Starting your own business: the best books. If you're a hesitant first-time entrepreneur, here are some great books to get you through those anxious early days... The number of UK start-ups hasn't deviated much for years. Generally, business birth rates (the number of new companies created in Britain each year) hover somewhere between ten and, in a good year, 13 per cent of overall enterprise numbers.
So recent figures from StartUp Britain, showing a ten per cent 2012 spike to 484,224 new businesses, are a welcome anomaly – at least, welcome to those who want to run their own business. For many first-time entrepreneurs (aka “rightsized” employees), the prospect of starting a new business is terrifying. But, as investor-entrepreneur Luke Johnson says, “nothing saps ambition quite like a steady income”. So how do you give yourself the best chance of success? Countless books offer advice to first-time entrepreneurs.
My favourite personal pep-talk is Start it Up: Why Running your own Business is Easier than you Think, by Luke Johnson. The best business books of all time. Shareholders don’t necessarily expect their chief executives to spend time reading business books. Thinking about business, yes. Doing business, definitely. But reading about it? Picture Jeff Immelt, General Electric’s chief executive, settling down for a couple of hours with Barbarians at the Gate, the 1990 classic narrative about the buy-out of RJR Nabisco. Or Lakshmi Mittal, head of ArcelorMittal, dissecting Built to Last, the Jim Collins/Jerry Porras analysis of the world’s most durable visionary companies. It sounds at best a waste of their time, at worst a dereliction of duty: “Hold the mega-merger – I’m just finishing the chapter on leadership.”
Yet a Financial Times’ straw poll of a range of top global executives, entrepreneurs and experts revealed that most had found at least one business book – including the books above, recommended by Mr Immelt and Mr Mittal – particularly useful, even inspiring. Still, there were some thought-provoking selections. William C. Byham. William C. Byham (born September 14, 1936) is an American entrepreneur, author and organizational psychologist. Overview[edit] Bill Byham, co-founder (with Dr. Douglas Bray), chairman and CEO of Development Dimensions International (DDI) is an industrial organizational psychologist who has developed a number of human resource technologies over the course of his career. These innovations include the assessment center method, behavior-based interviewing, the use of behavior modeling in supervisor and management training, behavioral job analysis methodology as the basis for selection and training programs, and acceleration pools to rapidly prepare select people for high-level leadership positions.
Byham earned a Ph.D. in Industrial Organizational Psychology from Purdue University where he also received an honorary doctorate degree in Social Sciences. He earned a M.S. and B.S. from Ohio University. Byham founded DDI in the basement of his home in 1970. Innovation[edit] Behavioral Modeling. Good to Great. The book was a massive bestseller, selling four million copies and going far beyond the traditional audience of business books.[1] Writing[edit] Collins used a large team of researchers who studied "6,000 articles, generated more than 2,000 pages of interview transcripts and created 384 megabytes of computer data in a five-year project".[2] Seven characteristics of companies that went from "good to great"[edit] Level 5 Leadership: Leaders who are humble, but driven to do what's best for the company.First Who, Then What: Get the right people on the bus, then figure out where to go.
Finding the right people and trying them out in different positions.Confront the Brutal Facts: The Stockdale paradox—Confront the brutal truth of the situation, yet at the same time, never give up hope.Hedgehog Concept: Three overlapping circles: What lights your fire ("passion")? What could you be best in the world at ("best at")? Great companies[edit] Response[edit] Steven D. See also[edit] Reviews[edit] Kjell A. Nordström. Kjell Anders Nordström (born 26 February 1958) is a Swedish economist, writer and public speaker.[1] Biography[edit] Born in Skärholmen, a suburban district in southern Stockholm, Nordström grew up on a small island in the Finnish Åland archipelago. His parents returned to Sweden in the 1960s. He was first educated as an engineer and thereafter commenced studies at the Stockholm School of Economics where he earned a Ph.D. in 1991.
Until 2004 he was an Assistant Professor at the Institute of International Business (IIB) at the Stockholm School of Economics. Today, Nordström and Ridderstråle works as professional public speakers in the field of strategic management. Work[edit] In 2000 the book Funky Business - Talent Makes Capital Dance, which was written by Kjell A. In 2003, the follow-up Karaoke Capitalism - Management for Mankind, also written together with Jonas Ridderstråle, was published. Publications[edit] Vahlne, Jan-Erik, and Kjell A. References[edit] External links[edit] Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco. Those opposed to Johnson's bid for the company, Henry Kravis and his cousin George R. Roberts, were among the pioneers of the leveraged buyout.
Kravis was the first person Johnson talked to about doing the LBO, and feels betrayed after learning that Johnson wants to do the deal with another firm, American Express's former Shearson Lehman Hutton division. Ted Forstmann and his Forstmann Little buyout firm also played a prominent role. After Kravis and Johnson are unable to reconcile their differences, a bidding war takes place which Johnson will eventually lose. The unfortunate side effect of the augmented buyout price to the shareholders is the creation of a worrying level of debt for the company.
Important personalities[edit] Film adaptation[edit] Publishing information[edit] Burrough, Bryan; Helyar, John (1990). References[edit] External links[edit] [ Book review] by David P. The PayPal Wars. The PayPal Wars: Battles with eBay, the Media, the Mafia, and the Rest of Planet Earth (2004) is a book by former PayPal marketing executive Eric M.
Jackson. Description[edit] The PayPal Wars is an insider's perspective on the people and events that helped create the company and its acquisition by eBay in 2002. The book recounts PayPal's clashes with lawyers, regulators, and the Mafia.[1] It also provides background information on PayPal's battles with the Google Checkout payments system.[2] Many of PayPal's founding employees went on to start other companies like LinkedIn, YouTube, and Yelp, Inc.,[3] they would be known as the PayPal Mafia. Critical reception[edit] The PayPal Wars received awards and acclaim for its writing style and personal narrative. Editions[edit] The PayPal Wars: Battles with eBay, the Media, the Mafia, and the Rest of Planet Earth, World Ahead Publishing, ISBN 0-9746701-0-3 References[edit]
Justin Fox. Justin Fox (born January 28, 1964) is an American financial journalist, commentator, and writer born in Morristown, New Jersey. He is the editorial director of the Harvard Business Review Group[1] and business and economics columnist for Time magazine.[2] He graduated from Princeton University and has worked for Fortune magazine,[3] The Birmingham News, and American Banker. His book, The Myth of the Rational Market, published by HarperCollins, traces the rise of the efficient-market hypothesis. It was a New York Times Notable Book of 2009[4] and was named the best business book of the year by Amazon.com.[5] He is a commentator on PBS's Nightly Business report.[6] He is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. He was awarded the 2001 Business Journalist of the Year Award for writing about technology.[7] Bibliography[edit] Books[edit] Fox, Justin (2009).
Articles[edit] References[edit] External links[edit] Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award. Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award is an annual award given to the best business book of the year as determined by the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs. It aims to find the book that has ‘the most compelling and enjoyable insight into modern business issues.’[1] The award was established in 2005 and is worth GB£30,000. Beginning in 2010, five short-listed authors each receive GB£10,000, previously it was GB£5,000.[2] Winners and shortlist[edit] Blue Ribbon ( ) = winner The shortlist was announced 20 September 2005,[5] and the winner announced 24 November 2005.[6] The shortlist was announced 18 September 2006,[8] and the winner announced 27 October 2006.[9] The shortlist was announced 25 September 2007,[10] and the winner announced 25 October 2007.[11] The shortlist was announced 18 September 2008 and the winner announced 14 October 2008.[12][13] Abhijit V.
The shortlist was announced on 13 September 2012.[28] The winner was announced on 2 November 2012.[29][30]