If you take a look at any of my businesses, and you know what my influences in business are, you’ll see how much I’ve taken from the world around me and used it as an inspiration to build.

I still do today. See, we, humans, don’t create anything original; we only build on what’s been built before. We built on ideas and inventions alike. That’s how life works. That’s how the universe works.

So, it’s only fair for me to give back credit to the people and things that have helped me create the things I’ve made. From FantasticServices.com to a diving centre in Mexico — I’ve built them, taking inspiration from everywhere.

Let’s dive a bit deeper.

Inspiration on focus and purpose

When do you come up with your greatest ideas?

Let me answer that for you — it’s usually when you’re doing something that has nothing to do with work or actively thinking about something. That’s why shower thoughts and breakthroughs are so common. Our subconscious mind does the work while the conscious relaxes.

Meditation can do the same thing

But in order to get those breakthroughs, you need to know where to focus your efforts and what your purpose is.

Let’s begin with focus, as it tends to be the predecessor to purpose. Before you achieve anything grand, you have to mindfully focus on it — whether it’s your daily to-do, your career, your relationship, or even a business. You have to make a conscious decision that you’ll be focusing on that particular thing.

A book that played a major role for me as an entrepreneur was “The Pumpkin Plan” by Mike Michalowicz. The book’s message is simple, and it takes a closer look at pumpkin growers and how they grow competition-ready squash.

See, pumpkin growers start every season with a handful of plants. Once they start growing, all smaller vegetables are discarded, and the growers focus all their time, efforts, resources, and skills on the biggest pumpkin.

This is a simple premise but a vital one in the world of business — focus on what works and don’t be afraid to cut off the resource-draining tasks.

Purpose will help you decide exactly where to focus your time and resources. Now, I tend to look at purpose through the prism of success. What success really is?

To me, for a long time, success represented growing as a professional. Nowadays, a different kind of shift is happening where I’m focusing more on my family.

Robert Holden’s book “Success Intelligence” was vital in understanding what success is to my business partners and me. It’s also one of the main reasons why we focused our efforts on the people, planet, and profits, in that particular order.

We built a company that cares for the people and planet, leaving profits as a product of doing great work. That’s called finding a purpose.

On going through hard times

Every business is bound to hit a roadblock or two… or three. It’s only natural because if you don’t, you’re most likely not having an impact on the world. But, hustle culture rarely talks about the hard times of running a business. It’s all sunshine and rainbows, mansions and Lambo’s.

“The Hard Thing About Hard Things” by Ben Horrowitz came as a natural successor to “Success Intelligence”. It taught me that, when in hard times, businesses should think about their employees first, product second, and finally about profits.

It also highlights the fact that if you’re never alone in business. You have your team, but you also have access to an unlimited pool of information on how to deal with any problem.

Then, as I got older in my entrepreneurship life, I came about “Business Nightmares” by Rachel Elnaugh. Rachel argues that success is making it through the hard times and not the good times. I can’t agree more, but it’s also a point for every entrepreneur to experience for themselves.

I used to think my company was successful, but it was only when Covid hit, and we saw first-hand how quickly the whole world stopped to a halt did my business partners and I realise what success really is. It’s not about growth, t’s about sustainability when everything else around you falls apart.

Success and creativity go hand in hand

The business landscape is quickly changing into a world where ‘data’ is worth everything, and invention and innovation are quickly fading into the background.
I get that. After all, people want 100% security in their investment and data kind of gives them that feeling of control, however vague it may be. However, if you take a look at the world of data analysis and market trends and what people are buying, you could easily see products with no particular purpose thrive.

Gary Dahl invented Pet Rocks. It was a rock, sold in a box, marketed as a pet. Funny enough, he walked away with $15 million in profit six months after starting the company. We had fidget spinners a few years ago. No market analyst ever predicted the need for any of those products, yet they were raving success.

That’s because data is only valuable if you know how to use it. Yes, you can improve your product by analysing what customers think about your products. Yes, you can base decisions on expanding business operations, but don’t let data create your products. John Doerr’s “Measure What Matters” taught me that.

And when it comes to invention and innovation, “Steal Like an Artist” by Austin Kleon is by far the best 160 pages you will ever read in your life. The book goes through the real truth that there’s nothing truly original ever created. Everything is an amalgamation of previous human inventions mixed with creativity and the willingness to take, mix, and see what happens.

And if you feel like you’re stealing (ideas, I mean), and it’s below you, I strongly encourage you to watch “Everything’s a Remix“. You might find your favourite author or musician or director is a master in stealing like an artist.

On building for the future

Since antiquity, people have been fascinated by what we now call “memento mori”. Literally translated, it means “remember death”.

Philosophically, it stands for remembering that whatever you do in life will be the only thing that survives after you’re gone. When you look through that prism, your actions start to change, and you really start looking for positive ways to leave an imprint on this world.

“21 Assets” by my friend Daniel Priestley follows the same logic, although not to the extreme of death. The book shares his views on creating in business. Way too often, founders and CEOs focus on creating things that increase revenue. But true growth happens when you’re building assets.

Read more:
The seven books that helped me on my entrepreneurial journey

Business relies on contracts, and mistakes made during the preparation of a binding commercial agreement can prove very costly down the line.

It therefore benefits all professionals to understand how contracts are drawn up and what, exactly, all the legal terms actually mean. The good news is that, according to Professor Mark Watson-Gandy – one of the UK’s leading experts on English contract law – the subject can be adequately learned in just one afternoon.

Timothy Arden reviews Professor Mark Watson-Gandy latest book: ‘Simple Contract Law: A Brief Introduction to English Contract Law’.

If there’s one image associated with the legal profession then it’s the rows of dusty, voluminous law tomes threatening to break the shelves with their sheer density.

When Simple Contract Law by Professor Mark Watson-Gandy landed on my desk I was, therefore, understandably surprised by just how compact it is.

Upon opening the book, I was further amazed to find not only that the author’s promise that English contract law can be learned in just one afternoon was correct, but also that it was actually enjoyable to do so.

This deft combination of conciseness, information and pleasure is to be applauded as professionals in all sectors discount a familiarity with contract law at their peril.

Every form of business transaction is underpinned by a contract. Often, however, we readily enter into contracts without fully parsing the details, and the legality of those contracts only become tested when there is a dispute between the parties. This is great news for the lawyers and courts, of course, but a potentially costly mistake for businesses, both in terms of legal fees and the wider reputational fallout from such disagreements.

And with the rise of free online contract generator websites, where you may just end up getting what you pay for, it has never been more essential to know what the contract actually states before going any further with a deal.

As a respected barrister as well as legal academic, Professor Watson-Gandy knows better than most the importance of understanding contract law. As he points out in his book, English contract law is the preferred choice for parties not only domestically, as would be expected, but also internationally.

In fact, three quarters of those using London’s commercial courts during litigation come from outside of the UK, and this sector represents one of the UK’s biggest exports, amounting to some £5billion per annum for UK legal services.

The reason for this is simple: English contract law is simple, convenient and straightforward.

Until now, however, books on the subject have been anything but straightforward. Recognising this, Professor Watson-Gandy – a seasoned barrister based at Three Stone Chambers in London, one of the UK’s leading chancery and commercial barristers’ chambers – set out to provide an “antidote to the dry, laborious legal textbooks”.

He has succeeded admirably because this slim, 104-page guide provides a fully-accessible reference that cuts through the complexity and waffle to demystify English contract law within the space of just a few hours. It is, therefore, the perfect overview to English contract law and, most likely, the only book you’ll ever need on the topic.

The book packs in 20 chapters, commencing with a brief explanation of the importance and value of English contract law, and analysis of the nuts and bolts of contracts, before covering all relevant areas such as necessary formalities; the difference between valid, void, voidable and unenforceable contracts; acceptance; offers; exclusion clauses; and remedies.

For additional guidance there are examples of contracts and a handy glossary of common contract terms and their function.

As well as going through the fundamental elements of English contract law, Professor Watson-Gandy – who is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Westminster – also provides the real-life stories behind the  legal cases that have shaped contract law over the centuries.

These help to illustrate each key principal while being fascinating to read in themselves. For instance, in the chapter discussing ‘Offers’, we learn about the case of Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co (1893), where a certain Carbolic Smoke Ball Company made a bold advertising claim of a £100 reward to “any person who contracts the increasing epidemic influenza colds, or any disease caused by taking cold, after having used the ball three times daily for two weeks, according to the printed directions supplied with each ball”.

One customer, Mrs. Louisa Elizabeth Carlill, used the product as directed for nearly two months, and then caught the flu. She claimed her £100 but the company refused to pay, until the Court of Appeal found that it was bound by its advertisement, which was “construed as an offer which the buyer, by using the smoke ball, accepted, thus creating a contract”.

The icing on the cake is the witty and charming cartoons provided by Gordon Collett that further illuminate the principles and binding precedents that have formed contract law, such as two cavemen thrashing out the first (verbal) contract for the exchange of a mammoth skin.

The bottom line is that, as professionals, we may well be called upon from time to time to scrutinise a contract or prepare one without a legal professional at hand. Given this, gaining a familiarity with English contact law is a wise decision.

In the final verdict, Simple Contract Law will be of immeasurable value, being one of those books that should always be within arm’s reach.

Simple Contract Law: A Brief Introduction to English Contract Law by Professor Mark Watson-Gandy is available on Amazon in paperback and eBook formats, priced £9.95/£7.75. Visit www.watson-gandy.co.uk

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Reviewed: English Contract Law by Professor Mark Watson-Gandy

Consumers are now firmly in the driving seat and businesses have no option but to go along for the ride.

Timothy Arden reviews this new Pearson business guide Friction/Reward as it sets out a radical but simple new metric that can map the total customer journey and ensure your company is their destination of choice

The relentless march of technology has brought many changes to society, but for businesses it has done nothing less than fundamentally, and irrevocably, transformed the relationship with the customer.

As the introduction to new Pearson business guide Friction/Reward: Be Your Customer’s First Choice notes, we are now living in a new and unprecedented era of “total choice”. The internet has made it effortlessly easy for someone to purchase any given product or service from a vast array of vendors in a global marketplace, and do so safely. The upshot for companies, irrespective of their sector, is that “for the first time in business history, customers really do call all the shots”.

And because the consumer is now firmly in the driver’s seat, businesses are left with no choice. They must actively and constantly work towards giving the customer what they want, or fall by the wayside while their competitors do just that.

Many companies are already keenly aware of this, and ‘friction reduction’—tackling those elements of the customer mission that puts barriers, ‘unwanted stickiness’, in the way of those customers engaging with a company—has become a buzzword in recent years.

But as retail expert Hammond, founder of retail consultancy Smart Circle Limited (SCL) and who counts BP, Sony, Kingfisher, L’Oreal and EE among his clients, explains, reducing friction is not enough by itself. If businesses are serious about re-orientating themselves around the total customer experience then they also need to consider the flipside of friction: reward. Those are the exclusive extras that come with a particular vendor, such as the quality of customer support or a fulfilling experience in-store.

By measuring friction vs reward during the entirety of the customer journey, companies can finally see the bigger picture of what is driving their trade or, conversely, what is driving it away. This game-changing idea lies at the heart of Friction/Reward, but what really takes the book to the next level is that it also provides the first metric for actually mapping complete customer engagement. In doing so it has the potential to surpass all other forms of measurement that have come before, and which are let down by only measuring the customer experience in isolated pockets.

Hammond’sfriction versus reward metric (FvR) is both simple and extremely powerful, and is described and demonstrated clearly in the second half of the book so that readers can quickly start applying it to their own businesses. What’s better, it doesn’t require new or additional customer research as any company already engaged with customer mapping will most likely have all the data they need for the metric right at their fingertips.

Armed with this metric, which Hammond claims humbly to be a “truth uncovered” rather than some revolutionary theory devised solely in his mind, any company with customers—that is, all companies—can now attain what has until this point been a goal always tantalisingly out of reach. To wit, viewing “the best possible picture of what it is really like for customers to spend money with you”.

The rest of the book fleshes out FvR, dissecting the customer journey with in-depth consideration of such factors as customer missions (their goal); touchpoints (the points of interaction between consumer and supplier); and need states. On this last point, Hammond does not hold back from his criticism of the traditional but wooly marketing tool of persona segmentation, which he describes as a “ridiculously muddle-headed idea” in that it makes gross assumptions about particular consumer demographics and fails to consider that even a single customer can go through many varying emotional need states during the space of one day. The businesses that appreciate this subtlety and factor it in to their customer experience through building a library of need-states will be the ones who triumph. As he states, “You really can’t predict how people in the same segments willbehave, but you can predict how people in the same need stateswill because the latter share emotional, mood and practicalcommonalities.”

There are a wealth of case studies illustrating how household names such as Uber, Microsoft, GOV.UK and Ryanair, to name but a few, have successfully capitalised upon their understanding of friction vs reward. Readers also benefit from many useful charts and diagrams, as well as a ‘take-home’ section of key points at the close of each of the book’s 10 chapters. Further free resources can be found online at www.frictionreward.com while those seeking assistance with the generation of a FvR metric for their company have the option of utilizing a paid-for software tool available from Hammond’s latest business, www.Uncrowd.uk.

Friction/Reward’s final section considers the frictionless future of retail and once again underlines just how important it is for organisations across all sectors, be they supermarkets, banks, utility companies or public sector institutions, to get on-board with FvR thinking as a matter of urgency.

Managers and leaders across all business sectors, and working within companies of all sizes, will find this ground-breaking business guide a revelation in adapting successfully, and profitably, to the new order.

Friction/Reward by Richard Hammond (Pearson Business), is available on Amazon, priced £16.99 in paperback. For more information visit www.frictionreward.com.

Read more:
Friction/Reward: Be Your Customer’s First Choice by Richard Hammond

This book is more than just advice and prompts to help start your business and make it a success, it’s got an autobiographic, personal touch that had me gripped. Learning about Fraser’s early stages of entrepreneurship was so interesting to read about and you have to admire his determination in bringing his ideas to life – even from as young as 8 years old!

What I also appreciated was that he doesn’t give readers any false hope – he is realistic. Although he encourages you to persevere with your ‘amazing’ idea, he also advises you to make sure it is pursuable first, by choosing the right people to judge it. He states that family and friends will only give positive feedback because of their love for you, yet even though most of us recognise this, we are afraid to face criticism, especially when it concerns something we solely believe in. By confronting ideas to family and friends, we are guaranteed to receive positive feedback, which is why we do it. Although we yearn for this feeling of encouragement, Fraser teaches how it’s not all about the positive remarks on your ideas – criticism actually works in your favour by allowing you to save time in not pursing particular ideas that may prevent your business from growing or achieving its optimum.

Fraser also expresses his view on the noticeable change that has arose from since he was young, where parents are now less encouraging to their children in relation to their dreams and ideas. 

His persistence particularly with his SuperJam business is profoundly commendable for an ambitious 16 year old, as he chooses to make a pitch to one of the supermarket industry’s biggest names – ‘Waitrose’. Although facing initial rejection, you simply can’t help but applaud the boy for his bravery. From experiences like this, Fraser expresses the realisation that failure is going to occur, no matter how hard you try, you are going to face hurdles. A lot of businesses and potential ideas consequently fail altogether through dismissal of belief that it can overcome failure.

Overall, this book has masses to offer and proves that you can indeed build your own startup in just 48 hours. I would definitely recommend the book and the interminable list of valuable advice is something I believe many startups, SMEs and entrepreneurs could benefit from.

Read more:
Review: Fraser Doherty 48 Hour Start-Up

Using Cheats instead of chapters, Brian breaks down his abundance of knowledge into straight talking, bitesize pieces, cutting through the statistics and quotes that usually pad out business books such as these, making it a pure block of knowledge for young aspiring entrepreneurs.

This book often consists of his background and past experiences, making him relatable and extremely motivating. Past decisions and thought processes allow us to understand reasons behind his choices and tips of the trade while somehow spinning the harsh realities into page turning humour.

By interpreting the meanings behind many house hold phrases such as “Keep your friends close but your enemies closer” allows these tips to be difficultly confused and easily remembered as everything he writes has a direct purpose.

Wong creates his own rules and giving a fresh new outlook on how to ‘get noticed and get ahead’. His publication features four main pillars to get a leg up on the competition, including; Be Ballsy, Be Yourself, Be Unforgettable and Be A Trailblazer. These are the file names for the documents of Cheat Codes about to come your way.

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Review: The Cheat Code

When John Egan arrived at Jaguar Cars in April 1980, newly appointed as Chief Executive, the company’s very survival was in grave doubt. In fact, the situation looked utterly hopeless.

Not only was the once-proud Jaguar company a part of the catastrophic BL Cars but he was greeted at the gates by the workforce – on strike!

The odds against saving Jaguar were immense. Quality was appalling, the workforce bitter, the management disillusioned and it was hemorrhaging money. The Labour Government had introduced the ‘closed shop’, giving the unions and their militant shop stewards immense power.

This book tells the story of how John Egan gradually overcame the odds and, piece by piece, rebuilt this once great company, winning over the workforce, the suppliers, the overseas dealers and, most important of all, the customers. Working initially with BL Chairman Michael Edwardes, and supported by Margaret Thatcher and her Government, Egan and his team of managers overcame every obstacle, every set-back, every challenge.

Again and again, it looked impossible. Yet using innovative techniques, intelligence, plain speaking, openness, motor racing and much more, they saved this most charismatic of companies which has created some of the finest and most cherished motor cars of all time.

It is an amazing story that will appeal equally to car enthusiasts, those in business, Jaguar devotees and readers interested in social history.

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Saving Jaguar by Sir John Egan

IT is not enough for company directors to be honest and ethical in their own right. Equally importantly, they need to be alert to the possibility of dishonesty, ethical failures and simple bad management throughout the organisation and are responsible for the failure of others, not just themselves. Risk is one of the key issues a board needs to consider. While not all risk can be eliminated others can be hedged against to render their effects less damaging.

While financial reports are frequently closely studied at board level (and outside), they are generally poor in respect of highlighting risk. Indeed, as of yet, there is no broadly accepted framework for risk accounting in annual reports.

In The Independent Director Gerry Brown argues passionately that independent directors have a wide and proactive role in the analysis and mitigation of risk and that limiting their role to audit and compliance – as most boards do – is a serious mistake that short changes shareholders, investors and the public alike.

Gerry Brown is an experienced independent director having served on the boards of major life science, construction, transport & logistics companies and, in The Independent Director, Brown describes first hand a risk analysis landscape that has changed irrevocably over the last 25 years.

The increased scrutiny of business by regulators, employees, whistleblowers and the public has created an atmosphere where corporate and individual wrongdoing is much more likely to be uncovered than 25 years ago. In such an environment, can boards continue to take their current audit and compliance approach to the management of risk and risk analysis?

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Book Shelf: The Independent Director by Gerry Brown

Having been a Royal Marine for a number of years, Damian McKinney combines and outlines his military and business skill set to show readers what it takes to be a ‘commando entrepreneur’.

With a requirement for strength in the Marines, McKinney explains why mental toughness is needed to succeed in the business world. The ‘commando entrepreneur’ is becoming an increasingly important role in the business world, and the discipline of a ‘maverick’ enable any businessmen to operate outside of everyday restrictions.

Varying from interview techniques to stories from the military, McKinney writes about the values of being a marine and how they served him well in his commercial life.

Described as a ‘must have for senior business leaders’, this book will help you unleash your inner commando.

This neat compilation of anecdotes is both interesting and insightful, and provides a more gritty edge to the sometimes bland world of business.

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Book Shelf: The Commando Entrepreneur by Damian McKinney

Author Morag Barrett analyses research that shows just how important working relationships are. Barrett outlines how positive relationships correlate to success, and how bad relationships can thrust your success into jeopardy.

Barrett brings together years of experience and complies a comprehensive guide as to how you can build a successful, working environment, and how to get the most out of your working relationships.

This concise list of tools which Barratt outlines allows you to successfully navigate and manipulate your woking relationships in order for them to benefit your career.

This is not just a ‘be nicer’ story, this is a textbook which teaches you how to use working relationships to succeed and achieve your goals.

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Book shelf: Cultivate by Morag Barrett

Your reputation affects large parts of your life everyday. It determines whether or not a bank will give you a loan or if an employer will hire you. There is no escaping the effects your reputation has on your life.

Now, in the age of technology, people have access to all kinds of information about you, meaning your reputation is always growing, without you knowing about it. People can find out about your buying habits, your finances, your professional and personal networks, and even your physical whereabouts – at any time.

In a world where technology allows companies and individuals alike to not only gather all this data but also aggregate it and analyze it  with frightening speed, accuracy, and sophistication, our digital reputations are fast becoming our most valuable currency.

Here, Michael Fertik outlines secrets that has made Reputation.com one of the leading reputation management firms, to show how to capitalize on the trends the Reputation Economy will trigger to improve your professional, financial, and even social prospects.

This insightful collection of life hacks teaches you skills such as which buzz words to put in your CV, How to curate your on and offline activity,  tricks that will get you express or VIP treatment at banks, hotels, and other exclusive special offers and a whole host of other tricks.

www.amazon.co.uk

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Book Shelf: The Reputation Economy by Michael Fertik

“The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources” – Albert Einstein

“You do not lead by hitting people over the head. That’s assault, not leadership.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower, POTUS 1953-61

“The only way to accept an insult is to ignore it. If you can’t ignore is, top it. If you can’t top it, laugh at it. If you can’t laugh at it, it’s probably deserved. – Joseph Russell Lynes, American author and editor

“It took me years to work out the difference between net and gross. In meetings I just used to say, “tell me if its good or bad news”” – Richard Branson

“I make more mistakes than anyone I know, and sooner or later, I patent most of them.” – Thomas Edison, American inventor and scientist

“If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.” – Albert Einstein

“First rule of leadership: Everything is you fault” – Donald McEnery, A Bug’s Life (1998)

“If you’re not afraid to face the music, you may someday lead the band.” – David Frost, journalist

“Had a look at the alligators. Just floating handbags, really.” – Trevor Griffiths, English dramatist

“If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not working on hard enough problems. And that’s a big mistake.” – Frank Wilczek, American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate.

Taken from ‘The Biteback Dictionary of Humorous Business Quotations’ By Fred Metcalfe available on amazon here.

Read more:
Ten quotes to help you gain perspective in business

Some of the worlds most iconic visionaries act out of pure instinct, and Bruce Poon Tip is no different. This personal account of his journey to growing one of the most successful travel companies in the world is both thoughtful and honest, going in depth into how he developed his entrepreneurial instincts, and how he maintained his vision through times of adversity.

Detailing his unusual management style that not only keep his employees fully engaged and energized but also keeps his customers extremely happy, Bruce Poon Tip guides you through what it is like to be in charge of a company which operates in more than 100 countries, on all seven continents, serving more than 100,000 customers every year

Facing a difficult task to manage his desire to build a socially desirable company as well as a desire to build profits, Poon Tip’s ‘Looptail’ is a stunning story of why community, culture, and karma matter in business, and how one man’s desire to do the right thing and generate profits can be blended into a win-win for all involved.

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Book Shelf: ‘Looptail’ by Bruce Poon Tip

Ever wondered how some of the worlds most groundbreaking creations, innovations and discoveries came about? Well, talk to the man who knows the secrets behind them all.

Having been compiled and assembled for over 20 years, Kevin Ashton reveals the secret history to some of the worlds most inspiring creations and discoveries. Talking about the truth behind DNA, where the first stealth bomber was conceived and how the Wright brothers set out to try and fly a horse, Ashton offers a compelling insight into the world of innovation.

In a wonderful compilation of narratives and anecdotes, Ashton explains how even the greatest of minds display normal everyday thinking which we are all capable of.

Passionate and fulfilling, Ashton leads you on an incredible journey, revealing the satisfying secret behind how ‘new’ becomes ‘new’.

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Book Shelf: How To Fly A Horse by Kevin Ashton

The ‘book shelf’ feature on our website is filled with some of the best, most critically acclaimed business books out there, and now, you have the chance to snatch up 10 of them for absolutely nothing.

Whether you’re a young entrepreneur looking to start up your own business, or need to brush up your leadership skills to run an office full of workers, we have an array of books that can help you, and we’re giving them away!

5 lucky winners will have the chance to grab 10 randomly selected books, which have been reviewed and praised by ourselves, and other papers and magazines such as The Observer and The Sunday Times.

Simply fill out a quick form for your chance to bag some of the best business books out there!

The winners will be announced at the end of the month, so get those forms filled in!

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Book Shelf Competition!

Having been submerged into the business world for a large portion of her life, Margaret Heffernan and her latest book ‘Beyond Measure’ acts a perfect manifesto for any CEO, employer or employee.

With detailed anecdotes of her time overseeing different organisations, Heffernan came to one simple conclusion: It’s the little things which have the greatest impact.

With countless lessons crammed into 120 pages, this book teaches anyone from the business sector how organisations can build ideal workplace cultures and how small things like celebrating mistakes, encouraging time off and speaking up and listening more, can have such a big impact on any business.

TED speaker, Heffernan is a wise and witty storyteller who complexity engages her reader page after page. Filled with compelling stories and eye-opening statistics, this book is aimed at anyone from the top-dog to the tea boy.

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Book Shelf: Beyond Measure by Margaret Heffernan

Travelling the world over a number of years with different orchestras has made Itay Talgam an expert in the field of leadership. Not only has he led numerous groups of musicians, he has also advised leaders in fields ranging from global political figures to start-up entrepreneurs, from scientific researchers to anti-terrorist combat units.

With regular comparisons between the business world and the music world, Talgam outlines what it takes to balance control and creativity, drawing lessons from six world famous composers. Talgam explores different styles of leadership from the commanding Ricardo Muti, the fatherly Arturo Toscanini, the calm Richard Strauss, the guru-like Herbert von Karajan, the dancing Carlos Kleiber, and the master of dialogue Leonard Bernstein.

Acclaimed by the Business Insider and BBC Radio 4, ‘The Ignorant Maestro’ makes for an empowering read, with Talgam’s lessons and stories will motivate you to make sure you have your team singing from the same hymn sheet.

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Book Shelf: ‘The Ignorant Maestro’ by Itay Talgam

A former web designer, Robin Waite realised pretty quickly in his career that it wasn’t just help with their website his clients needed. They also needed the tools to learn how to manoeuvre successfully through all the new digital mediums available in the world today. And they needed to access that information in a way which made sense to them.

He said: “Many business owners believed a new website would be their saviour and that it would bring customers flocking to them. However, in reality that just wasn’t the case. The overall positioning of many businesses I saw was a disaster. That’s because nine times out of ten they had a poor brand, no business plan and lacked long terms objectives. Not surprisingly, it prevented them from delivering an outstanding product or service to their customers on a regular basis.”

Blogs, podcasts, e-books and social media marketing – Waite’s Online Business Startup is an attempt to help entrepreneur’s overcome the frustrations so many have felt over the years trying to keep up with digital trends and online marketing/branding as a whole. It’s an astute and invaluable read for all business owners out there – not just start-ups.

Online Business Startup is far more than a simplistic ‘How To’ guide on online marketing or SEO. That’s because it takes in the whole area of business strategy for the digital age. It seeks to cut out the wheat from the chaff as it were by pulling out only the essential knowledge every entrepreneur needs when starting up his own online company. This is an easy-to-read book whose chatty but informative approach has seen it rise to a place on Amazon’s highly-regarded Best Seller’s List.

Even someone who doesn’t plan on setting up a business but is currently blogging or using social media will find Waite’s book an interesting exploration into our fast-moving digital age.

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Book shelf: Online Business Startup by Robin Waite

Described by the Financial Times as ‘colourful, fluent and arresting’, ‘The Curve’ provides a recipe which any business can lucratively exploit, which focuses on building relationships with your audience and your fans, who’ll want more of what they love. Therefore, ‘The Curve’ could potentially be the key to mastering online commerce.

With titillating stories ranging from musicians and artists to gaming and flour companies, ‘The Curve’ offers a way to connect with people, and make them happy to pay for the very best that you have to offer, creating a new way of doing business in the meantime.

This collection of stories and case studies outlines a thoughtful and perceptive guide to the new rules for making money, whilst simultaneously turning your casual followers into full-blooded superfans.

A stimulating and interesting read, it is no surprise that ‘The Curve’ has been labelled as a ‘must-read’, and it is fully deserving of its place amongst the Sunday Times books of the year.

For more information or to purchase the book through amazon click here.

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Book Review: The Curve

In this book John Neffinger and Matthew Kohut trace the path to influence through a balance of strength and warmth. Each seems simple, but only a few of us figure out the tricky task of projecting both at once.

Drawing on cutting-edge social science research as well as their own work with Fortune 500 executives, members of Congress, TED speakers, and Nobel Prize winners, Neffinger and Kohut reveal how we size each other up—and how we can learn to win the admiration, respect, and affection we desire.

When commenting on ‘Compelling People” Amy Cuddy, Harvard Business School Associate Professor said: “This is not just another pop-psych book: it’s the first book to capture and share the insights from all the recent groundbreaking research on how we judge and persuade each other. And it translates that into simple, practical terms anyone can use to build more effective relationships at the office or at home. I’m glad they wrote it so I didn’t have to.”

As required reading for both Harvard Business School and Columbia Business School it’s a book well worth adding to your reading list.

To purchase this book or to find out more click here.

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Book Shelf: Compelling People

Neale and Lys’ latest book Draws on the latest research in psychology and behavioural economics, and shows readers how new behavioural models allow negotiators to move past the outdated win-win approach and find the most advantageous outcome for each and every negotiation.

Whether colleagues, superiors, spouses, friends, or even dreaded estate agents negotiation is present in almost every social interaction. Find out: when to negotiate and when to walk away; how to know what a good deal is; when to make the first offer and when to wait; the difference between aspiration and expectation; and why meeting in the middle can be the worst of all possible deals.

Drawing on three decades of ground-breaking empirical research, Getting (More of) What You Want reveals the counterintuitive methods used by successful negotiators to get everything they want – and more.

To get hold of your copy of “Getting (More Of) What You Want” click here.

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Book shelf: Getting (More of) What You Want

First of all, if it’s on your mind, your mind isn’t clear. Anything you consider unfinished in any way must be captured in a trusted system outside your mind, or what I call a collection tool, that you know you’ll come back to regularly and sort through.

Second, you must clarify exactly what your commitment is and decide what you have to do, if anything, to make progress toward fulfilling it.

Third, once you’ve decided on all the actions you need to take, you must keep reminders of them organised in a system you review regularly.

An Important Exercise to Test This Model
I suggest that you write down the project or situation that is most on your mind at this moment. What most bugs you, distracts you, or interests you, or in some other way consumes a large part of your conscious attention? It may be a project or problem that is really “in your face,” something you are being pressed to handle, or a situation you feel you must deal with sooner rather than later.

Maybe you have a holiday trip coming up that you need to make some major last-minute decisions about. You just read an e‑mail about a new and pressing issue in your department. Or perhaps you just inherited six million dollars and you don’t know what to do with the cash. Whatever.

Got it? Good. Now, describe, in a single written sentence, your intended successful outcome for this problem or situation. In other words, what would need to happen for you to check this project off as “done”? It could be as simple as “Take the Hawaii vacation,”

“Handle situation with customer X,” “Resolve college situation with Susan,” “Clarify new divisional management structure,” “Implement new investment strategy,” or “Research options for dealing
with Manuel’s reading issue.” All clear? Great.

Now write down the very next physical action required to move the situation forward. If you had nothing else to do in your life but get closure on this, what visible action would you take right now?

Would you call or text someone? Write an e‑mail? Take pen and paper and brainstorm about it? Surf the Web for data? Buy nails at the hardware store? Talk about it face‑to‑face with your partner, your assistant, your attorney, or your boss? What?

Got the answer to that? Good.

Was there any value for you in those two minutes of thinking?

If you’re like the vast majority of people who complete that drill in our seminars, you’ll be experiencing at least a tiny bit of enhanced control, relaxation, and focus. You’ll also be feeling more motivated to actually do something about that situation you’ve merely been thinking about till now. Imagine that motivation magnified a thousandfold, as a way to live and work.

If anything at all positive happened for you in this little exercise, think about this: What changed? What happened to create that improved condition within your own experience? The situation itself is no further along, at least in the physical world. It’s certainly not finished yet. What probably happened is that you acquired a clearer definition of the outcome desired and the next action required.

What did change is the most important element for clarity, focus, and peace of mind: how you are engaged with your world.

But what created that? Not “getting organized” or “setting priorities.”

The answer is, thinking. Not a lot; just enough to solidify your commitment about a discrete pressure or opportunity and the resources required dealing with it. People think a lot, but most of that thinking is of a problem, project, or situation—not about it. If you actually did this suggested exercise, you were required to structure your thinking toward an outcome and an action, and that does not usually happen without a consciously focused effort. Reacting is automatic, but thinking is not.

David Allen’s Getting Things Done was hailed as ‘the definitive business self-help book of the decade’ when it was first published fifteen years ago. Next Action Associates, the only company in the UK and Ireland certified to teach the GTD methodology, is this month launching a new edition of David Allen’s best-selling book, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, published in the UK by Piatkus.

The extract above is a chapter from the new edition, updated to reflect the huge changes in the business world over the last 15years.

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The basic requirements for managing commitments

The mental side of performance has always been understood as a crucial component for sporting success and it goes without saying that business performance holds many parallels with sport. What Business Can Learn From Sport Psychology: Ten Lessons for Peak Professional Performance reveals the secrets of the winning mind by exploring the strategies and techniques used by successful athletes from across the world and applying them to business professionals and workplaces.

Written by two the UK’s leading sport psychologists – Dr Martin Turner and Dr Jamie Barker – the book is a hands-on, compelling, and reader-friendly book for business people of all levels and experience. It details the key areas of mindset and performance which include: pressure and how to cope with it, overcoming adversity, developing confidence, how to prevent overthinking, how to harness stress, and much more. Utilising examples from the world of elite sport – including golf, tennis, rugby, soccer, and cricket – and their extensive work with international blue chip companies and business executives, the authors reveal the secrets of the winning mind by exploring the strategies and techniques used by the most successful athletes and professionals on the planet.

About the Authors. Dr Martin Turner is a Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology in the School of Psychology, Sport and Exercise at Staffordshire University in the United Kingdom, and a Chartered practitioner psychologist. Dr Jamie Barker is Associate Professor of Applied Performance Psychology at Staffordshire University, and a Chartered psychologist.

Authors: Martin Turner, PhD; Jamie Barker, PhD
Pages: 264
Price: £14.99
ISBN: 978-1-909125-34-6
eBook: Kindle, iBooks, Nook, PDF
Publisher: Bennion Kearny Limited

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Bookshelf: What Business Can Learn From Sport Psychology

What quickly became clear to him was a lack of confidence by people in their leaders to take advantage of the upturn – 40% believe that the leaders in their organisations simply do not have what it takes to make the most of the opportunities presented.

And as Top Performance Leadership shows, this is largely because too many businesses promote people to leadership positions because they are good at what they do, rather than being good leaders. To become a top performance leader, says Jones, you must start with perfect clarity on the performances aspired to, define and create the environment that will deliver the performance help your people to thrive and then lead accordingly.

The book is full of practical guidance around how to do this. The value of Top Performance Leadership is difficult to define for any one individual reader, as everyone will find something for them in this book. But it’s manifestly clear in three particular areas:-

1. Why would anyone want to be a leader? Living with the consequences of leadership;
2. The difference between real and safe leadership; and
3. Transitioning to a top performance team – and in particular Jones’s Create/Unite/Perform model, which gets to the essence of building teams, getting them to work together and maximising their impact.

The concepts in the book are weaved skilfully alongside a mix of personal and business stories. This book is one to read and is set to be very influential in understanding top performance in leadership.

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Bookshelf: Top Performance Leadership

Leadership and management specialist Clive Leake’s second book during his 20 year career offers SME managers and leaders the perfect way to improve themselves and their businesses.

More of a ‘coffee machine’ than a ‘coffee table’ book, you can pick it up in your rare moments of free time and give yourself a 60 second boost with its 100 observations and accompanying cartoons. Its author Clive Leake has drawn from more than 20 years experience in leadership and management development and has worked closely with thousands of professionals in a wide range of sectors and industries and somehow managed to pack the most important bits into a book that is fun and readable as well as useful.

Author Clive Leake explains: “I’ve worked with leaders across the globe for 20 years and have spent the last year compiling the best advice and translating it into a format that all managers and leaders can easily access – 100 sound bites of useful information, insights and advice.

“With humorous cartoons alongside each observation, the 200 page book is fun to read and the fact you can dip in and out of it when you feel like it makes it a practical option for the busy professional.

“You can use to it develop yourself and your team, add sparkle to your public speaking or presentations or even give it as a gift. It’s a flexible way to learn in a world where our attention spans are ever shorter and our ability to dedicate time to lengthy two day courses is no longer practical.”

Clive Leake is MD of Whow! Leadership and his new book ‘Management Truths: 100 ways to Whow! your organisation’ can be ordered from the website www.whowleadership.com or via Amazon at a paperback cost of £13.99.

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Bookshelf: Management Truths: 100 ways to Whow! your organisation

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10 Books Every Aspiring Entrepreneur Must-Read

A revolutionary new communications skills book, SPEAK (so your audience will listen), by actor Robin Kermode, has been launched to help business executives build their confidence, improve their public speaking skills and develop the way they interact with their clients authentically on a one to one basis

Available at Amazon in hard copy, Kindle and audio book formats, the book, with its seven simple steps to confident and successful public speaking, is an easy-to-use guide for anyone in business who wants to become a confident and polished presenter.

In the book, Kermode, one of Europe’s leading communicators and a successful actor for the last 25 years on stage and on screen, provides innovative advice on how to build authenticity when you present, drawing on all his professional performance techniques.

With its uniquely accessible format, the book outlines different approaches to different presentation scenarios, from the boardroom presentation to the job interview and there are lots of inventive exercises for readers to try. Kermode recommends simple but highly effective exercises at the end of every chapter – from clenching your buttocks to stop presentation nerves, to specific tongue exercises to help clear articulation.

Broken down into seven digestible areas: confidence; connection; nerves; voice; body language; structure and delivery, this book deals with a whole range of communications issues and offers relevant and practical advice, all aimed at helping anyone who has ever turned to jelly when faced with an audience.

Commenting on the new book, Kermode says, “In today’s digital age, the art of communication is more important than ever. Whether you’re a CEO presenting to shareholders, a manager trying to motivate your team or a parent speaking at your daughter’s wedding, connecting on a human level with your audience is vital.

“This book will give you the tools and techniques you’ll need, not just for public speaking events, but for one to one meetings and social events too. Along with lots of relevant advice, there are practical exercises at the end of every section to try. By following these hints and tips, you will improve the way that you connect with everyone, both in and out of the work place”.

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Bookshelf: SPEAK (so your audience will listen)

The recent announcement by The Bank of England’s new Canadian governor, Mark Carney has been causing quite a stir since yesterday. ‘Forward guidance’ is the new mantra for the BoE, with a pledge to keep interest fixed until at least 2016.

So what does this mean for start-ups, small businesses and entrepreneurs? Well on paper, it all seems very promising; Carney’s plans generally seem to propose that now is the time to go ahead with any projects you may have in starting or growing your business as assuming everything goes to plan until 2016 there will be no surprises in investing or taking out a small business loan. HOORAH you may say; so what next?

Well here at Portfolio Penguin, we would like to help you decide, which business book can help you realise your dreams of starting or growing your own business:

Now if you are one of these people who always like to say I have a brilliant business idea or think you have spotted a gap in the market but unsure if and how your idea could become a business then James Caan’s Start Your Business in 7 Days is the book for you. This is a comprehensive 7 day guide to establishing if your idea is a viable business opportunity and will help you put into motion the necessary steps that can help you to determine if you can get your idea off the ground. If you are really thinking of making a dream a reality then find yourself 7 days and see if you can’t be the next big thing.  

If you already have a definitive idea and you know your market and audience, then Luke Johnson’s Start It Up will be your all round guide from getting your business off the ground to the general running and day to day tasks involved, providing the ins and outs and high and lows of being your own boss. In a nutshell Management Today says ‘Just buy this book.’

Finally, for all you techies, digital innovators and inventors our final recommendation is Eric Ries’ The Lean Startup. This international bestseller is a new approach to running an adaptable and innovative business in the competitive world of digital and product development. Ries advocates the need to streamline your production process from day one to minimise your costs and failures from the outset. How is this achieved? By focusing on your customers wants and needs rather than be engrossed in your products and their launch. 

For a chance to win these 3 books and a whole lot more, check out Portfolio Penguin’s competition. All you have to do is complete a short survey (it shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes) and you could be in with a chance of winning a brilliant bundle of business books. Follow the link here http://po.st/Portfolio

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Could you make it in business?

Exposure is the real-life tale of Michael Woodford and how he rose through the ranks of giant Japanese firm, Olympus to become the first Western CEO. Only weeks into the role though, Woodford discovered the company’s fraudulent secrets. His attempts at investigation were blocked. Losing his job, facing a cover-up and possible threats to his life, Woodford fled the country. Then he did something Olympus did not expect. He fought back. Going on the offensive, Woodford exposed the crimes of the company, brought down those who silenced him – and became a hero. This book tells the dramatic tale.

The Times remarks “Brace yourself, for this is a rare tale of integrity and probity in business. Woodford tells his tale like a thriller, uncovering fraud piece by piece.”

The London Evening Standard commented that “Michael Woodford’s story has the hallmarks of a John Grisham novel. A brilliantly gripping book, with a great hero at its heart. His story is all the more frightening for being true.“

Mail on Sunday said the book was “Remarkable. Vivid, angry and straight from the heart.”

From high-flying private jets to the dark secrets of Japanese business culture, Exposure will have you gripped to your seat to unravel this dramatic tale.

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Reviewed: Exposure

Such a spirit, I note, is based on a belief that commitment and effort can overcome most obstacles. It requires a willingness to challenge the status quo and conventional wisdom when they are not working effectively. It requires an insatiable curiosity about new developments and a willingness to embrace new ideas and initiatives in seeking a better approach. Importantly, it also requires being willing to take risks to achieve one’s goals, even knowing full well the pain that follows failure. This spirit suffuses my business experience, and I describe a wide range of business activities in my book that include investing in and developing major real estate projects, activities in banking and secondary mortgage lending, participating in business activities that paralleled our national developments, such as off-shore manufacturing and high yield securities as well as owning Team America – The American national soccer team, buying the aircraft carrier on which I served in the Navy, and being a landlord to Donald Trump. That same spirit also influences a broad range of other activities I describe in my book; whether seeking peaceful solutions to conflict in the Middle East, helping to develop strategies for addressing dangerous hospital infections, collecting art or even trying to develop a better golf swing.

The book discusses the increasingly rapid changes taking place in the world of business and economics, such as how sharply increased productivity is creating large scale structural unemployment, particularly of a younger generation, and what are the political implications of that development. Those changes call for business and political leaders to embrace the entrepreneurial spirit to recognize that existing techniques are not working effectively and to develop new approaches to education and job creation that address the changed circumstances. This may require breaking away from concepts like national balanced budgets and allocating resources to repair aging infrastructure while creating jobs and giving the population the time to learn new technologies and abilities.

By the same token, the book calls attention to the changes in military capabilities with the expansion of asymmetrical warfare, broader nuclear capabilities and particularly increasingly sophisticated cyber warfare. Here, too, nations like the United States have to apply an entrepreneurial approach to make sure that their military capabilities meet the current requirements and not depend on outmoded weaponry and models of warfare.

Finally, I hope my story offers an example for a younger generation of business people to reach out beyond their businesses and get involved in the larger issues that face us. People who are successful in business often have special talents in seeing the larger picture, in dealing with others, in negotiating balanced deals and in applying their entrepreneurial spirits. These abilities both equip them and oblige them to become involved in the larger issues of our time, as I have done in domestic American politics and particularly in dealing with issues in the Middle East, as President of the American Jewish Congress, a founder and Chair of the Israel Policy Forum and Co-Chair of the Middle East Project of the Council on Foreign Relations. I hope that those exciting experiences that I describe dealing with Presidents, Prime Minister, Kings and other world leaders will inspire my younger readers in the business world to expand their involvement both for their own satisfactions and the benefit of the world around them.

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Bookshelf: An Entrepreneur’s Journey

Aimed at those who’ve accepted the fact that they’ll likely be working ‘forever’, Avril Millar’s ground-breaking guide transports confidence and success in the bedroom to a financially comfortable future.

‘The Kama Sutra of Work: Why Work is the New Sex and How to Make Sure You’re Getting Enough’ sheds light on a unconventional yet wholly plausible concept that could make any morning just as enjoyable as the night before.

As the author explains, many people’s sex and working lives are already closely tied.

“Most of us apply the same language in the bedroom as we do to our work, we just don’t realise it! After reading my book the similarities will be clear, allowing anyone to exploit them for more fun under the covers and behind their desk,” says Millar.

Continuing, “Sadly, we’ll always spend more hours working than having sex, but the concept I introduce in the book will make both a little more fun and fruitful.”

Stimulating, titillating, enriching and often challenging this book offers everything you might hope from a Kama Sutra. Drawing on a rich seam of sexually related experiences and observations Millar has managed to tread the delicate line between humour & gravitas, fantasy and reality to produce a ‘self-help’ book that adds a whole new dimension to the genre.

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Reviewed: The Kama Sutra of Work – Book Proves Work is the New Sex

This book zooms straight in on that moment of truth providing a set of proven tools and techniques for getting to ‘yes,’ every time. The author  instils readers with the confidence to ask bigger, more often and even ask for the impossible – and to get it.

Based on sound psychological principles, Straight To Yes! offers tonnes of winning ways to make requests that get you to ‘yes’ Wholly practical in style and content, the book features accessible, straightforward techniques readers can put into actio

Haider does have a nice, friendly writing style, but there are little hints to go to his website and ‘sign-up’ for things that aren’t in the book….and my ‘marketing alert’ hat went on, and I declined.

I suppose marketing and selling hasn’t changed that much over the years. I’ve had plenty of selling training and Haider covers all the possible permutations of getting someone to say ‘Yes’.

To his credit he includes passages urging the reader to only use the techniques for legal/honest benefit, which I was glad to read.

But do we really need to ‘get’ people to say yes quicker? Which is the premise to the book…. Do we really need to constantly do things quicker and with more speed?….maybe I shouldn’t expect the answers to philosophical questions from a book written to help sales-people and ‘persuaders’ to get quicker results.

If you work in sales – or should be selling more – you’ll enjoy what Haider has to offer.

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Reviewed: Straight To Yes!

Most startup/entrepreneur books mirror say if you want to succeed, be prepared to sacrifice anything and everything, and it will all be worth it in the end. You’ll be the next Facebook/Twitter/Google/Yammer … you get the idea.

However Startup Life, by Amy Batchelor and Brad Feld, is a reassuring read for entrepreneurs. Its story is essential as books on marketing, or funding, product dev or community building.

The theme of Startup Life? Balance is worth striving for. You can have a life and still be successful. Feld and Batchelor thoughtfully tackle the issues that nearly every businessperson faces — no matter whether Internet or bricks-and-mortar. These are the universal challenges: Money (lack of it, or suddenly an abundance of it — which has its own issues).

Time. Priorities. Sleep. Friends. Fights/Relationships. Divorce. Marriage. Illness. Family — children, siblings and parents. More than just the next UI rev, these are the things that can keep entrepreneurs up at night, and potentially tear them apart.

Batchelor and Feld start off by explaining how their own relationship nearly failed. They go on to share practical tips that helped them have a healthier foundation as a couple, from which to build successful individual lives as well.

The pair also interview other entrepreneurs to include their differing stories and perspectives (Mindful that they don’t have children of their own, they share the lessons and insights from friends with kids who had to balance time with family vs. the often urgent needs of a growing business — which was helpful).

In short, Batchelor and Feld pay some overdue attention to the people behind the business (and those who love or must cope with them).

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Reviewed: Startup Life

Running your own business is nowhere near as tough as you might think. So what are you waiting for?

Richard Reed, co-founder of Innocent Drinks described the book as a ‘Part rant, part outpouring of useful knowledge gleaned from 20 very successful years in business. There is a great deal here that is good’.

A must-read for inspiring entrepreneurs, probably the best book available on the subject’

In Start It Up, Johnson sets out to inspire – and guide – every budding entrepreneur. He tackles the issues that really matter: finding the right idea, sourcing funds, and getting the best from the people you meet on the way – chiefly yourself.

‘For the budding entrepreneur, this clear, thoughtful and passionate how-to guide will be an excellent first investment

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Reviewed: Start It Up – Luke Johnson

The parable is about a farm in trouble. Bankruptcy, or the grim prospect of being acquired by a hostile competitor, threaten. The farm succeeds only if the team pulls together and innovates.
The main characters in the story—Stella, Deirdre, Bull, Mav, Einstein, Rambo, Maisie, and Andrea—are all like people you know, maybe even yourself. The tale includes an unexpected leadership challenge, an ambitious call to action, a bold idea, countless internal obstacles and conflicts, fears, joys, triumphs, and even a love interest.

It’s a story that can be enjoyed by anyone and by definition is a very light read and delivers eight simple lessons to guide innovation initiatives to success. It prepares business leaders to avoid some of innovation’s most toxic myths, teaches how to build the right kind of team, and shows how to learn quickly from experience.

£8.96

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Reviewed: How Stella Saved the Farm

eCommerce is rapidly becoming the biggest player in the market-place – the overheads can be low, the rewards huge. But very few businesses seem to really know what they’re doing, and most operate on a sometimes hit, mostly miss approach.

‘eCommerce MasterPlan’ provides a clear, systematic analysis of what works and what doesn’t for each of the seven different kinds of eCommerce businesses Chloë Thomas has identified. This enables the reader to identify their type of business and select exactly the right mix of marketing methods to minimise risk and maximise reward.

Sensible, straightforward, with practical exercises to apply all the way through, and hosts of extension material available online to ensure that information is kept entirely up to date, this book is a must-read for any marketing manager or small business owner.

Chloë Thomas is best known as an online marketer, since 2004 she has been working to improve the performance of eCommerce businesses by optimising both the traffic that drives the sales and the eCommerce websites themselves.

During her career Chloë has been involved in the marketing of over 50 eCommerce businesses, selling everything from holidays to books. This wide experience includes several start ups as well as helping high street names expand into eCommerce.

Chloë has discovered that there are some clear structures which, when put in place, lead invariably to success. It is those structures, and how to apply them, which she unfolds and explains in her book ‘eCommerce MasterPlan’.

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Reviewed: Ecommerce Masterplan

Farhad Foroutan-Esfahani brings personal insight and experience to this most important of subjects. He was an artist whose life was completely changed after an accident forced him to say goodbye to his artistic aspirations. He directed his creative energy into starting his own company.

Entrepreneurship’s message is: “If I can do it, anyone can.” The book was written during some of Foroutan-Esfahani’s most difficult business challenges, so the content has a sense of immediacy and urgency-entrepreneurs will immediately relate to his advice as they recognize their own situations.

Foroutan-Esfahani’s advice is mixed in with funny anecdotes and is written in simple language-offering a refreshing account of what it takes to turn an idea into a business with the help of near zero startup capital.

These are universal principles that can be used by any entrepreneur in any industry during any era.

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Review – Entrepreneurship: From Idea to Success

Marcelo Bravo is a serial entrepreneur in science and technology specialising in businesses based on intellectual property in chemistry, materials science and life sciences.

Founder and Chief Technology Officer of AIM listed Oxford Pharmascience Group Plc., a company specialising in pharmaceutical technology. Originally from Chile, he studied both in the US and Europe.

Dream, design surf offers an excellent insight into Bravo’s experience. This book is aimed at identifying ventures with lower risk that offers higher rewards and growth, along with providing readers with simple and effective hints to starting their own business.

This book is a must read for all those who are starting new businesses in science or technology.

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Review: Dream Design Surf

His findings have been published in a book titled Five Essential Ingredients for Business Success, Stories & Lessons From Three Of The UK’s Greatest Restaurants.

The restaurants (all with rooms) granted Parker unparalleled access to their behind-the scenes operations as well as letting him observe their interactions with guests and interview key members of staff repeatedly over a two year period. Parker’s hypothesis was that a study of excellence in any domain reveals lessons that can be transferred and applied to others. Parker’s hypothesis was proven true. Each individual restaurant provided specific lessons and they all the shared five overarching lessons Parker refers to as the ‘Essential Ingredients’ necessary for business success in any organisation and in every industry.

Wayne Hubball, a Birmingham-based entrepreneur, said, ‘This book crosses business boundaries, proving that we can all learn from examples of excellence – even if they come from different arenas to our own. Five Essential Ingredients not only teaches established businesses ways of improving performance and of guaranteeing relevancy and longevity, it also highlights the all-important foundations for creating a successful new business. In times of recession these lessons are particularly important for all. This book is a vital resource for all entrepreneurs and business leaders aiming for excellence!’

The book, published by Ardra Press,* is divided into two parts. The first is a collection of teaching stories about the three restaurants, highlighting business lessons specific to each. These transferable lessons include such topics as: the role environments play in creating influence; the importance of recruitment, selection and induction in creating a consistent corporate image and exceptional customer service; leadership; creativity.

The second half of the book is an equally engaging and thought-provoking discussion of the five ‘Essential Ingredients’. These begin with, ‘Find your passion and then build an enduring cause’ and conclude with, ‘Understand the totality of the customers’ experience and then exceed their expectations throughout.’ Whilst other writers and researchers have written about various aspects of hospitality and catering, this is the first book to use a study of great restaurants to identify the transferable business ‘ingredients’ that are essential for success in any industry.

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Review: Five Essential Ingredients for Business Success

Which company’s idea originated because the founder was forgetful? And which digital start-up’s website was worth over $1 billion dollars in just 16 months? Discover what it is that make entrepreneurs succeed with these fascinating and inspirational profiles that reveal how an idea became a profitable digital business.

Whether you’re simply fascinated by how digital businesses are started, or you’re an aspiring entrepreneur who wants to find out how others have gone about starting their own business, How They Started Digital is for you.

The result is a book which has far more detail about how people turned ideas into digital startup businesses than any other book on the market, other than a specific biography all about one business.

It is obvious that How They Started is the result of a substantial amount of research, even talking with the founders of the digital business. Based on a deep understanding of business and the questions that entrepreneurs ask.

David Lester has ensured that there are good answers to these questions in the businesses profiled in How They Started Digital. A jargon-free, easily readable series of stories of the greatest digital entrepreneurs of today, each business profile in How They Started Digital reveals:

• What that one important idea was
• How they chose their name
• Where the funding came from and how they got it

How they overcame any obstacles to success If you’re fascinated by digital businesses or have ambitions to be the next James Caan, How They Started will give you inspiration and an insight into the business ingenuity of digital startups and entrepreneurs.

Most of these businesses have revolutionised our commercial and social landscape. All of them started with just a really good idea. Find out how that good idea turned into a great one.

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Reviewed: How They Started

The Hidden Agenda is on the surface, a book about marketing and advertising. I’ve read a lot of those in my time, and as great and as useful as most of them are and can be, they tend to become a “much of a muchness” over time. They can also tend to be quite arid, in their approach and almost mechanical in their reeling of, of normalised processes and concepts, from well worn paradigms, with a little twist here and there. Here, on the other hand, is something different and refreshing. It may not be a game changer, but it hit me, at least, where it mattered; it went straight to the heart.

This book has a good narrative and it was not one of those business books that takes you months to read. If you are a reluctant salesperson.

For a business book this has a lot of personality, and the author reveals a lot about himself. The Hidden Agenda talks a lot about connecting to the emotional desires and suggests that he learnt much from his mother.

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Hidden Agenda: A Proven Way to Win Business & Create a Following

With an easy and engaging style, this book is a definitive and practical guide that covers every business area. From strategy to finance, management to marketing, and business planning to exit, Guy leaves no stone unturned. The result is an authoritative and invaluable tool for entrepreneurs seeking to navigate the minefield of successful growth. Find out everything you wanted to know about how to build a great business but never had the opportunity to ask.

Not many business books are as large, or as detailed, as this latest book from accountant Guy Rigby.

Just the quotes on the book jacket read like a veritable who’s who of British business. From Nick Jenkings, founder of Moonpig.com to Julie Meyer, founder & CEO of Ariadne Capital to former Dragon James Caan.

The foreword is written by Luke Johnson, the current Chairman of Startup Britain and one of the UKs greatest entrepreneurs, but someone that many will have never heard of as he likes to keep a low profile letting the businesses he owns speak for themselves.

This book – although it would be better to describe it as manual – offers real, tangible and valuable insight into a complete range of business issues, obstacles and challenges on every page.

It really does live up to the promise of delivering value ‘from vision to exit’. Don’t be put off by the title as even if you are five years into running your business it is just as relevant to you as you make key decisions.

This book will sit by the bed, follow me into work and accompany me on weekends away for the next couple of months at least.

I am sure that not many chartered accountants could write something as interesting and useful as Rigby has here and this book.

Price: £13.99

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From Vision to Exit: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Building and Selling a Business

For anyone who has entrepreneurial aspirations or would like to gain ‘know how’ with a twist of personality should buy this book.

Lara Morgan is an exceptionally straight talking woman who freely admits how her early years of success were reliant upon her drive, passion and abilities of leading by example.

Of course mistakes were made, opportunities seized upon and people engaged with very intimate details of emotions felt and a transition of personal growth that made you feel you were really close to the journey made. This direct insight to a person’s challenging life journey was inspirational enough to make the reading experience worthwhile.

Morgan dos a lot of public speaking and you get a huge sense of that as the book is written in a conversational fluid style which combined with the illustrative method of chapter goals, example laden narrative and summarising with the strikingly effective Lara’s Laws make it a very good book.

Price £ 9.09

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Review: More balls than most by Lara Morgan

This book written by Shaa Wasmund and Richard Newton is not your average business book, it is also not your average self help book either and frankly both of these facts is to be applauded.

This book is genuine in that it is based on reality putting across simple theories that make good common sense.

This is a nice book and if you are ever to only read one book in this genre then this should be it.

Will this book ‘change your life’ ? Probably not if you just read it and do nothing with it, though if you take that first step (which this book encourages you to do) and you keep making these steps.. then surely great results will speak for themselves.

This book may well motivate you to do that.. and the great thing is, it does that in a few pages and big font, so it won’t take much of your time.. but.. it’s completely up to you, reading the book is only the 1st step..

Price: £6.09 

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Stop Talking, Start Doing: A Kick in the Pants in Six Parts