The Gresham Reader on Cabinet Government
Editor Giles Edwards
Don't be put off by the title - this is actually a fascinating book.
Some years ago, I was an 'Hon Treas' on a committee, and meetings were held every couple of weeks or so. If Bob was in the chair, few decisions were taken, as meetings went on and on and on, until few people were left. If Dai was in the chair, everyone knew what decisions were made, everyone had a chance to put their view - but not ramble - and the meetings were done and dusted within an hour.
I realised then how good, or bad, the chair of a committee could be, and it came flooding back when I read Cabinet Government.
I expected it to be as dry as dust, but far from it. It's an object lesson on how to run, and how not to run, committees. The Cabinet is the board of Britain UK, with the prime minister the MD or CEO (or dare I say, president?). Do you want 'think tanks' to write reviews, or do you go on instinct? Do you take decisions before the board meets, or do you have a genuine discussion?
Do you, as MD, keep a friendly eye on/interfere with things, or let managers do their jobs? How do you deter troublemakers? What is a board meeting for? Do you have a consensus or a vote?
Food for thought for any business owner!
JMS
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£14.99
Politico's
ISBN: 1842750747
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Funky Business - Talent makes capital dance
Jonas Ridderstrale, Kjell Nordstrom
More products, more markets, more people, more competition. In a world of abundance and excess, competition is total and competition is personal. Difference rules.
If you think about it, most of what your business does could be bought from someone else using the Yellow Pages or an Internet search engine. How are you going to be attractive? By being more efficient? By doing it cheaper? No way ...
This is an age where we are selling time and talent, exploiting time and talent, packaging time and talent.
Only talent will allow you to be unique, to escape business as usual. In this world we need business as unusual. We need innovative business. We need unpredictable business. We need Funky Business... a book that's guaranteed to jolt you out of your complacency.
Richard Reed
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£10.99
Financial Times Prentice Hall
ISBN: 0273659073
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Successful time management
Patrick Forsyth
When you are running a business, the most precious commodity of all is time.
Successful time management is a vital skill if you are to keep on top of your workload and achieve the results you want.
Successful time management sets out practical guidelines to help you do just that.
Packed with proven tips and techniques, this book will help you understand where you are going wrong, and adopt new work practices.
There is some great advice in key areas such as controlling paperwork, getting and staying organised, delegating and working with others, and how to focus on key issues.
Patrick Forsyth is an accomplished and respected business advisor and author, and a regular contributor to Better Business magazine.
What he doesn't know on this subject isn't worth printing. So if time is a problem for you, make time to read this! It could just change your life.
Richard Reed
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£7.99
Kogan Page
ISBN: 0749440325
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The Bottom Line: Your Questions Answered
Paul Barrow
If, like me, you find understanding business finance akin to learning Outer Mongolian, then this book is for you.
The Bottom Line answers most of the questions you could possibly wish to know in straightforward English, and includes an intelligible explanation of financial calculations, as well as an arithmetical breakdown.
That is not to say that some of the calculations aren't complex - indeed they are, and many went over my head. But if you are responsible for a the long-term financial future of a business, then they are sadly essential.
Subjects covered include how to calculate and improve profitability, how to sell or buy a business, the pros and cons of looking for venture capital, and many more.
My only quibble is with the frequent use of acronyms, but I suspect the fault lies not with Paul Barrow but modern management theory, which seems to delight in making things sound as complex as possible.
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£9.99
Virgin Business Guides
ISBN: 075350569X
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The Best-Laid Business Plans How to Write Them, How to Pitch Them
Paul Barrow
Business plans are not only for start-ups, but also the key to successful business development.
The Best-Laid Business Plans is a comprehensive guide to the business planning process for all companies, old and new. Sound practical advice, case studies and exercises, provide a step-by-step planning process and guarantee the best-laid business plans. Whatever your business objective, this book is your route map to planning for success.
Paul Barrow is teacher, consultant, venture capitalist and company director, who has helped dozens of small and medium-sized enterprises to secure funding and grow.
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£9.99
Virgin Business Guides
ISBN: 0753505371
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Organising genius
Warren Bennis and Patricia Ward Biederman
All organisations today require creative collaboration at all levels, but some people do it better than others.
Why do certain groups of smart, talented people produce greatness while others never live up to their potential? How do some managers with excellent skills lead their organisations to amazing feats while others fall short?
This book examines the most noteworthy groups of our time and uncovers the secrets of collective genius.
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£12.99
Nicholas Brealey
ISBN: 1857881990
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How did they manage?
Daniel Diehl & Mark P Donnelly
'A prudent man always follows in the footsteps of great men and imitates those who have been outstanding.' Nicholo Machiavelli from The Prince.
If you could go back in time and ask any historical figure for advice on how best to manage your business or people, who would it be? Benjamin Franklin? Edward Longshanks? Confucius? Moses? H J Heinz? Sun Tzu? Machiavelli? Helena Rubenstein?
Management is not a modern phenomenon. Great leaders and thinkers rise all the time. And this gem of a book allows you to pick their brains.
Divided into chapters, ranging from 'Dictators, Despots and Rogue Thinkers' and 'Philosophers and Sages', to 'Industrialists and Merchant Princes', this book distils the timeless insights that will help us run a better business.
Diehl and Donnelly provide the commentaries on each 'expert', teasing out the most relevant advice on a range of topics from settling personnel disputes to dealing with the competition.
For example, Solomon had some fascinating insights on dealing with superiors, middle management and business associates - 'Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbour's house, lest he be wary of thee and so hate thee.' Or as Diehl and Donnelly comment: 'Don't interfere in other people's business. In the long run it will engender more bad blood than advancement.'
On the other hand, H J Heinz had some of the following epigrams framed on the walls of his factories and offices: 'We are working for success not for money. The money will take care of itself.' 'Do the best you can, where you are, with what you have today.' While Helena Rubenstein, apparently an extremely difficult person to deal with, said things like: 'Listen. Say less than more. If you want to be smart, play stupid. Take a walk around the building. Find things out. That's how you'll learn.'
This is very much the kind of book that you keep by your bedside and dip into. Full of insight.
Sophie Chalmers
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£10.99
Spiro Press
ISBN: 1904298079
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Sven-Göran Eriksson on Management
Sven-Göran Erikson, Willi Railo and Hakan Matson
When Sven-Göran Eriksson was appointed as England's new football manager, there were cries of outrage that the prestigious post should go to someone who wasn't English.
Eighteen months later, with England reaching the quarter-finals of the World Cup, Sven was being hailed as the saviour of national pride.
So what is it that has made this modest, quietly-spoken man, seemingly devoid of emotion, into such an inspirational figure?
The answers can be found within the pages of Sven-Göran Eriksson on Management - a book which aims to show how the same principals that took Sven to the top can put you on top of your business.
The book covers key areas such as team-building, leadership, motivation and psychology - qualities fundamental to successful management in any field.
There is no psycho-babble or management-speak here, however. It is easy to read and clearly laid out, with neat little Post-It style key points on almost every page.
The chapter on Performance, for instance, looks at the will to win versus the fear of losing, and how we often prevent our own success by refusing to venture out of our comfort zone. 'You must dare to fail if you are to dare to succeed.'
Setting Goals looks at breaking through the self-imposed barriers that limit our achievement, and setting goals for ourselves that are both ambitious and realistic - goals that allow us to measure our progress.
Sven-Göran Eriksson on Management contains numerous examples of sportsmen and women who have achieved greatness as a result of harnessing that most powerful of all tools - the mind.
Who knows where that immense potential could take your business? All you have to do is believe...
Richard Reed
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£9.99
Carlton Books
ISBN: 1842225995
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Rethinking the future
Various, including Rowan Gibson, Charles Handy and Stephen Porter
We are living in an age of unstable equilibrium. Just ten years ago the Berlin Wall still stood. Just ten years ago only a select few had heard of the Internet and even fewer understood its potential. So much has changed since then.
It is both exciting and unsettling to see traditional boundaries between industries, disciplines and countries blur so rapidly. The trouble is that we spend so much energy finding our feet in this new world, and so much time working in our businesses, that few of us have the time to work on our businesses let alone find the space to think about tomorrow.
A new very accessible book might help you step out of the circle. Rethinking the future offers you the views of some of today's most important business thinkers on rethinking business principles; competition; control and complexity; leadership; markets and the world. Contributors include Michael Porter, Stephen Covey, Warren Bennis and others with insights into the changes that organisations must make to adapt to the future.
As Charles Handy explains right at the start, 'To give ourselves a sense of cohesion, I believe that to the best of our abilities, we have to try to work out what the future is going to be like.' These great thinkers lead us through the minefield of change.
Though much of the material is aimed at or derived from large organisations, it is still vital stuff for even micro-businesses for two reasons. First, as we have described elsewhere, even large firms are rapidly evolving into small virtual teams, which is a game we can all join in. Second, as many of us depend like parasites on larger hosts, we should be sure to understand the way they are thinking and moving.
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£12.99
Nicholas Brealey
ISBN: 1857881087
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The Tipping Point
Malcolm Gladwell
I was tempted to review this book when I was only half-way through it because it is so good and so full of insight that I just had to tell someone. In fact, on my way to collect the children from school last Thursday, I went into my local bookshop and bought several copies, which I gave away to friends that evening. And the funny thing is that, later, thinking about what I had done, I realised I had put the principles of the book into practice with each copy that I gave away.
Our research here at Better Business shows that the most important marketing method is word of mouth, with 88% of you finding new business that way. Advertising trailed in next, at 18%. So what is this book about? It's about how word spreads. It's about why sometimes things seem to happen spontaneously, yet none of them happen just because they are a good idea. It's more than that. Phenonema have to have something else to make them explode into popularity, and this book explores what that something else is.
Why does it work?
For example, the books starts off looking at Hush Puppies shoes, whose popularity had declined to practically zero, and then overnight, for no apparent reason, they became a runaway fashion item. But there was a reason. It was called word-of mouth. What makes word-of-mouth happen? Why doesn't it always happen? Who are the most important people in the word-of-mouth chain? How do some ideas become 'sticky' and so increase the likelihood of them spreading, and at the speed of wildfire? What starts a fad in the first place? Why? How do fads work? The book explores all of this and more.
Reading this book, I found myself buzzing with ideas, not because it necessarily gave me the answers, but because I immediately wanted to go out and see how I could apply the concepts to my own business. It's a very good read - it was also something that I enjoyed reading, couldn't put down, even after I put my computer away at midnight after a long, long day. It's good enough that even when I was only half-way though, I knew that I would turn it over and start again when I had finished it.
Does word of mouth work? Who knows? But try the book and you will find out how it works!
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£7.99
Abacus
ISBN: 0349113467 |
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Managing telework: strategies for managing the virtual workforce
Jack Nilles
Telework simply involves moving the work to the worker rather than vice versa. The result can be immense savings for businesses and a great improvement in lifestyle for workers. However, the real growth seems to be in 'informal' teleworking and flexible teams, not formal teleworking groups. This anarchy creates a number of peculiar problems.
A new step-by-step book by Jack Nilles, Managing Telework, explains how to plan and develop an appropriate management style. It informs you about every part of the process from selecting the right type of worker, and how to manage the central, often unspoken managerial fear that telecommuting means loss of control.
Other topics covered include selecting the right technology, navigating the formal rules and regulations of teleworking, how to measure results and how to set up someone in a home office. Plus there is advice on legal, corporate and cultural issues.
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£25.95
Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0471293164
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Management: how to do it - 110 great, tried and tested ideas
John and Shirley Payne
The book is designed to help you become an effective leader by managing people and situations around you better. For instance, it shows you how to encourage your team to suggest their own objectives, and how to prevent fires rather than fight them. It is written in a practical, concise style and sections include the 11 key skills of management including setting objectives, decision making, time management, motivation, communication, delegating, and running effective sales teams.
What I like about this book is that it is deals with the kinds of mistake we make every day and it offers solutions that make complete sense. The title is a misnomer, because many of the 'problems' are relevant not just to business management, but to life in general.
Most problems have a short page allocated to them. They briefly outline the problem and offer a simple solution. For instance, in one problem, the authors exhort us to look at behaviour not personality. So instead of labelling someone 'obstructive', which would have them raising their hackles, the authors suggest we discuss how the difficulty manifests itself. For example, 'He can never see any good in it and always starts by saying he won't do it.' This helps achieve the desired outcome which, after all, is not to change the way he feels, but the way he behaves.
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£25.00
Gower
ISBN: 056608094X
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Change and the bottom line
Alan Warner
Readable management books - in a novel form!
It's not often you find a business book you simply can't put down. Nor one in which you really want to know what happens next, how it worked and why.
Most business books tend to offer either a dry linear approach, or a breath-less expose of the latest fad. Either type may be seeded with carefully selected examples, presented in isolation. These may be relevant to your business but they are never involving.
Change and the bottom line is a different kind of management book because it is written as a novel. Quite apart from being a good story, the format has many advantages. By building rounded characters, the author makes you care about their problems, hopes and feelings and you can empathise with their situation.
Since then you have an interest in the solution, it is much easier to feed you the actual meat of the book, the business techniques. The characters learn in question-and-answer sessions, which in turn provides and easy forum for all your own scepticism to be aired and resolved.
This works particularly well in a book about change, which is nothing if not about potential clashes of personal styles and beliefs. Hence it has much more impact if you can identify with those faced with change.
The author is adept at describing a realistic situation, which is also generic. There are valuable lessons here for any size or type of business.
The book also offers insights for the many freelances who are trying to practice as consultants, without the benefit of formal training in how to do it. I found it very useful to see how the consultant here managed his clients and the tactful yet effective way he introduced his solutions.
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£36.00
Gower
ISBN: 0566075601
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