Reviews Of 3 Books Just Out This Week
● The Age of Fire Is Over: Why All Existing Forecasts on the Energy Transition Are Wrong
Vincent Petit
Summary via publisher (World Scientific)
The heart of the contemporary argument on climate change and energy transition focuses on how energy supply should be decarbonized to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. This book proposes an alternative approach. The Age of Fire is Over: A New Approach to the Energy Transition finds that energy transitions are not driven by supply-side driven transformations but rather by evolutions in demand patterns. Exploring the potential of recently emerged key technologies, The Age of Fire is Over argues that the so-called Energy Transition has not yet started. In the future, key technologies will significantly transform demand and provide services at a fraction of today’s cost or offer new services not yet imagined.
● Collision Course: Carlos Ghosn and the Culture Wars That Upended an Auto Empire
Hans Greimel and William Sposato
Summary via publisher (Harvard Business Review Press)
In Japan it’s called the “Ghosn Shock”–the stunning arrest of Carlos Ghosn, the jet-setting CEO who saved Nissan and made it part of a global automotive empire. Even more shocking was his daring escape from Japan, packed into a box and put on a private jet to Lebanon after months spent in a Japanese detention center, subsisting on rice gruel. This is the saga of what led to the Ghosn Shock and what was left in its wake. Ghosn spent two decades building a colossal partnership between Nissan and Renault that looked like a new model for a global business, but the alliance’s shiny image fronted an unsteady, tense operation. Culture clashes, infighting among executives and engineers, dueling corporate traditions, and government maneuvering constantly threatened the venture. Journalists Hans Greimel and William Sposato have followed the story up close, with access to key players, including Ghosn himself.
● Beyond Fear: How I Fought the Feds for Six Years―and Won
Ted Giovanis
Review via Kirkus Reviews
In his debut nonfiction book, Giovanis recounts his multiyear quest to get the federal government to correct a calculation issue involving hospital reimbursement rates that ended in a multimillion-dollar settlement in favor of the hospitals. The author, a hospital administrator–turned-consultant, opens the book with an overview of his personal history, then moves on to the central issue: He discovered an error in the formula being used to determine the amount of Medicare payments to hospitals, and when he notified Medicare administrators about the problem, they quietly updated the formula but refused to discuss making good on past miscalculations. Giovanis and his colleagues filed suit against the federal government and recruited hospitals to join the action, hoping to gather more than 100 plaintiffs; they ended up with more than 700 hospitals signing on, with Giovanis as the leader and decision-maker.
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Disclosures: None.