Changing corporate culture is heavy-duty stuff. This isn't the sort of challenge you take on simply because it sounds good. Or because it's the "in thing" to do these days. You do it because you have to in a deperate attempt to survive

Did you know that by failing to negotiate her starting salary for her first job, a woman may sacrifice over a half a million pounds in earnings by the end of her career? Yet, as research reveals, men are four times as likely to ask for higher pay than are women with the same qualifications. In this eye-opening book, Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever draw on research in psychology, sociology, economics and organisational behaviour as well as dozens of interviews to explore the personal and societal reasons why women seldom ask for what they need, want and deserve at work and at home. Why Women Don't Ask - a sensation when published in the US in 2003 - is a call to arms that will help you recognise the ways in which our culture perpetuates inequalities - and how you can begin to overcome them.

The Mexican government abandoned its role as owner of diverse enterprises and began to focus efforts on the populations most pressing needs: drinking water, health, education, agriculture, nutrition, housing, the environment, infrastructure and the administration of justice. The aim was to transform a paternalistic government into a supportive government - governing for all, but working harder for those who have less. Did it succeed?

An extraordinarily insightful and thought-provoking look at how our society and culture are going to change, and change rapidly, as the price of gasoline, heating oil, and all other everyday consumer products that are derived from oil continue to escalate. Imagine an everyday world in which the price of gasoline (and oil) continues to go up, and up, and up. Think about the immediate impact that would have on our lives. Of course, everybody already knows how about gasoline has affected our driving habits. People can't wait to junk their gas-guzzling SUVs for a new Prius. But there are more, not-so-obvious changes on the horizon that Chris Steiner tracks brilliantly in this provocative work. Consider the following societal changes: people who own homes in far-off suburbs will soon realize that there's no longer any market for their houses (reason: nobody wants to live too far away because it's too expensive to commute to work). Telecommuting will begin to expand rapidly. Trains will become the mode of national transportation (as it used to be) as the price of flying becomes prohibitive. Families will begin to migrate southward as the price of heating northern homes in the winter is too pricey. Cheap everyday items that are comprised of plastic will go away because of the rising price to produce them (plastic is derived from oil). And this is just the beginning of a huge and overwhelming domino effect that our way of life will undergo in the years to come. Steiner, an engineer by training before turning to journalism, sees how this simple but constant rise in oil and gas prices will totally re-structure our lifestyle. But what may be surprising to readers is that all of these changes may not be negative - but actually will usher in some new and very promising aspects of our society. Steiner will probe how the liberation of technology and innovation, triggered by climbing gas prices, will change our lives. The book may start as an alarmist's exercise.... but don't be misled. The future will be exhilarating.