Riding for the Brand is a western that's set in the future. It's a short novel about leadership, human motivation and change. The story revolves around two men: Bob Fooshee, a freelance writer, and Burns Marcus, a rancher who builds a business empire. The year is 2030, and Fooshee is dispatched by a magazine to write about Marcus, whose ranch was near bankruptcy 25 years earlier. It was then that Marcus, searching for answers, attended the cattlemen's convention in San Antonio and heard a speaker who provoked him to radically change the way he approached his business. This was the catalyst that led Marcus to start Diamond Enterprises, which becomes the model organization of the 21st century. While interviewing Burns at his ranch in Oklahoma, Bob rides pasture, ropes a few steers and discovers the key to Burns Marcus' success - the power of purposeful leadership.

The open West was a land where wanderers could find themselves a home—one to fight for, be changed by, sometimes to die for. Jed Asbury was one such journeyman, taking on the identity of a dead person. Allen Ring was another: He’d won his plot of land in a card game only to find he had to win again with a gun. From a has-been boxer to a ranch hand taking on his bosses’ troubles, the characters in these classic Louis L’Amour short stories are all “riding for the brand”—staying loyal to what matters, staking the West with their courage and their blood.

Folks all over West Texas and eastern New Mexico will tell you: Cowdens have been ranching here for as long as anyone can remember. The Cowdens, in fact, have been at the forefront of the cattle business for 150 years. Arriving in Texas in the 1850s, Cowden men and women raised and trailed cattle, sought out water and better grazing land, tangled with Comanches—and helped extend the western line of Anglo settlement as they raised their families. They eventually moved to New Mexico, where they established the renowned JAL Ranch. Award-winning writer Michael Pettit, a Cowden descendant and former rancher, offers a compelling portrait of this genuine American ranching family. Riding for the Brand spans six generations and two states to serve up a real slice of the Old West, complete with cowboys and Indians, cattle and buffalo, open range and barbed wire. Pettit skillfully blends family saga with an urbanite’s firsthand look at life on today’s 50,000-acre Cowden Ranch, where the one dependable factor is the constant wind. Riding for the Brand traces the evolution of the Texas and New Mexico cattle business from the era of intimate ranching communities to today’s oil-enriched or corporate operations. But it’s also the story of one man’s search for identity through his connections to a family, a place, and a way of life.

In this book, I outline a 4-Part approach to thinking smarter about growth as a CPG entrepreneur. It is based on years of anthropological research into how and why consumers pay for premium-priced CPG items and intensive 4P pattern analysis among an elite club of premium CPG brands that all reached $100M+ in less than a decade. Part 1. Designing to Command a Premium This is where many founders fail without realizing it. There is a cultural logic behind premium products that grow extremely fast. You should learn it. Part 2. Managing A Small Experiment Don't hit the gas too early. Successful CPG startups manage a rolling, iterative experiment until key KPIs appear. You should learn this art. Part 3. Fine Tuning the Conversion Playbook Steady velocity growth is essential to ramping your brand.Your team needs to learn the art of sustaining it in key geographies, so that you don't have to buy premature distribution to obtain growth. Part 4. Accelerating to Scale There are three best practices in acceleration. Two of them are counter-intuitive to CPG veterans not expert in the ramping of premium CPG businesses. You need to learn how to deploy them.

A new approach to business ethics is quietly taking hold in executive suites and corporate boardrooms across America. Frustrated by an epidemic of misbehavior at all employee levels, management teams are getting back to basics—back to the idea that personal character and individual responsibility are the ultimate keys to integrity, just as they were back in the days of the Open Range. A decade ago, the book Cowboy Ethics first inspired businesspeople to look to the Code of the West. Once they did, they discovered that its simple, common-sense principles can be more effective guides to business leadership than a truckload of corporate mission statements, rules, and ethics manuals. “Cowboys are role models because they live by a code,” says author James P. Owen. “They show us what it means to stand for something, and to strive every day to make your actions line up with your beliefs. And isn’t that as good a definition of integrity as you can find?” In the years since, the book’s “Ten Principles to Live By” have been embraced by scores of companies, universities, and even a state government. This updated Tenth Anniversary hardcover edition traces the evolution of this grassroots business movement in brand-new chapters while preserving the inspirational lessons and stunning photography of the original. It’s ideal for corporate gifts, the new graduate, business students, or any career person who cares about doing the right thing.