The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google

by Scott Galloway Narrated by Jonathan Todd Ross

Overview

NEW YORK TIMES*BESTSELLER
USA TODAY*BESTSELLER

Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google are the four most influential companies on the planet.*Just about everyone thinks they know how they got there. Just about everyone is wrong.*

For all that's been written about the Four over the last two decades, no one has captured their power and staggering success as insightfully as Scott Galloway.

Instead of buying the myths these compa­nies broadcast, Galloway asks fundamental questions. How did the Four infiltrate our lives so completely that they're almost impossible to avoid (or boycott)? Why does the stock market forgive them for sins that would destroy other firms? And as they race to become the world's first trillion-dollar company, can anyone chal­lenge them?

In the same irreverent style that has made him one of the world's most celebrated business professors, Galloway deconstructs the strategies of the Four that lurk beneath their shiny veneers. He shows how they manipulate the fundamental emotional needs that have driven us since our ancestors lived in caves, at a speed and scope others can't match. And he reveals how you can apply the lessons of their ascent to your own business or career.

Whether you want to compete with them, do business with them, or simply live in the world they dominate, you need to understand the Four.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Audio

★ 11/27/2017
Behemoth tech companies are favorite subjects for Galloway, a serial entrepreneur and New York University business professor, when he talks on digital media panels, and actor Ross captures the author’s swagger in the audio edition of Galloway’s book. The effect is similar to hearing Galloway in full stride. The book’s thesis is that each of the four technology giants—Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google—appeal to consumers’ instinctual needs: Amazon sates the hunger for acquisition, Apple appeals to the need to create, Facebook plays on the need for love and human interaction, and Google satisfies the need for God. It may sound outlandish at first, but the book manages to be both fun and convincing, as Galloway details the eight key factors each company uses to establish dominance in the marketplace. The book ends with a sober warning about the “distortion created by the steady march of digital technology,” which Galloway believes is “dangerous for society.” Narrator Ross delivers this coda with a gravity that counters his earlier animation. The combination makes the audio edition of this timely book all the more forceful. A Portfolio hardcover. (Oct.)

From the Publisher

An existential alarm bell wrapped in a business lesson wrapped in an entertaining and often hilarious (and, yes, occasionally blue-languaged) series of stories built with great writing. It keeps you entertained to make sure you’re informed.” – 800-CEO-READ

“Galloway takes the reader through a refreshingly clear-eyed look at the nature of dominance at Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., Facebook Inc. and Google. He is interested in how these companies become more valuable with use instead of less, how they benefit from low cost of capital and the implications for things [that] could further strengthen their dominance.” —Brad Stone, Bloomberg Technology 

“As the power of technology’s biggest companies comes under more scrutiny, NYU business professor Galloway reveals how Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google built massive empires.” —Publishers Weekly, “The Top 10 Business Books of Fall 2017”

"This is that rare book that not only informs but entertains. You'll never look at these four companies the same way again." - Jonah Berger, author of Contagious

“Scott Galloway is honest, outrageous, and provocative. This book will trigger your flight-or-fight nervous system like no other and in doing so challenge you to truly think differently.” —Calvin McDonald, CEO of Sephora

“The Four is an essential, wide-ranging powerhouse of a book that, like Scott Gal­loway himself, marries equal parts incisive, entertaining, and biting. As in his leg­endary MBA lectures, Galloway tells it like it is, sparing no business titan and no juggernaut corporation from well-deserved criticism. A must read.” —Adam Alter, author of Drunk Tank Pink   

“If there is a blunter, more opinionated, faster-talking expert on the Internet than Scott Galloway, I haven’t come across him. Or her.” —Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Fortune

“Scott Galloway’s The Four is a bareback ride upon the four horses of the economic apocalypse – Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google. It is a timely exposition of the nature and concentration of power in the world today and, as a result, is much more than just a business book…The book contains more insights and provocative ideas than Amazon has Boeing 767s… My recommendation is to walk down to your local book store and buy this – or more likely, buy it on Amazon.”
Tom Upchurch, Wired

JANUARY 2018 - AudioFile

Ever wonder what it took for Google, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook to rise to iconic status? And whether that status is deserved—or lasting? In sharing THE FOUR’s answer, narrator Jonathan Todd Ross effectively channels author Scott Galloway, a brassy entrepreneur whose anecdotes and insights occasionally include edgy comments, as if he were a professor trying to reach a younger audience—which, indeed, Galloway is. That this work is in part directed toward students is evidenced by concluding chapters that veer off the book’s stated subject to provide college and career advice. Still, while sometimes off-thesis and off-color, THE FOUR contains strong analysis and realistic advice. Undergrads should take Galloway and his proxy, Ross, seriously. K.W. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172197192
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	10/03/2017
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1
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Excerpted from "The Four"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Scott Galloway.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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