by Paul Simister
on May 28, 2015
The full title of this book by Rita Gunther McGrath is
The End of Competitive Advantage: How to Keep Your Strategy Moving as Fast as Your Business
In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave the book Two Stars.
Here is my review.
Old wine in a new bottle
I had high hopes of this book as I was interested to find out how the author could justify the argument of how the old ways of strategic planning were wrong and that she had a new play-book for dealing with a world of continuous change.
I was left disappointed. [continue reading…]
by Paul Simister
on May 26, 2015
The full title of this book by Nicholas Bate is
How to sell and market your way out of this recession and get your business buzzing like never before (even though your customers don’t want to know!)
In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave the book Three Stars. This means Worthwhile.
Here is my book review.
This is a short book of practical tips with the emphasis very much on selling rather than marketing.
It is a general sales book written for you to read quickly without any unnecessary fluff. It has some additional sections added to identify priorities in difficult times.
Each chapter also has short tips for applying some of the ideas mentioned to particular types of small business e.g. a green grocer, tailors, consultancy etc which I think helps to a) think they you can do it and b) see other businesses doing the similar things. If you’ve read other sales books, you won’t find much new here but it’s a good refresher and it emphasises the urgency of taking action quickly. [continue reading…]
by Paul Simister
on May 23, 2015
The full title of this book by Robert Kaplan and David Norton is
The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action
In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave it Three Stars.
Here is my review.
Sensible idea backed by brilliant marketing.
Back in the early 1990s I was thinking a lot about performance measurement in a manufacturing business and I wanted to reflect more non-financial factors that provided a more balanced view and cascaded our main business objectives down the organisation.
When I read the book I found that the authors shared many of the same ideas as I did. This was no surprise when much of it is common sense when you take the time and trouble to think about it. The problem at that time was few people were really thinking beyond financial measures and a few productivity based volume metrics.
What they did, that I didn’t, was 1) come up with a catchy name and 2) swing a brilliant marketing campaign behind it.
The strength is that when this is explained, it all seems so logical. Of course you need to link KPI to your strategic objectives with a good balance of leading measures that predict future performance with the all important, but lagging, financial numbers.
The weakness is that it’s much harder to do in practice. There’s a cost involved in measuring and reporting anything and the value of monitoring has to come from corrective and supporting actions.
The balanced scorecard has gone on to be extremely popular with big companies and the logic of a balanced set of performance metrics needs to be rippled down into the independently owned SMEs. While this book began it all, there are better books that update the ideas and give you a clearer idea of how to implement eg Paul Niven’s book “Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step: Maximizing Performance and Maintaining Results“.
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by Paul Simister
on May 22, 2015
In my review of
Developing Meaningful Key Performance Indicators
by Clive Keyte posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave it Three Stars.
Here is my review.
A useful introduction without going into too much detail
Key performance indicators are important but it’s a hard subject to make interesting when you’re writing about it.
The author provides a seven step methodology for creating a set of KPIs for a business based on its objectives. Overall for a low cost book, I thought that it was good effort with plenty of sensible advice which starts with setting objectives. [continue reading…]
by Paul Simister
on May 22, 2015
The full title of this book by Donald Gusfa, Kenneth Gusfra and Daniel Stanley is
The Balanced Scorecard: A Practical Primer To Enhance Your Performance Through Strategic Goals
In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave it Two Stars.
Here is my review.
Disappointing
I firmly believe in the idea of encouraging small businesses to develop a well balanced set of performances linked to their strategic objectives.
The balanced scored, as developed by Robert Kaplan and David Norton, is such an approach. [continue reading…]
by Paul Simister
on May 21, 2015
In my review of
Strategic Positioning with Strategimetric Profiles
by Stuart Cook posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave it One Star.
Here is my review
Very tedious
I rarely give up on business books and especially books about strategy for smaller businesses.
Unfortunately I did with this one because it’s so keen to push the PDQ Strategy (TM) brand and it is written in a very tedious style. [continue reading…]
by Paul Simister
on May 18, 2015
The full title of this book by Alexander Osterwalder et al is
Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want
In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave it 3 Stars.
Here is my review.
It might make your head hurt…
This is a very stylish book, starting with the front and back covers which show the effects of good and bad value proposition designs respectively. It also includes access to online templates and exercises.
It is a follow-up to their earlier book Business Model Generation.
Does the style overwhelm the substance? [continue reading…]
by Paul Simister
on May 17, 2015
The full title of this book by Dave Berkus is
Positioning for Success: Insights for finding your business niche – from a master entrepreneur
In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk I gave it Three Stars. This means Worthwhile.
Here is my review.
Tales of real world experience
The author writes as someone who has seen it and done it over the last 50 years as an angel investor and venture capitalist. [continue reading…]
by Paul Simister
on May 16, 2015
In my review posted of
USP: How To Craft Your Unique Selling Proposition
by Tara Jacobsen and Rebekah Welch posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave it Three Stars.
Here is my review.
More focused on elevator pitches than an authentic, differentiating USP.
Working out how you can differentiate yourself from your competitors and communicate it to the customers is very important. Since this is an area of particular interest to me, I’m working my way around all the books.
This book takes quite a while to really get going and then produces a number of fill in the gaps phrases formulas to create what I think is much more of an elevator pitch than a USP although the two are linked. [continue reading…]
by Paul Simister
on May 15, 2015
The full title of this book by Jalanda James is
Unique Selling Proposition Formulas For Positioning Your Small Business
In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave it Three Stars.
Here is my review.
Interesting review of approaches to create USPs
I’m fascinated by how businesses differentiate themselves from competitors and how they communicate their differences to their potential customers.
I welcome this short, low cost book which sets out four formulas for creating a USP although it’s fairer to say that these are approaches rather than an X + Y style “fill in the blanks” formulas. [continue reading…]
