September Nomination – Tickover or Takeoff: How to build a multimillion pound business
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2 thoughts on “September Nomination – Tickover or Takeoff: How to build a multimillion pound business”
I’m a bit behind this month, so haven’t finished this book yet, but wanted to capture some initial impressions. Firstly I love the title of the book, but am a bit wary of the concept. I actually know personally a number of the entrepreneurs profiled, and for lots of them the decisions they make and the way the behave appears instinctual, I am intrigued to see if this book manages to get beyond this. For this book to have real take-away value, I’ll want to feel like I have learned something transferable that I can apply to my own business…. I’ll report back!
Really enjoyed the structure of this book – liked that the first half talked about the entrepreneurs in terms of themes – and loved that the book gave ideas and tools to help apply some of this to your own business. The second half gave mini biogs of the featured entrepreneurs.
There did seem to be quite a bit of repetiton between the two sections – so I suspect reading one or the other might give you most of the information.
In the themed chapter, I particularly enjoyed the sales chapters- which is unusual for me – you know how I like to pick holes in sales books. Less surprisingly I wasn’t impressed by the chapter on goal setting – especially as it presented as “evidence” a myth from harvard business school, which the author admitted to having checked and confirmed it was a myth! Can’t help thinking that if this approach were as widely supported by the science as people seem to think it is, it wouldn’t have been hard to find a reliable “real” example.
Overall I think it’s always interesting to hear stories about how people have suceeded – and that is the approach taken here (and in next month’s chosen book). However, interview-based books rely on the information which is shared by the interviewees, and on their retrospective view on what they did and how. For some of the people featured here I’ve heard very different accounts of some of the same events from other people involved. I doubt their version is gospel either- but it points to the issue when it comes to drawing lessons from such information…. anec-data can be a bit skewed in favour of the recounter!
I’m a bit behind this month, so haven’t finished this book yet, but wanted to capture some initial impressions. Firstly I love the title of the book, but am a bit wary of the concept. I actually know personally a number of the entrepreneurs profiled, and for lots of them the decisions they make and the way the behave appears instinctual, I am intrigued to see if this book manages to get beyond this. For this book to have real take-away value, I’ll want to feel like I have learned something transferable that I can apply to my own business…. I’ll report back!
OK, I’ve finished now!
Really enjoyed the structure of this book – liked that the first half talked about the entrepreneurs in terms of themes – and loved that the book gave ideas and tools to help apply some of this to your own business. The second half gave mini biogs of the featured entrepreneurs.
There did seem to be quite a bit of repetiton between the two sections – so I suspect reading one or the other might give you most of the information.
In the themed chapter, I particularly enjoyed the sales chapters- which is unusual for me – you know how I like to pick holes in sales books. Less surprisingly I wasn’t impressed by the chapter on goal setting – especially as it presented as “evidence” a myth from harvard business school, which the author admitted to having checked and confirmed it was a myth! Can’t help thinking that if this approach were as widely supported by the science as people seem to think it is, it wouldn’t have been hard to find a reliable “real” example.
Overall I think it’s always interesting to hear stories about how people have suceeded – and that is the approach taken here (and in next month’s chosen book). However, interview-based books rely on the information which is shared by the interviewees, and on their retrospective view on what they did and how. For some of the people featured here I’ve heard very different accounts of some of the same events from other people involved. I doubt their version is gospel either- but it points to the issue when it comes to drawing lessons from such information…. anec-data can be a bit skewed in favour of the recounter!