The full title of this book by Verne Harnish is
“Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It…and Why the Rest Don’t“.
In my review at Amazon.co.uk, I rated it as a FOUR Stars book, meaning that I think its in the range of good to very good.
Here is what I posted.
How you can grow past the normal constraints on growth
This is an interesting book which looks at how you can push past the constraints which stop most businesses from growing.
It’s split into four sections – people, strategy, execution and cash.
I started reading it and throughout the People section, I was convinced this was going to be a five star book but, the more I read, the more I was tempted to knock off one star.
The book points to many other books as key resources and many of these will need to be read if you’re going to be able to implement the outline ideas in this book. You’re even sent to read articles by the author on the Internet. Little effort is made to summarise the key points of what there is to be gained. I read a lot of business books and this has encouraged me to add quite a few more to my library and others to my wish-list, which I’ll consider getting if the topics become particularly relevant or if I see the books available cheaply. However as a stand-alone read, it’s very frustrating.
The book points you at a website where you can download the forms to apply the system which is helpful if you don’t mind form-filling. Personally I have a resistance to forms and an irritation that the space to desired contents ratio is normally wrong. I find it can inhibit creative thinking as you’re reduced to box filling but it does help ensure completeness.
I sometimes use forms in my business coaching with clients and I see the same problems where glib answers are given to fill in the boxes.
Despite these comments, this is a very informative book and extremely useful for business owners and managers when the business has passed through the early stages of growth. I feel it’s more suitable for businesses with thirty employees or more rather than two or three employees.
For smaller businesses, take a good look at Double Your Business by my friend Lee Duncan. All those 5 stars in the reviews aren’t wrong.
It is available to buy from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.
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