March 2017

The full title of this book by Csaba Babak is

Beer Means Business: Economics and Marketing in the UK Brewing Industry

In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave the book Three Stars, meaning it is Worthwhile.

Here is my book review.

A wide-ranging review of the UK beer industry

I found the book hard to read, in the beginning, as it’s written in the peculiar language of “MBA-speak”, with long sentences with complicated words, too often saying obvious things. I got used to the style but reading it wasn’t a pleasure.

It is a wide-ranging review of the UK beer industry focusing on the growth of craft beers. It is not a book about how to succeed by using clever strategies and tactics.

If you don’t know much about the industry but for some reason feel drawn to it, you may find it helpful. However it is written at a high level and could be much more informative. For example, it mentions various trends but doesn’t back up the claims with statistics, tables and graphs. Nor does it highlight any examples of interesting practices by naming breweries and their innovations.

Even after reading it, I’m not sure of the purpose of the book. For an outsider, it is interesting but I’m not sure that anyone who wants to start a brewery will get much from it.

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Get To Know Me

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David Ogilvy is a legendary advertising man, one of the original “mad men”. he’s the author of the books Ogilvy On Advertising and Confessions of an Advertising Man.

This 4 minute video, produced by Adweek includes some of the classic quotes from Ogilvy. A highly recommended way to spend a few minutes.

Get To Know Me

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The full title of this book by Marty McDonald is

Great Beer Is Not Enough: How Social Media Can Create Raving Fans & Increase Consumer Demand

In my review posted at Amazon.co.uk, I gave the book Three Stars, this means Worthwhile.

Here is my book review.

Interesting but too promotional

This book is written by the owner of a social media marketing business specialising in the craft beer industry (along with others) in America. He thinks that you should outsource your social media activities.

The message is about building a community and, in particular a local community. It therefore gives very different advice compared to the BrewDog book which took an international view of its market opportunities. Of course local in the USA is different to local in the UK because of the huge distances involved when you get away from the seaboards. [continue reading…]

In recent years, I haven’t done much blogging but I’m intending to get back into the habit of writing two or three articles a week, as well as continually to be a prolific business book reviewer on Amazon.co.uk.

I’ll be blogging in two places, here on my Business Development Advice website and also on my business strategy blog, Differentiate Your Business.

Last week I wrote an article on DYB that looked at adding customer value by taking away something taken for granted.

It was inspired by newspaper articles on the topic of naked house cleaning. Yes customers were paying £45 an hour to have (not surprisingly) a young woman clean their houses in the nude. And not surprisingly, most of the customers were men!. [continue reading…]

The full title of this book by Ross Cameron is

Stock Market Price Moving Averages: How to Use Moving Averages Effectively for Trading Strategies

In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave the book Three Stars, which means Worthwhile.

Here is my book review.

A helpful introduction

The book starts by explaining the difference between simple moving averages and exponential moving averages and how the length helps indicate short or long term trends. [continue reading…]

The full title of this book by Eugene Rembor is

Turnaround and Crisis Management: Managing Quick, Dramatic and Sustainable Turnaround in a Crisis

In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave this book Three Stars, meaning it is Worthwhile.

Here is my book review.

Mixed feelings

I have mixed feelings about this book.

It suddenly inserts lists of points without any introduction into the text. The lists are useful but they jar with the narrative. [continue reading…]