What if customers expect more than just a good product, excellent service and perfectly performing digital interfaces? And what if new technologies like 5G, artificial intelligence, quantum computing and robotics offer possibilities that go beyond mere ease of use? Digital ease of use is the new minimum. It has become a commodity. The customer now regards it as the most normal thing in the world to have access to limitless products and services with just a single click of a mouse. In the years ahead, companies will need to play an active role in the 'life journey' of customers: helping to make their dreams come true and removing problems from their daily lives. In addition, customers are looking increasingly to companies instead of governments to tackle societal challenges like climate change, health care and mobility. If your company succeeds in providing outstanding digital service, becomes a partner in the life of your customers and provides solutions for major societal issues, you will develop 'an offer you can't refuse'.

What can a one-time mob boss teach you about how to run a business? I'll Make You an Offer You Can't Refuse, written by a former member of the Colombo crime family, promises an insider's view of the mob that will change the way you do business forever. The first thing you'll learn? Get a plan, work it hard, be smart, and surround yourself with people who know how to help you reach your goals--people like Michael Franzese. At the height of his involvement in the mafia, Franzese ran rackets that earned him millions of dollars every week. After serving his time, Franzese quit the mob and dedicated his life to making a positive impact on the world by sharing what he's learned along the way. Now, he's a consultant who has helped everyone from high-powered executives to small business owners learn how to make the most out of their businesses--and, more importantly, how to do it honestly. As one of the few who quit the mob and lived to tell his story, Franzese has a unique perspective on how the mafia does business. Packed with hard-won experience, street smarts, and just a pinch of philosophy, I'll Make You an Offer You Can't Refuse shares the professional advice (and the life lessons) that Franzese learned firsthand, including: The importance of cutting to the chase The value of having a good crew How to start learning from your failures The danger of bending the rules How to come out ahead in your negotiations Why you should lead with your brain instead of your mouth How to think about real success Business is business. Let your friend Franzese give you a tip or two about how to run yours better.

What's a girl to do with...An offer you can't refuse? A new bestseller from one of the UK's biggest authors! Nothing could tear Lola and Dougie apart, except his mother... Seventeen-year-old Lola has no intention of accepting when her boyfriend's snobbish mother offers her a huge bribe to break up with him. Then Lola discovers a secret that makes her think again, and the only way she can help one of the people she loves most in the world is to take the money and break Dougie's heart. Ten years later, when Lola meets Dougie again, her feelings for him are as strong as ever. She'll do almost anything to get him back, but she can never tell him the truth. Can she overcome his bitterness and win his heart? She's attractive, persuasive, and endlessly optimistic, but even Lola's got her work cut out for her this time. PRAISE FOR AN OFFER YOU CAN'T REFUSE "Pick this up at your peril: you won't get a thing done till it's finished!" "You won't be disappointed in this gem."— Hot Stars Magazine "Pick this up at your peril: you won't get a thing done till it's finished."— Heat magazine "Witty and charming, this easygoing tale is full of twists that make it hard to put down."— Woman "Classy chick-lit that appeals to women of all ages. She [Jill Mansell] has a fantastic ability to keep a number of storylines running at the same time without losing the reader in a labyrinth."—Daily Express "Warm and funny."—Heat magazine "A romantic romp full of larger-than-life characters."—Express "Fast, furious and fabulous fun. To read it is to devour it."—Company "A light-hearted and likeable tale."—Prima "A jaunty summer read."—Daily Mail "A great, comical read."—Birmingham Post

The Mafia has maintained an enduring hold on the American cultural imagination--even as it continues to wrongly color our real-life perception of Italian Americans. Journalist and cultural critic De Stefano takes a look at the origins and prevalence of the Mafia mythos in America. Beginning with a consideration of Italian emigration in the early twentieth century and the fear and prejudice--among both Americans and Italians--that informed our earliest conception of what was the largest immigrant group to enter the United States, De Stefano explores how these impressions laid the groundwork for the images so familiar to us today and uses them to illuminate and explore the variety and allure of Mafia stories. At the same time, he addresses the lingering power of the goodfella cliché, which makes it all but impossible to green-light a project about the Italian American experience not set in gangland.--From publisher description.

A powerful and provocative collection of essays that offers poignant reflections on living between society' s most charged, politicized, and intractably polar spaces— between black and white, rich and poor, thin and fat.Savala Nolan knows what it means to live in the in-between. Descended from a Black and Mexican father and a white mother, Nolan' s mixed-race identity is obvious, for better and worse. At her mother' s encouragement, she began her first diet at the age of three and has been both fat and painfully thin throughout her life. She has experienced both the discomfort of generational poverty and the ease of wealth and privilege.It is these liminal spaces— of race, class, and body type— that the essays in Don' t Let It Get You Down excavate, presenting a clear and nuanced understanding of our society' s most intractable points of tension. The twelve essays that comprise this collection are rich with unforgettable anecdotes and are as humorous and as full of Nolan' s appetites as they are of anxieties. Over and over again, Nolan reminds us that our true identities are often most authentically lived not in the black and white, but in the grey of the in-between.

“Utterly charming… A Proposal They Can't Refuse is a surefire winner!” —Mia Sosa, USA Today bestselling author of The Worst Best Man Natalie Caña turns up the heat, humor and heart in this debut rom-com about a Puerto Rican chef and an Irish American whiskey distiller forced into a fake engagement by their scheming octogenarian grandfathers. Kamilah Vega is desperate to convince her family to update their Puerto Rican restaurant and enter it into the Fall Foodie Tour. With the gentrification of their Chicago neighborhood, it's the only way to save the place. The fly in her mofongo—her blackmailing abuelo says if she wants to change anything in his restaurant, she'll have to marry the one man she can't stand: his best friend’s grandson. Liam Kane spent a decade working to turn his family’s distillery into a contender. But just as he and his grandfather are on the verge of winning a national competition, Granda hits him with a one-two punch: he has cancer and has his heart set on seeing Liam married before it’s too late. And Granda knows just the girl…Kamilah Vega. If they refuse, their grandfathers will sell the building that houses both their businesses. With their futures on the line, Kamilah and Liam plan to outfox the devious duo, faking an engagement until they both get what they want. But soon, they find themselves tangled up in more than either of them bargained for.

Remember this great line from The Godfather Part Two: “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer”? It’s just one engaging example of the wisdom of both real-life and cinematic mobsters captured in this entertaining collection. The words come from gangster luminaries ranging from Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel to the Corleones, and from films including Pulp Fiction. Packed with wiseguy insights into business, management, and life—plus plenty of photos of the highlighted figures—this is one of the most handsomely designed, exciting compendiums compiled in years.