Discover the secrets of world-class leadership! When it comes to refined service and exquisite hospitality, one name stands high above the rest: The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. With ceaseless attention to every luxurious detail, the company has set the bar for creating memorable customer experiences in world-class settings. Now, for the first time, the leadership secrets behind the company's extraordinary success are revealed. The New Gold Standard takes you on an exclusive tour behind the scenes of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. Granted unprecedented access to the company's executives, staff, and its award-winning Leadership Center training facilities, bestselling author Joseph Michelli explored every level of leadership within the organization. He emerged with the key principles leaders at any company can use to provide a customer experience unlike any other, such as: Understanding the ever-evolving needs of customers Empowering employees by treating them with the utmost respect Anticipating customers' unexpressed needs and concerns Developing and conducting an unsurpassed training regimen Sharing engaging stories from the company's employees--from the corporate office and hotels around the globe--Michelli describes the innovative methods the company uses to create peerless guest experiences and explains how it constantly hones and improves them. The New Gold Standard weaves practical how-to advice, proven leadership tools, and the wisdom of experts to help you create and embed superior customer-service principles, processes, and practices in your own organization.

Apple Computer was once a shining example of the American success story. Having launched the personal computer revolution in 1977 with the first all-purpose desktop PC, Apple became the darling of the national business press and Wall Street. Yet by 1995, the company's change-the-world idealism had all but disappeared in a bitter internal struggle between warring camps. Raging internal mistakes, petty infighting, and gross mismanagement became Apple's hallmark, and today the company clings to a mere 3.7 percent share of the market it helped to create. Apple is the spellbinding account of what really went on behind closed doors, revealing the forces that dismantled this once great icon of American business.

In 1972, the Philadelphia Phillies experienced one of their worst seasons in franchise history, finishing with an abysmal 59-97 record. Yet throughout this disastrous season, Steve "Lefty" Carlton proved to be a diamond in the rough. In his first year with the club, he led the league with 27 wins, eight shutouts, and a sizzling 1.98 ERA, earning an astounding 45.8 percent of Philadelphia's wins. He also won his first Cy Young award, the first pitcher to do so with a last-place team. This work chronicles Carlton's magical season, including the Rick Wise-for-Carlton trade, his 5-1 start following the players' first-ever strike, his 15-game winning streak, and a number of memorable games along the way. Interviews with Phillies icons, Hall of Famers, and legendary sports writers add insights to this account of Carlton's remarkable achievements amidst one of the most calamitous periods in Phillies history.

Reproduction of the original: Jessie Carlton by Francis Forrester

High society at the turn of the nineteenth century will find that politics, deceit, tragedy, infidelity, and love are the same standards people continue to live in 2010. It will affect the life of the duchess of Carlton Hill and her son, the newly elected senator, Jerome Carlton, second generation. But wait! They say that history repeats itself, so true enough as the third generation, her grandchildren, even on to the fourth generation becomes of age. it reaches out to touch an innocent child, her great grandson. The duchess stands strong as she rallies behind those she loves with a firm belief in her faith. But again tragedy strikes, and her great grandson must be spared the heartache . . . or is it too late?