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Fallen Giant: The Amazing Story of Hank Greenberg and the History of AIG
by Shelp, Ron | HC | Good
US $7.60
Approximately£5.62
Condition:
“Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, ”... Read moreAbout condition
Good
A book that has been read, but is in good condition. Minimal damage to the book cover eg. scuff marks, but no holes or tears. If this is a hard cover, the dust jacket may be missing. Binding has minimal wear. The majority of pages are undamaged with some creasing or tearing, and pencil underlining of text, but this is minimal. No highlighting of text, no writing in the margins, and no missing pages. See the seller’s listing for full details and description of any imperfections.
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Estimated between Fri, 25 Jul and Tue, 29 Jul to 94104
Located in: Aurora, Illinois, United States
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eBay item number:373040027092
Item specifics
- Condition
- Good
- Seller notes
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Weight
- 1 lbs
- Product Group
- Book
- IsTextBook
- No
- ISBN
- 9780471916963
About this product
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, John
ISBN-10
047191696X
ISBN-13
9780471916963
eBay Product ID (ePID)
26038269462
Product Key Features
Book Title
Fallen Giant : the Amazing Story of Hank Greenberg and the History of Aig
Number of Pages
240 Pages
Language
English
Topic
Insurance / General, Business, Corporate & Business History
Publication Year
2006
Illustrator
Yes
Genre
Biography & Autobiography, Business & Economics
Format
Hardcover
Dimensions
Item Height
1 in
Item Weight
15.3 Oz
Item Length
9.2 in
Item Width
6.3 in
Additional Product Features
Intended Audience
Trade
LCCN
2006-020338
Dewey Edition
22
Reviews
That is the phrase that Ron Shelp chooses to sum up Maurice R. Greenberg, the deposed chairman of the American International Group and the subject of his " Fallen Giant: The Amazing Story of Hank Greenberg and the History of A.I.G., " and it would be hard to improve on. Insurance, Mr. Greenberg realized early, is the game of playing only when the odds are in one's favor. For instance, if a far-flung customer wants insurance against a kidnapping -- a risk that few others will touch -- chances are that you can charge a lot for the policy. As Mr. Greenberg did not fail to notice, plenty of overseas executives are kidnapped, but many more are not -- and they pay premiums, too. Throw in a few other " unfair" advantages, like lobbying, cajoling or otherwise persuading governments to do one's bidding as well as, quite possibly, obscuring some of the truth about one's operations, and you have the secret of a great insurance fortune. Accusations of cooking the books more or less forced Mr. Greenberg to resign last year. Mr. Shelp, a former Greenberg lieutenant and troubleshooter at A.I.G., wrote the book ostensibly to explain his old boss's fall from grace. He asks some very good questions. One is why Mr. Greenberg would risk his $3 billion fortune on some " fairly modest fiddling." Another is this: What did Eliot Spitzer, New York's attorney general and now its governor-elect, have against Mr. Greenberg, whom he all but accused of criminality on Sunday morning television? Then, after the A.I.G. board forced Mr. Greenberg to resign, Mr. Spitzer neglected to charge him after all. Well, never mind. (Mr.Spitzer did file civil charges, which Mr. Greenberg is contesting.) Mr. Shelp leaves no doubt that A.I.G. was a master at shaping and, at times, bending the rules, but he argues that the offenses that got Mr. Greenberg canned were pretty modest, and notes that reversing the deals in question resulted in a write-down of only 3 percent of A.I.G.'s equity. The author does not probe deeply enough to resolve the legal issues, nor does he have much fresh news, but that is not his point. Mr. Shelp is more interested in another question: How did A.I.G.'s " unique corporate culture" contribute to its autocratic chairman's success and -- after 37 years at the helm -- his undoing? This gives Mr. Shelp license for telling one of the great unsung stories in American business, namely the origins of A.I.G. The company was founded by Cornelius Vander Starr, a gadabout soda-fountain operator in Fort Bragg, Calif., who switched to real estate, then insurance. For no particular reason, he hopped a boat to the Far East and in 1919 began to sell policies in Shanghai. Somehow, he talked American insurance companies into giving him their " pen" -- that is, letting him act as their agent. Starr had a wonderful idea, which was that the Chinese were not such a bad risk. (Other Western insurance companies in China preferred to sell policies only to Occidentals.) As you can imagine, this broadened his client base considerably. Mr. Shelp says Starr proved his affection for the natives by selling to them, but this is patronizing. What he proved was his good business sense. Starr branched into other countries, bought newspapers in China, became friendly with American intelligence operatives. The author, who aims to be fair but does not pretend to be neutral, relates quite a few tales from those swashbuckling days, some of which are relevant to his narrative and many of which are interesting. His style is conversational, as if he were telling the story from an adjacent barstool. When Starr marries, the author says his wife " would have been in her 20s" -- as if the author were only dimly recalling an unverifiable detail. We will allow Mr. Shelp his penchant for certain colonial mannerisms -- for instance, referring to this or that character as a " Dutchman" or a " Chinese gentleman." But a few of his sentences ought not to have
Dewey Decimal
368.0092 B
Table Of Content
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. PROLOGUE. Chapter I: How Hank Greenberg Did It. Chapter II: Shanghai Starr. Chapter III: Secrets to Building the China Empire. Chapter IV: Starr Joins "Wild Bill" Donovan to Fight the Japanese. Chapter V: Turning the War to Advantage. Chapter VI: Business Is Pleasure and Pleasure Is Business. Chapter VII: Preparing to Be a Public Company. Chapter VIII: A Nobody Beats the Ivy Leaguers. Chapter IX: Life with Hank Greenberg. Chapter X: Morefar. Chapter XI: The Mystery of What Happened at AIG. Chapter XII: Greenberg's Fall from Grace. Chapter XIII: The Great Survivor Vows to Bounce Back. THE CAST OF CHARACTERS. TIMELINE. ENDNOTES.
Synopsis
In Fallen Giant, author Ron Shelp--who worked within the AIG organization for more than a decade--sheds light on AIG, the company, and Hank Greenberg, the man. Through in-depth research, candid interviews, and firsthand experiences, Shelp provides a detailed look at how AIG was originally created and reveals how Greenberg's unrelenting drive to be the best may have led to his untimely departure from AIG., In Fallen Giant, author Ron Shelp-who worked within the AIG organization for more than a decade-sheds light on AIG, the company, and Hank Greenberg, the man. Through in-depth research, candid interviews, and firsthand experiences, Shelp provides a detailed look at how AIG was originally created and reveals how Greenberg's unrelenting drive to be the best may have led to his untimely departure from AIG., Author Ronald Shelp, who worked alongside Maurice Greenberg and within the American International Group for many years, sheds light on both AIG, the company, and Greenberg, the man. Readers will be taken inside a world where meetings with presidents, spies, and leading investment figures are all part of doing business.
LC Classification Number
HC102.5.G717S54 2006
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- c***m (410)- Feedback left by buyer.Past 6 monthsVerified purchaseWOW!; I cannot believe this 3 Days to Hawaii! ; AAA+++; Excellent Service; Great Pricing; Fast Delivery-Faster Than Expected to Hawaii!; Shipped 05/05, Mon, Received 05/08, Thu to Hawaii using free shipping; USPS Ground Mail, Book in Excellent Condition--Better Than Described ; TLC Packaging; Excellent Seller Communication, Sends updates . Highly Recommended!, Thank you very much!
- a***r (375)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchasei am so happy to have every book of this series! the price of the book & the shipping is very reasonable! the book was as described & was in excellent condition! it was shipped quickly & arrived quickly! the books are always packaged carefully so they arrived undamaged! the communication from the sellers is always excellent--they go out of their way for excellent customer service! i have been a repeat customer from this seller & always will be! this seller is the best bookseller on ebay!
- l***b (331)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchase5 STARS on ALL aspects... ITEM AS DESCRIBED - 5 STARS... PACKAGING & SHIPPING - 5 STARS... VALUE OF ITEM RECEIVED - 5 STARS... COMMUNICATION - 5 STARS. Would highly recommend this seller to all Ebay buyers without any reservations. Thanks again for your business with BB812, and we do appreciate your care and consideration of our offer. HAPPY EBAY LIFE !!!