Dan Davies Boeken

A TIMES BEST BUSINESS BOOK OF 2022'A gripping story about a great British brand' Jeremy VineLightweight, compact, and now, electric: the cityscape has been forever changed by the addition of the Brompton bike, with its distinctive style and clever folding design.For over forty years, the Brompton's modular design has remained virtually unchanged. It has stood not only the test of time but every financial crash since 1976, Brexit, and COVID-19, not to mention every other risk which any business faces. Where, then, did this ingenious feat of engineering come from? Who were the minds behind it? And how did a small company grow to become one of the biggest cycling brand names in the world?This is not only the first look behind the scenes at Brompton Bicycle Ltd, but a masterclass in entrepreneurship, manufacturing, and scaling a business.

Winner of the 2015 Gordon Burn Prize and the 2015 CWA Non-Fiction DaggerShortlisted for the Orwell Prize and the James Tait Black Prize'An astonishing account' ObserverDan Davies has spent more than a decade on a quest to find the real Jimmy Savile, and interviewed him extensively over a period of seven years before his death. In the course of his quest, he spent days and nights at a time quizzing Savile at his homes in Leeds and Scarborough, lunched with him at venues ranging from humble transport cafes to the Athenaeum club in London and, most memorably, joined him for a short cruise aboard the QE2 .Dan thought his quest had come to an end in October 2011 when Savile's golden coffin was lowered into a grave dug at a 45-degree angle in a Scarborough cemetery. He was wrong. In the last two and a half years, Dan has been interviewing scores of people, many of them unobtainable while Jimmy was alive. What he has discovered was that his instincts were right all along and behind the mask lay a hideous truth. Jimmy Savile was not only complex, damaged and controlling, but cynical, calculating and predatory. He revelled in his status as a Pied Piper of youth and used his power to abuse the vulnerable and underage, all the while covering his tracks by moving into the innermost circles of the establishment.

Delving into the intricacies of high-level financial crimes, this book offers a captivating and insightful exploration from an industry expert. With a blend of humor and expertise, it reveals the mechanisms behind these crimes, making complex topics accessible and engaging for readers. The author's insider perspective enriches the narrative, providing a unique lens through which to understand the often opaque world of finance.

Financial crime seems horribly complicated but there are only so many ways you can con someone out of what's theirs. In fact, there are four. A veteran regulatory economist and market analyst, Dan Davies has years of experience picking the bones out of some of the most famous frauds of the modern age. Now he reveals the big picture that emerges from their labyrinths of deceit.Along the way you'll find out how to fake a gold mine with a wedding ring, a file and a shotgun. You'll see how close Charles Ponzi, the king of pyramid schemes, came to acquiring his own private navy. You'll learn how fraud has shaped the entire development of the modern world economy. And you'll discover whether you have what it takes to be a white-collar criminal mastermind, if that's what you want. (Which you don't. You really, really don't.)

The book delves into the complexities of decision-making in modern society, highlighting how avoidance leads to undesirable outcomes in markets and institutions. Dan Davies explores the ideas of Stafford Beer, who proposed viewing organizations as artificial intelligences capable of independent decision-making. By applying management cybernetics, Beer aimed for self-regulation within organizations, a concept overlooked, contributing to current political and economic crises. Through a blend of cynicism and journalistic insight, Davies critiques past failures and reflects on potential alternatives.

Part-biography, part-political thriller, The Unaccountability Machine is a rousing expose of how management failures lead organisations to make catastrophic errors