The full title of the book by Carol O’Connor is
Business Health Check: Identify Symptoms of Business Ill-health and Build a Lasting Structure for Growth
In my review posted at Amazon.co.uk, I gave it 3 Stars.
Here is my review.
A nice idea but it could have been much better
This book is designed to help entrepreneurs and owners of small businesses to identify the symptoms of business ill-health and build a lasting structure for growth.
The author has identified eight management areas essential to business success and these are:.
1 – Vision and planning
2 – Commitment to quality
3 – Leadership
4 – Decision making
5 – Finance
6 – Marketing
7 – Communication
8 – Information Technology
There is little justification about why these eight items are so important and they relate more to the management skills of the small business owner than characteristics of the business itself.
Each management essential has ten statements to be answered on a yes/no basis with a yes flagging up an issue. The more you score, the higher the number of issues in the business. I have issues with the black or white, yes or no answers required. Life is shades of grey and the health check doesn’t recognise this.
If you go through the checklist you will identify issues which need to be fixed and the third section of the book introduces you to ideas about what to do. Unfortunately it is only an introduction as it runs to a little over 100 pages.
While it would be nice to have more details, the individual sections are easy to read. They don’t clearly relate to the business health check issues identified. I would have liked this section to have looked in more detail at the problem caused, the implications and what could be done about it.
I rate this as a three star book. It has good points and I am in favour of anything which encourages entrepreneurs and small business owners to assess their business and consider areas for improvement. However the concept is under-developed. It could have been much better and more useful to the target market.
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