Reviews (6)

A must read for existing and future biz owners
Finally a book written on entrepreneurship that has so much to offer! A guide for fledgling IT entrepreneurs as well as a resource for those faced with the myriad problems of the modern business environment. It is also an introduction to computer consulting and building a multimedia company. Readable, concise, precise, and pragmatic. The in-depth coverage and sound counsel make this a book that should be in every business person's library. I've read my copy twice. It's twenty-seven chapters of very good, easy-to-read inspirational reading. A must read for anyone thinking about starting or expanding their existing business. Highly recommended!

Entrepreneur Highly Informative
This book's got a lot of good stuff in it--those critical factors that help contribute to making good business decisions.I've already seen some improvement in business growth.In fact, the usefulness of Entrepreneur's information is a lot like Guerilla PR: Wired:both have tons of really useful info to entrepreneurs on how to build their business.

Great for [inexperienced] and veteran entrepreneurs
Peter Hupalo has written a unique book for Entrepreneurs.I've read a lot of books about business and entrepreneurship, but this one is different.It speaks to people just thinking about starting a business and yet it has a lot to offer to the veteran entrepreneur.

If you're thinking about starting a business, the first few chapters will do a great job of helping you think about the risks in quitting a "safe" job and starting your own company.It's not as risky as you might think. This isn't the book to read about business licenses or accounting systems - it is much more important than that!It really is as the title suggests a book about thinking like an entrepreneur.

I've been in business for more than 10 years, but I'm still making mistakes and trying to learn new things.A mark of a good book for me is the number of pages that I dog-ear to mark interesting ideas.My copy of Thinking Like an Entrepreneur has at least 20 pages marked, and I've referred back to it many times since I finished reading it.It will definitely go on my favorites shelf of business books.I've already recommended it to my entrepreneur friends.

The author's style is to mix stories about experiences from actual entrepreneurs with good step-by-step walkthroughs of "thinking like an entrepreneur".It is 272 pages with 27 chapters.Each chapter can stand alone, making it easy to focus on the areas you're really interested in while skimming the ones that don't apply so much to your business.Peter seems to have a technology background, but I think any businessperson will find a lot to learn in this book.

My favorite chapters include:

* Don't Get Bournouillied - an interesting discussion of risk

* Men are cheaper than guns

* The importance of margins - Most books don't cover this VERY important topic

* Expectation Values and Decision Making

* Personality and Business Choice

* You Know Enough, But Keep Learning Anyway

* The Role of Luck in Business

* An introduction to the Nature of Compounding and the Time Value of Money

* Relationship Marketing - The cost of losing clients

* The Value of Time

Reviews (4)

Simply easy to read with many examples
If you are looking to become an entrepreneur, or if you are are one, I recommend you read this book.

The most important handbook for entrepreneurs
As an entrepreneur with varying degree of success and failure, I found this book to be the most accurate writing on the subject. If I could read this book many years ago, I would have avoided many expensive mistakes. If you are looking to become an entrepreneur, or if you are are already one, I strongly recommend you read this book--and take notes because virtually everthing in this book applies to every entrepreneur. This is a must read for every business person.

A Guide to Entrepreneurship
This book is a collection of easy to read articles by eminent faculty as well as venture capitalists teaching and supporting entrepreneurship.

These articles offer an insight into the problems faced by a start-up as well as methods to prioritize their activities. It does offer ideas to entrepreneurs to manage and grow a start-up.

Reviews (10)

Excellent Book
Beyond Entrepreneurship is an excellent book.Why?Most business books cover how to start companies, this book goes further.Collins & Lazier show you how to create a company that has a passion for what it's doing.They give guides on how to build a company from the ground up with ideals, beliefs, and goals.You learn why vision is so important to the overall goals of the company.Some of the things you'll learn in this book: How Sony stays ahead of the curve with its innovations.How 3M allows innovation to drive strategy.How Sam Walton used similar tactics but overtook his competition.

I highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to build a great and enduring company.

Nothing new
The problem with this book, and many books of this type is that it is a clearly organized exposition on intuitive principles. I have read many books that resemble this one. They tend to be motivational and easily conceived, but the downside to the ease with which they are digested is that you don't really learn anything. This does not mean the book should not read, in fact the examples and organization clearly illustrate the basic structure of strategy. However, anyone familiar with the ideas should probably look for something a little more weighty.

All of that being said, this is how the book is organized thematically:

Chapter 1: Leadership Style
Chapter 2: Vision
Chapter 3: Strategy
Chapter 4: Innovation
Chapter 5: Tactical Excellence

The key topics of chapter 1 are the multiplier effect of leadership, the different style of leadership, and the elements of leadership (Ever Forward, Communication, Hard/Soft People Skills, Personal Touch, Focus, Decisiveness, and Authenticity).

Chapter 2 covers the benefits of vision, and the framework for vision (core values and beliefs, purpose, and mission).

Chapter 3 discusses the Four Basic Principles of Setting Effective Strategy, Setting Strategy, Internal Assessment, External Assessment, and the Four Common Key Strategic Issues that Face SMEs.

Chapter 4 is on the Six Elements that make an innovative company, and 8 managerial techniques to stimulate creativity.

Chapter 5 discusses how to take vision to create strategy which can then be used to formulate tactics, how to create an environment where people consistently exhibit tactical excellence, and a six part process to ensure excellence.

This book also periodically presents frameworks, models, and case examples to help illustrate key points.

Overall, it is a quick and easy read, that will illustrate basic tips to run a business. I would recomend anything written by Michael Porter or Peter Drucker for more conceptual ideas. For more books like this, the Harvard Business Review series should be considered.

Editorial Review

Finding the next Microsoft has been the Holy Grail for many investors. However, anyone who has dabbled in technology stocks can't help but be dismayed at their extreme volatility--it's not unusual for tech stocks to gain or lose 10 to 20 percent in a single day. So how can you win in this market and find the next Cisco, Intel, or Oracle?The key to winning, says bestselling author Geoffrey Moore, is to play the "gorilla game."

Editorial Review

Author Geoffrey Moore makes the case that high-tech products require marketing strategies that differ from those in other industries. His chasm theory describes how high-tech products initially sell well, mainly to a technically literate customer base, but then hit a lull as marketing professionals try to cross the chasm to mainstream buyers. This pattern, says Moore, is unique to the high-tech industry.

Moore suggests remedies for the problem that can help businesses meet their long-term goals. He coaches marketing professionals on how to move slowly through the gulf, teaching them to create profiles and target specific segments of the population rather than trying to plow right into the mainstream. He cites examples of successful chasm crossings by such companies as Apple, Tandem, Oracle, and Sun, showing what they all had in common and exposing the different weaknesses in their strategies. Moore also assigns responsibility for success to programmers and developers by suggesting they design a "whole product model." Here, because integration tasks are daunting to the mainstream market, all the components of a technological product must be in one package. Moore also describes strategies for competing with rival companies and assessing the best distribution channels for penetrating the target market.

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Reviews (10)

Helping Your Business Grow
Inc. magazine is a publication designed to guide small businesses on their path to prosperity. With Inc., you get timely advice on taxes, marketing, financing, and many other important considerations and challenges that business owners face every day.

Probably the strongest point of Inc. is the way it presents important information to readers. The authors of this magazine get directly to the point. They don't waste your time with petty discussions and attempts to soften the blow of an undesirable fact. Even when the news is bad, like with regulations, taxation, etc., Inc. lets you have it in a direct manner. This is good, because I get annoyed by magazines that try to ease the reader into hearing some unwelcome news and then try to downplay the facts. Inc. writers are direct, and I respect them for that.

If there were some criticisms to be made about this magazine, I can think of only two: The lack of articles geared toward startup businesses and the tendency of the magazine to highlight success stories that, while nice to read about, present personal success that is a little out of reach of most business owners. Inc. is designed for small businesses that are already established and need some guidance for growth. This is fine, but I would like it a little better of there were more articles on getting a new business off the ground. And, every now and them the magazine goes off on a tangent and interviews someone who is very rich. Again, this is ok, but I would prefer to read about ordinary people who are only moderately well- off because these stories and the individual level of success they portray are more realistic.

Still, Inc. is a very good publication for small business owners. It provides some good, timely advice on how to help your young business grow and how to handle legal issues and concerns. The price to subscribe is low, too, making Inc. magazine a must for owners of small, growing companies.

A Rare Truthful Magazine about the Business Experience
I have been a subscriber to Inc. for several years.It is one of the few magazines that discusses the personalities, struggles, successes and failures of businesses of many sizes.It's a key resource for anyone considering starting their own business, working in a family or other small business.The writing is top notch, the subjects intelligent.A breeze to read.

Reviews (18)

Companies must be greedy for new products.
Drucker encourages company managers to drive their products into obsolecance through pricing reduction and get rebirth by driving new product innovation, in their place.The power of innovation is the survival force of a company.A company should not wait for his competitors to drive him out of business.The proactive nature of innovation keeps him ahead of his competition.

Companies must give innovative individuals freedom and time to innovate new products.R&D creates a brain trust of bright ideas that solve problems. So, systematic innovation identifies gaps in economic niches. Innovation must occur before the service or products breaks or competitor for the company out of business.

Companies must be greedy for new products.Greed is essential to drive product and service development. Entrepreneurship favors medium sized companys that make at least 500 million dollars.The Medium size company is the most likely to innovate and become successful at developing the marketing and research for the product. 1 in 100 Bright ideas patent every develop into a product or service that pays for development costs, marketing, and management of the product. Profitability becomes a function of marketing and management.The Entreprenueur is a manager.

Entrepreneurship is about hard work, reducing risk, and promoting a simple solution.Entrepreneur ares risk reducers and leave nothing to chance.Entrepreneurs take a prove it attitude and gain strong understandings of how the product works.Little is left to chance or guess work.

Drucker warns about complicating a new product, instead, it encourages to offer a simple solution and focus on developing this solution. Furthermore, quality is measured in terms of what people are willing to pay for. Companies can not afford to be non-profit. The economy depends on cash generating business and they have no time to consider non-profit. Marketing and management understand "what customers" will pay for, technology quality does not guarantee customer demand. Technology may product the product but it can not claim its own quality rating, only the consumer defines quality. Customer demand and their williness to pay for a product or service is the only measure of quality. Drucker illustrates this concept by telling about the migration for the vacuum tubes to transistors. RCA built the transister, but a Japanese firm licensed the technology, built a transistor radio for a 1/3 of the cost and 1/5 of the size, and market domination in five years. The second case was the photocopier. Xerox recognized that companies, schools, and individuals would want to replicate print media.

Lets examine the inconsistency in Company A, a telecommunication business.Suppose, the biggest inconsistency that Company A has is not resolving it customer service breakdowns. Company A's customer service is difficult to deal with: long waits, disputes over billing, service availablity, and lack of loyalty incentatives.

Suppose company B realizes these inconsistencies exploiting the weakness by offering a better telecommunication business model and attempts too remedy customer disatification research by providing 24x7 customer service which is accessible within 30 seconds, the customer experiences no significant delays, and company B resolves the problems relating to billing and service within the hour.

Also giving that Company A does reward customer adovacacy by rewards for loyalty and promotion there is establish not incentitive to help Company A.Even if, the customer tells a hundred people about Company A and the people he talks with to sign up with Company A, there is absolutely zero reward from Company A.In this scenerio one would think Company A would reward the individual for advocacy and promoting their business.Instead, Company A believes that large dollars spent marketing their service is causing their growth.Company A further knows a chasm has been forming being the company and its consumer basis because of the increasing number of complaints, so it changes its brand logo and enforces heavy penalities on its cusotmer service department to improve performance.Company A debates the cost of customer service against customer retention and new signons. Company A agressively follows a policy of 1 year contracts to secure its customer base from abandonment.

Lets look at Company B.Company B offers competitive rates and superior customer service.Company realizes that international calling services are an important service.Company B offers international services for a cheap fee and creates customers seem pleased with the service. Company B members talk free between each other and most important any customer referral generates for the advocate.

Company B growth is a result of the customer labeling the company has having quality.Company B effective markets Company A serviceinconsistencies by promoting better products and services.Company B recruites top management, manages its cash flow, and provides cash incentitives to keep its sales force motivated.

Company B realizes if the sales force is not receiving a strong cash flow, they will become discouraged.Company B realizes that the sale force must be financially rewarded and the stars will immediately rise to the top management.Top management helps the new venture survive. External wisdom is sought to help guide Company B into sectors of strong customer demand.

Helping innovators figure out where to innovate !
Peter Drucker has conducted an extraordinary thought experiment and corroborated his hypothesis with retrospective data.I really believe both the logic and the implications of his book.This is because I have been an innovator (scientist and manager) in Fortune 500 companies as well as tiny Startups and no matter what the environment, Druckers definition of the "seven sources of innovative opportunity" are exactly true in reality.Especially the two most prevalent sources: solving a consumer need or desire and the extreme opposite of that, finding an application of a newly available technology.This book spells out the "what" of innovation.It does not talk about the "how" of innovation since that is a different technical subject altogether.

Enjoyable, but with missing pieces
I enjoyed reading this book, especially because it focuses so much on anecdotes.I definitely understood Drucker's point that innovation and entrepreneurship come out of changes in the environment.

Editorial Review

This analysis of what makes great companies great has been hailed everywhere as an instant classic and one of the best business titles since In Search of Excellence. The authors, James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras, spent six years in research, and they freely admit that their own preconceptions about business success were devastated by their actual findings--along with the preconceptions of virtually everyone else.

Built to Last identifies 18 "visionary" companies and sets out to determine what's special about them. To get on the list, a company had to be world famous, have a stellar brand image, and be at least 50 years old. We're talking about companies that even a layperson knows to be, well, different: the Disneys, the Wal-Marts, the Mercks.

Whatever the key to the success of these companies, the key to the success of this book is that the authors don't waste time comparing them to business failures. Instead, they use a control group of "successful-but-second-rank" companies to highlight what's special about their 18 "visionary" picks. Thus Disney is compared to Columbia Pictures, Ford to GM, Hewlett Packard to Texas Instruments, and so on.

The core myth, according to the authors, is that visionary companies must start with a great product and be pushed into the future by charismatic leaders. There are examples of that pattern, they admit: Johnson & Johnson, for one. But there are also just too many counterexamples--in fact, the majority of the "visionary" companies, including giants like 3M, Sony, and TI, don't fit the model. They were characterized by total lack of an initial business plan or key idea and by remarkably self-effacing leaders. Collins and Porras are much more impressed with something else they shared: an almost cult-like devotion to a "core ideology" or identity, and active indoctrination of employees into "ideologically commitment" to the company.

Reviews (13)

Packed With Knowledge!
Management consultant Paul Glen's thorough discussion of geeks brings you brain-to-brain and eye-to-eye with high-tech, specialized knowledge workers. Don't blink: you need these people, so you need to know how to fit your management style to them. Glen describes their primary personality traits and attitudes: commitment to logic, interest in problem solving, independence and, to put it politely, occasionally under-developed social skills. The author, who doesn't seem to mind describing an entire subset of the labor force as if each worker in it had the same personality, explains what geeks need from a manager. You need to nurture motivation, provide internal facilitation, furnish external representation, and manage task, structural, and environmental ambiguity. We suggest this organized, authoritative guide to those who manage knowledge workers. If it's all geek to you, here's the codebook.

Who would like to read "Leading Geeks"?
I looked through this book and decided not to read it in depth. Who would like this book?
Someone who...
1.Likes using the label GEEKS to refer to anyone whose primary task is working with computers. In some work places such a label could be considered harassment since it is denigrating.
2.Likes classifying people using stereotypes. Are people still individuals? Not according to this book.
3.Likes reading a book where there is no theoretical justification given to the content (through references and citations), AND there are no concrete examples given for most of the content. What is the basis for these words of wisdom?
4.Feels that those who work with computers need to be managed any differently than anyone else. The author does advocate his version of modern management methods many of which are well documented elsewhere. Shouldn't one also use these with other employees?
5.Feels that those who work with computers MUST be different from everyone else. The author outlines how these individuals must be selected for employment - to match his stereotype.
6.Feels that computer workers should be kept insulated and isolated, particularly from customers. This is contrary to some other authors - e.g., Iain Aitken in "Value Driven IT Management." Some computer workers may want be isolated, but should they?

Reviews (12)

Lots of Incorrect Information
This book is in a word HORRIBLE.Some of this information is dangerous to someone starting up a business because it is incorrect.Unfortunately, the Wiley Dummy series hires low end authors who aren't experts and don't research the topics.

The tax information on how to pay yourself a salary from a Subchapter S corporation is just plain wrong.The authors also fail to point out that if your revenues are over $85,000, you should strongly consider a C corporation.This is advantageous for various reasons, none of which you will find in this waste of a good forest.

Good as a starter, but you will need more.
Inc for Dummies is not just for dummies, it is a good book on How To Incorporate, but you will need more.

Some additional books icnlude How To Incorporate: A Handbook for Entrpreneurs and Professionals by Michael R. Diamond. How To Incorporate in Any State: Everything You Need to Form a Corporation by W. Dean Brown. S- Corporations by Robert Cooke.

Form Your Own Corporation and Launch a Business in Any State and The Small Business Kit by J.W. Dicks.

Use the dummies book as a starter guide. Use the other booksfor the real meaty information. Be careful what you buy, the marketplace is proliferated with books by self proclaimed experts who read a lot but have no real world experience.

Reviews (6)

Informative, hard to plod through in places
The book has a lot of useful information about setting up and running small corporations.

Never Judge a Book by its Cover
This book provides vital information not usually covered in most self-publishing books and is a solid resource guide. Another confirmation that you need to read many books on your subject to familiarize yourself with the business. Areas such as how to protect your inventory by filing a UCC in the state the distributor is based, understanding the ins and outs of how distributors work, how to establish discounts and payment schedules that protect your financial structure, how to properly set-up your Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable,taxes, LLC's, S Corporations,etc. Peter Hupalo's only weak area is his cover design.Anyone this intelligent should know their strengths and weakness's, and graphic design/layout is his. His book deserves better and would appeal to more buyers if it was redesigned.

Reviews (2)

OK Book...VALUABLE CD!!REALLY VALUABLE!
The book itself is a very basic rundown of starting a business running and keeping it going.The info presented is quite basic, and not very detailed.BUT, the enclosed CD is FULL, FULL, FULL of forms, government documents, sample by-laws, etc., etc., etc.Having all these forms at your disposal is invaluable.It's a terrific book and CD.

Editorial Review

Because finding the ideal person for every workplace position has become an increasingly difficult task, the retention of top employees has become every manager's concern. Love 'Em or Lose 'Em, by organizational-development specialists Beverly L. Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans, proposes that this "race for talent" can be effectively run only by those who adopt programs and policies that truly support their personnel. It then shows how to do so, even in organizations reluctant to participate actively.

Reviews (47)

The leading change process model
Organisations need change. We all know that. But how can an organisation adopt great ideas, tools, and methods, absorbing them in a way to stimulate change and get superior results?

Harvard-professor John P. Kotter has been observing this process for almost 30 years. What intrigues him is why some leaders are able to take these tools and methods and get their organizations to change dramatically - while most do not.

How many times have we not seen somebody get very excited about some new tool (CRM, e-business, etc.)? Yet two years later there is no performance improvement at all. Often because most of the organisation has rejected the change needed to make it happen.

When people need to make big changes significantly and effectively, Kotter finds that there are generally eight basic things that must happen:

1. INSTILL A SENSE OF URGENCY. Identifying existing or potential crises or opportunities. Confronting reality, in the words of Execution-authors, Charan and Bossidy.

2. PICK A GOOD TEAM. Assembling a strong guiding coalition with enough power to lead the change effort. And make them work as a team, not a committee!

3. CREATE A VISION AND SUPPORTING STRATEGIES. We need a clear sense of purpose and direction. In less successful situations you generally find plans and budgets, but no vision and strategy; or the strategies are so superficial that they have no credibility.

4. COMMUNICATE. As many people as possible need to hear the mandate for change loud and clear, with messages sent out consistently and often. Forget the boring memos that nobody reads! Try using videos, speeches, kick-off meetings, workshops in small units, etc. Also important is the teaching of new behaviours by the example of the guiding coalition

5. REMOVE OBSTACLES. Get rid of anything blocking change, like bosses stuck in the old ways or lack of information systems. Encourage risk-taking and non-traditional ideas, activities, and actions. Empowerment is moving obstacles out of peoples' way so they can make something happen, once they've got the vision clear in their heads.

6. CHANGE FAST. Little quick wins are essential for creating momentum and providing sufficient credibility to pat the hard-working people on the back and to diffuse the cynics. Remember to recognize and reward employees involved in the improvements.

7. KEEP ON CHANGING. After change organizations get rolling and have some wins, they don't stop there. They go back and make wave after wave of other actions necessary for long-term, significant change. Successful change leaders don't drop the sense of urgency. On top of that, they are very systematic about figuring out all of the pieces they need to have in place before they declare victory.

8. MAKE CHANGE STICK. The last big step is nailing big change to the floor and making sure it sticks. And the way things stick is through culture. If you can create a totally new culture around some new way of managing, it will stay. It won't live on if it is dependent on one boss or a couple of enthusiastic people who will eventually move on.

We can divide these eight steps in three main processes. The first four steps focus on de-freezing the organization. The next three steps make change happen. The last step re-freezes the organization on the next rung on the ladder.

I've personally used Kotter's change process in several e-business projects. It has helped me a lot. I highly recommend that you buy this easy-to-read and affordable book. Alternatively, read his Harvard Business Review article from Mar/Apr 1995 on the same subject.

Peter Leerskov,
MSc in International Business (Marketing & Management) and Graduate Diploma in E-business

One of the Best
I agree with some of the earlier reviews that recommend this book along with "Execution" by Bossidy & Charan, "Strategic Organizational Change" by Beitler, and "Good to Great" by Collins.

This book is a little light on practical tools, but it does offer a good overview for managers who are dealing with change.

Editorial Review

Reviews (31)

A Compelling Invitation
The day after I read this brilliant book, I read an article in the Dallas Morning News (Tuesday, September 30, 2003) in which sportswriter Gerry Fraley discusses the Minnesota Twins whose payroll is $110-million less than that of the Yankees. (The Twins won 90 games this past season and had just defeated the Yankees in the first game of the American league playoffs.) As Fraley notes, the Twins are renowned for how they treat their people. One of them is Al Newman who is currently struggling with a life-threatening illness. Here's a brief excerpt from Fraley's article:

"When beloved third-base coach Al Newman was hospitalized in Chicago this month because of a brain hemorrhage, general manager Terry Ryan remained with him for the entire 11-day stay. While Newman was hospitalized, the Twins clinched the Central title at home. Manager Ron Gardenshire stopped the postgame celebration, brought out Newman's uniform top and reminded the crowd of what he had done for the club."

If I understand George's key points in Authentic Leadership, both Ryan and Gardenshire offer examples of it. Specifically, they demonstrate "the highest integrity, [are] committed to building enduring organizations...who have a deep sense of purpose and are true to their core values...who have the courage to build their companies to meet the needs of all stakeholders, and who recognize the importance of their service to society." George addresses what he views as a need for new leadership when in fact the need is to increase the number of authentic leaders, not only in business but in government, religion, and the military. We need more men and women who "genuinely desire to serve others through their leadership...are more interested in empowering the people they lead to make a difference than they are in power, money, or prestige for themselves. They are as guided by qualities of the heart, by passion and compassion, as they are by qualities of the mind."

George invites, indeed urges his reader to "rediscover the secrets of creating lasting value" in literally all areas of contemporary life. On page 6, he poses a series of questions and then in the 17 chapters and Epilogue which follow, he responds to each. However insightful those responses may be, and they are, I think the primary purpose of the questions is to guide and inform each reader's consideration of the various issues which those questions suggest. With all due respect to what George so generously shares from his own life and career, the nature and extent of the reader's own engagement in self-exploration will ultimately determine the value of this book.

The material is exceptionally well-organized. The quality of writing is first-rate, and especially effective because of the conversational tone of George's observations and suggestions. Although there are frequent references in this book to "companies," the questions posed and the issues associated with them are also directly relevant to all other organizations (regardless of size or nature) in which there is a compelling need for authentic leaders. Daily, it seems, there is evidence of such need in news accounts of corruption in all areas of our society. Corporate executives are indicted and convicted of fraud. Officers in the military are demoted, discharged or, in some instances, imprisoned as are clergy in various denominations. Although the reasons for their behavior vary, all of them betrayed the trust of those to whom they were accountable and for whom they were responsible.

Authentic leaders are first and foremost authentic human beings. For me, this is George's key point and because it seems so obvious, it may also seem simplistic. On the contrary, he has cut through all the rhetoric and urges his reader to examine her or his core values. For most of us, that is an immensely difficult, perhaps painful experience. In this context, I am reminded of the fact that in The Inferno, Dante reserved the last and worst ring in hell for those who, in a moral crisis, preserve their neutrality. Throughout all manner of organizations, there are women and men who are authentic leaders and should be commended. The reality is, their respective organizations need more of them. More to the point, all of us in our global community need more of them. In his unique and compelling book, George challenges us to join their number.

Insightful!
Few companies got more marketing mileage out of their culture than Medtronic. Its former CEO, author Bill George, is proud of his company's squeaky clean corporate record. Despite all the clichés he may muster, despite his occasional preachiness, perhaps no CEO has written a more lucid or insightful series of reflections on the challenge of managing a corporation in twentieth century America. Read this book and you will learn some obvious lessons and some new ones: that leaders should be honest, that they will be tempted to cut corners in pursuit of short term profits but really ought to resist that temptation, that devotion to customers is at least as important as devotion to shareholders (provided you make your numbers every quarter) and that managers at Enron and WorldCom did the wrong thing, but we can learn a lesson from them. We acknowledge that Bill George may be as close as American executive ranks have come to producing a moral philosopher.

There is a better way to lead:Ethical Leadership
This book describes timeless leadership principles by a man who, as he writes, has spent his entire life learning and working to become a better leader.

Bill George has written an inspiring book for all who aspire to be good leaders.He states his case for authentic leadership: values centered and performance oriented, using a candid and open style. He writes about his many experiences in a leadership role: as CEO of Medtronic, and with Litton, and Honeywell - describing challenges leaders face and how they deal with them.

Personally, I like to read and understand more about leadership - what is being a good, effective leader.This book appeals to me because it seems to confirm what I feel is important about being a good business leader:"Good leaders are people of the highest integrity, true to their core values, with the courage to build enduring organizations to meet the needs of all their stakeholders, and who recognize the importance of their service to society" (Bill George, slightly re-written).

Editorial Review

Disciplines like strategy, leadership development, and innovation are the sexier aspects of being at the helm of a successful business; actually getting things done never seems quite as glamorous. But as Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan demonstrate in Execution, the ultimate difference between a company and its competitor is, in fact, the ability to execute.

Reviews (7)

Overview of Entrepreneurship
"The Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship" is a very thorough introduction to the entire process of entrepreneurship and business formation. New entrepreneurs will find articles by various entrepreneurs and scholars of entrepreneurship that cover marketing, finance, venture capital, writing a business plan, and many other topics.

"The Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship" also notes many interesting aspects of entrepreneurship as it relates to the broader economy. It is pointed out that throughout the 1980's, for example, that only 5% of all the companies accounted for 77% of the new jobs in the U.S. Such information is interesting and it helps us understand the broader issues of entrepreneurship.

Although much of this academic information about entrepreneurship is not practically useful to new entrepreneurs who are building and growing companies, it does make for some interesting reading. Nor is "The Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship" a thorough analysis of successful businesses. It is not a business case study book.

The chapter about Market Opportunites and Marketing by Gerald E. Hills is especially good reading for people contemplating starting a business.

While this is a very good book, if I were going to teach a class in entrepreneurship (and assuming students wanted a more hands-on introduction to building a company), I'd use "The Entrepreneur's Fieldbook" by John Vinturella.

Peter Hupalo, Author of "Thinking Like An Entrepreneur"