Finance is an inescapable part of American life. From how one pursues an education, buys a home, runs a business, or saves for retirement, finance orders the lives of ordinary Americans. And as finance continues to expand, inequality soars. In Divested, Ken-Hou Lin and Megan Tobias Neely demonstrate why widening inequality cannot be understood without examining the rise of big finance. The growth of the financial sector has dramatically transformed the American economy by redistributing resources from workers and families into the hands of owners, executives, and financial professionals. The average American is now divested from a world driven by the maximization of financial profit. Lin and Neely provide systematic evidence to document how the ascendance of finance on Wall Street, Main Street, and among households is a fundamental cause of economic inequality. They argue that finance has reshaped the economy in three important ways. First, the financial sector extracts resources from the economy at large without providing economic benefits to those outside the financial services industry. Second, firms in other economic sectors have become increasingly involved in lending and investing, which weakens the demand for labor and the bargaining power of workers. And third, the escalating consumption of financial products by households shifts risks and uncertainties once shouldered by unions, corporations, and governments onto families. A clear, comprehensive, and convincing account of the forces driving economic inequality in America, Divested warns us that the most damaging consequence of the expanding financial system is not simply recurrent financial crises but a widening social divide between the have and have-nots.

A study of business owners who use their firms as laboratories for social innovation. After introducing this phenomenon in historical perspective, Jack Quarter provides 11 case studies of contemporary innovators from six countries, including the UK, the USA, Germany and Canada.

A playbook that empowers sales managers to think like CEOs and act like entrepreneurs At Salesforce.com, Elay Cohen created and executed the sales productivity programs that accelerated the company’s growth to a $3 billion–plus enterprise. The innovation delivered over these years by Elay and his team resulted in unprecedented sales productivity excellence. Based on that experience, Elay embarked on a journey to help every company in the world grow like Salesforce.com. After working with many organizations and further reflecting on his time at Salesforce.com, it became apparent that one key player was best positioned to accelerate growth in organizations: the first-line sales manager. Empowering sales managers to own and execute their own sales programs, as entrepreneurs would, became the focus of this book and his technology company. First-line sales managers are the backbone of every sales organization. They make it happen. They’re where the rubber meets the road in pipeline generation, revenue growth, and customer success. These sales managers serve as the voice of salespeople to organizations, and as the organizational voice back to salespeople. In this accessible guide, Cohen shares how sales managers can build an inspired, engaged team, equipping them with the tools they need to drive up sales productivity and grow the business. He reveals, among many other lessons, how you can nurture a winning sales culture; build world-class training programs that encourage salespeople to learn from each other; and execute sales processes, playbooks, and deals in a way that gives your salespeople the winning edge.