Audiobooks by David Farber

Crack: Rock Cocaine, Street Capitalism, and the Decade of Greed

A shattering account of the crack cocaine years from award-winning American historian David Farber, Crack tells the story of the young men who bet their lives on the rewards of selling ‘rock’ cocaine, the people who gave themselves over to the crack pipe, and the often-merciless authorities who incarcerated legions of African Americans caught in the crack cocaine underworld. Based on interviews, archival research, judicial records, underground videos, and prison memoirs, Crack explains why, in a de-industrializing America in which market forces ruled and entrepreneurial risk-taking was celebrated, the crack industry was a lucrative enterprise for the ‘Horatio Alger boys’ of their place and time. These young, predominately African American entrepreneurs were profit-sharing partners in a deviant, criminal form of economic globalization. Hip Hop artists often celebrated their exploits but overwhelmingly, Americans - across racial lines -did not. Crack takes a hard look at the dark side of late twentieth-century capitalism.

David Farber (Author), Kerry Shale (Narrator)

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Jobs To Be Done: A Roadmap for Customer-Centered Innovation

In a challenging economy filled with nimble competitors, no one can afford to stagnate. Yet, innovation is notoriously difficult. Only 1 in 100 new products are successful enough to cover development costs, and even fewer impact a company's growth trajectory. So how do you pinpoint the winning ideas that customers will love? Sifting through purchasing data for clues about what might sell or haphazardly brainstorming ideas are typical strategies. But Jobs to Be Done offers a far more precise and effective approach: determining the drivers of customer behavior--those functional and emotional goals that people want to achieve. Using the Jobs method, it becomes easy to see that people don't really need a 1/4-inch drill bit, but a 1/4-inch hole. They're not just buying ice cream, but also celebration, bonding, and indulgence. This simple shift in perspective opens up new insights about your customers and a wealth of hidden opportunities. Social media newcomer Snapchat, for example, used the Jobs process to capture the millennial demographic. By reducing functionality, the company satisfied its users' unmet need to document real life, in the moment, without filters and "like" buttons. Packed with similar examples from every industry, this complete innovation guide explains both foundational concepts and a detailed action plan developed by innovation expert Stephen Wunker and his team. From unlocking customer insights to ideation to iteration, you'll learn how to: * Figure out what customers really want, even if they can't express it * Sort out valuable insights from less useful customer data * Dig into the underlying "why" of consumer behavior, not just the "what" * Target unaddressed jobs to be done that have the power to disrupt * Identify key customer segments you didn't know existed * Develop solutions that work with ingrained habits, not against them * Use a Jobs-based lens to get a broader view of the competition * Generate better ideas in brainstorming sessions and vet your solutions * Sidestep common mistakes, such as engaging in "feature wars" * Spot emerging trends that are changing how customers will behave * Work customer insights into the design process * And much more Jobs to Be Done gives you a clear-cut framework for thinking about your business, outlines a roadmap for discovering new markets, new products and services, and helps you generate creative opportunities to innovate your way to success.

David Farber, Jessica Wattman, Stephen Wunker (Author), Tim Andres Pabon (Narrator)

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