Dedication

We all depend on banks. They help us save and they help us spend. Yet for many they represent everything that's wrong with the world of finance. Poor service, high fees, creaking IT infrastructure and a market controlled by just a few providers have combined in recent years to create a personal banking crisis every bit as severe as the global financial crisis. How have things got so bad? Why are banks unable to balance providing good customer service with making a profit? And what can we do to protect ourselves from the tricks banks play to part us with our hard-earned money? This ground-breaking book, written by three insiders, reveals why banks do the things they do. From designing products they know will rip customers off to cutting branches they know their customers rely on, they explain how many banks' failing business models force them to make the wrong choices again and again. They make a rallying call for us all to be better informed about how everyday banking products actually work and to be wary of the many tricks and techniques product managers devise to make money.

Founded in 1987 by a former engineer in China's People's Liberation Army (Ren Zhengfei), Huawei Technologies is today the world's largest telecoms equipment manufacturer and second behind Apple in smartphones. Its emergence into a multinational with over 175,000 employees all around the world is nothing short of extraordinary. This book gets to the heart of the pioneers within Huawei - the individuals who blazed a trail through unexplored and undeveloped territories, that enabled Huawei to expand globally in such impressive terms. Their personal stories tell us about the extraordinary commitment, determination, and ability required for companies to establish new ground in some of the most difficult parts of the world. This unconventional form of heroism remains a central part of Huawei's culture and makes it stand out in today's business world.