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41 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
more about sam than the brewery, March 2, 2007
This review is from: Brewing Up a Business: Adventures in Entrepreneurship from the Founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery (Hardcover)
The book is well named - its more about entrepreneurship, and not very much about the beer industry, and frankly, its about Sam, and Sam's business, and what Sam thinks about Sam's business. There is a great deal about Sam's incredibly brilliant product strategy - and it **is** a brilliant product strategy!
If you are interested in the brewing industry / business, there is not so much here.
The book is entertaining although not that informative, and reads like many new age business books. The founder has been tremendously successful. Suggest "beer school" if you want to learn about critical factors in brewing industry.
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35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Dogfish Head Recipe for Success, September 16, 2006
This review is from: Brewing Up a Business: Adventures in Entrepreneurship from the Founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery (Hardcover)
I am a big fan of Dogfish Head beer and when I found out that brewer and entrepreneur Sam Calagione wrote a book about his company I was anxious to read it to see if Calagione had any interesting tips on the business of brewing and how he has made the Dogfish Head brand practically a household name among both beer geeks and beer critics. What I discovered with this book is that Sam Calagione has some good advice to offer brewing/restaurant entrepreneurs and others who have a pressing urge to start their own company. He has tried many different things, and his penchant for the unusual has proven to be a great success and it forms the backbone of his business.
Calagione spends the majority of this book discussing Dogfish Head Brewing from the early days of formation all the way to the point of maturity. He talks about his own business model and how it has helped transform his company. He talks about everything from innovation to employee morale to profit sharing to community involvement. He shows how his model of success has worked for his type of business and how the same model can be applied to other types of businesses as well.
This book see- saws back and forth between business guide and autobiography but it leans more toward the business side of the equation. Calagione frequently offers up his own company as an example of which business tactics work and which do not. Calagione has achieved a great deal of success but he has the humility to admit that he has also made his share of mistakes. He points these out in the book where appropriate, showing how a misstep here and a miscalculation there added up to exponential problems down the road and what you, the fledgling business owner, can do to avoid making the same mistakes.
Sam Calagione offers some good, basic advice on starting and running a successful company. His writing style is easy to read and his approach to business is a little different from other books of the same genre. Business books can often get boring and tedious to read but this one manages to keep the reader's attention through its simplicity and its personable style. It can get a little bit repetitive from time to time but the advice offered is generally sound and what Calagione says makes good sense. Also, one needs to keep in mind that this book is intended more as a business book for a newly minted entrepreneur. More experienced professional will not find very much useful here. Its targeted audience is the new or soon- to- be- new- small business owner.
One small disappointment with this book is that it's a business guide more than anything else. The reason I say this is because I was hoping to find out more about the man behind Shelter Pale Ale and Chicory Stout and not just a book about starting and running a company. Calagione does share a few personal moments from his past, like his expulsion from private school; his passion for beer; the role his wife has played in his success; etc. But other than this, the book is more about business than anything else.
"Brewing up a Business" is, overall, a good book for the budding entrepreneur and for beer geeks of all stripes and colors. Sam Calagione writes well and he offers up a good deal of humor to keep the book from getting too serious. He has achieved a great deal of success with his Dogfish Head Brewing Company and he wants to share this success with small business owners everywhere. With the right passion, innovation, and drive, a small company can achieve greatness and Sam Calagione is a tribute to this fact.
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14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Beer Moments are Good but the Business Aspects are So-So, December 31, 2005
This review is from: Brewing Up a Business: Adventures in Entrepreneurship from the Founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery (Hardcover)
I remember waiting in a long line for a 2oz sample of the Worldwide Stout. As a beer fan, I recognize the creativity and richness of Dogfish Head's products whether it be 90 Minute IPA, Raison De'tre or Festiva Lentina. There are quite a few beers I still need to get my hands on.
If this book was limited to the description of the history of the company and its marketing strategies, I'd give it 5 stars. They are clearly experts at creating products their niche group of customers want and are adept at limiting qualities to create more demand. The description of "Randall the Enamel Animal" and stories of bottles exploding because the corks were to large definately appeal to beer geek crowd I belong to.
Where it falls short is when Calagione offers his advice on how to brew up a business. The resiliency he has shown by learning from mistakes is inspiring as well as the dedication he shows to his customers and workers. The emphasis on had work is similarly admirable. But the how to start and run a business tips are pretty straightforward and do not add much to already established mantras.
I like how he used Buddhism to describe how he is focused more on the doing than the materialistic aims of business. He admits to being somewhat ADD, and like the ADD nature of the book, he jumps to this idea but then jumps to another one. The book gets repititive at times as it repeats the ideas of catering to customers and workers over and over as if readers need conversion. The "We at Dogfish Head" sentences get a bit preachy sometimes. Also, Calagione should take into account that not each reader will be involved in business. "Your business" is repeated frequently.
For those who know nothing about a business, the descriptions of what forms a company's value, how a board operates, and how to reward employees can be helpful. But there is nothing really advanced here other than practical tips. It is also sketchy how Calagione got the money to start his business. The book jumps from Calagione having a successful home brew at a party with Ricki Lake to his company already being started. Until he provided some details near the end, I consistently wondered how he paid for the startup.
Clearly, the book is directed towards people interested in business but it is more effective when it tackles topics beer geeks like myself want to read about. The business aspects are a bit preachy and I'm not sure the "oft centered" crowd wants to hear Lee Iacocca or Donald Trump speak. We want the humorous tales, the struggles and the beer.
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