantam
If you're interested in what's been listed in the past, I've linked to our post from previous years below.
Best of 2009 | Best of 2008 | Best of 2007 | Best of 2006 | Best of 2005 | Best of 2004
Business Narratives Take Home Two Pultizer Prizes
Posted April 13, 2010 3:54 a.m. by dylan
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
Business narratives took home the Pulitzer Prize in two separate categories this year—Biograghy and History.
If you're interested in more business histories and biographies, check out Jack's recent review of Appetite for America: How Visionary Businessman Fred Harvey Built a Railroad Hospitality Empire That Civilized the Wild West by Stephen Fried.
Jack Covert Selects - Appetite for America
Posted April 8, 2010 10:31 a.m. by 800-ceo-read
I’m a huge believer that history books make for some of the best business books. History books teach and inform through the re-creation of a lost time. We’re able to learn from the actions and reactions of real people over the span of their lifetimes. Appetite for America is the perfect example. To quote from the blurb on the cover, Stephan Fried’s Appetite for America is “Part business story, part social history, part family saga …” I would add that the book also excels as a chronicle of one of the most interesting times in America.
Appetite for America tells the story of Fred Harvey and his creation of the Fred Harvey restaurant chain. While that bit of information might not make you run to your local book emporium to buy this tome, it should once you learn who Fred Harvey was.
An Englishman who came to America in the 1850s, he built a family and a career and then, in his early forties, started a revolutionary business feeding train passengers in the Wild West along the Santa Fe railroad. While he died famous and wealthy, he was also a curiosity—a man out of time—because at the height of the Gilded Age, he became something much better understood today: the founding father of the American service industry.
The book not only retells the tale of creating and sustaining the first true restaurant chain, but also the history of the railroads, the migration of people during the Depression and Dust Bowl, and the true Wild West.
Learning from the experience of others is always the best way to learn, I find. Like Rockefeller and Kroc, Fred Harvey was in the right place at the right time to establish that which the American people needed most. Harvey identified this need and capitalized on that situation. It’s not only a fascinating and engrossing history; it’s a business lesson we all can learn from.
