Want press?

In today's business world, there are two simple ways to get it: Do something daringly, unexpectedly, incredibly great - something that nobody else thought of doing. Put on an aw-shucks face and humbly accept kudos.

Or do something dastardly and horrible. Really shock people, either by personal actions or business strategies that most folks would soundly condemn. Be sure to annihilate the competition while you're at it and let everybody know.

To get press that makes people stand up and take notice, you have a choice. In the new book Good Guys & Bad Guys, by Joe Nocera, you'll read about the deals, the decisions, and the people who were brave enough (or foolish enough) to make (or ignore) them.

Good Guys & Bad Guys, by Joe Nocera, c.2008, Penguin Portfolio. $28.50, 292 pages.

Over the years he's spent as columnist for Fortune magazine and now for the New York Times, Joe Nocera has had ample opportunity to get close to the big boys of business. In this book, a compilation of several of his columns, you can read about some of the most interesting and more notable among them.

Anyone with a teen in the house knows what an iPod is; therefore, you probably know Apple products. Nocera had a chance to spend time with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, a man who's notoriously difficult to work with. What he had to say about Jobs didn't win him any friends in the Jobs camp.

A cautionary tale for business awaits when Nocera writes about plaintiff's lawyers and mass lawsuits. More than 10 years ago, breast-implant lawsuits brought Dow Corning "to its knees.”

Amazingly, even though this legal wrangling appeared to be over and ended by bankruptcy, there may never be an end to the lawsuits.

And another tale: When a respected decades-old business refuses to listen to the warnings of a newer generation, people are amazed.

The business's competition is "way better," but the board refuses to see it, until stock falls and the business ends up in someone else's hands.

From "St. Warren of Omaha" to Wall Street, the internet to Enron, cigarettes to coffee, Nocera tells about big business bad boys, bigger-than-life business legends, and saints in the stock market.

I liked this book a lot more than I thought I would. Nocera gives an insider's spin by prefacing each chapter with an up-to-date stage-setting. That helps put them into perspective, since some of the articles were written several years ago and readers might need a refresher.

Which brings me to the most important caveat: Brush up on your understanding of big business and - particularly - Wall Street dealings, investments, and the stock market before you tackle Good Guys & Bad Guys. Lack a strong knowledge of what Nocera writes about, and you'll be lost in this book.

Still, if you're a business person or if you have any money in investments, you're going to want to read it. Good Guys & Bad Guys isn't really bad at all.

(Terri Schlichenmeyer has been reading since she was three years old and she never goes anywhere without a book. She can be reached at schlichenmeyer@businessedge.ca)