100 Great Businesses and the Minds Behind Them [Paperback]

Emily Ross (Author), Angus Holland (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2005

Inside the success of 100 Business Geniuses

Risk-loving entrepreneurs. Innovative geniuses. Self-starters and mavericks. The world's greatest businesses were built by unique people, each bringing their own style and savvy to the marketplace.

100 Great Businesses and the Minds Behind Them is a diverse and inspiring collections of great business stories. Covering a variety of success paths, brilliant strategies and engaging entrepreneurs, each profile explores the genius behind the greatest business minds:

o A mother's inspiration that launched Baby Einstein
o Aveda's journey from hippie to hip
o How Guinness overcame a centuries-old problem to conquer new markets
o TiVo's long fight to explain the genius of their product
o How Oprah went from person to empire
o And many more


An engrossing look at what makes entrepreneurs and business geniuses tick, this book highlights the pivotal moments in the lives of great businesses, with lasting lesson on the art of making your business a success.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Emily Ross and Angus Holland's 100 Great Businesses and the Minds Behind Them was devised in Melbourne, Australia, where they both live and work.
Emily Ross is a senior writer with the country's leading national business magazine, BRW. She specializes in leadership, innovation, and entreprenuership. Angus Holland is a senior editor with The Age newspaper.
Between then they have lived in Abu Dhabi, Honk Kong, Kuwait, London, Lantau Island, Milan, Paris, Mauritius, Qatar, Singapore, and Tokyo. They live in Melbourne with their two children.

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Sourcebooks (December 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1402206313
• ISBN-13: 978-1402206313
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #88,846 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enough to make you an esoteric in parties!, September 18, 2006

By 

Wong Tony (Hong Kong) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 100 Great Businesses and the Minds Behind Them (Paperback)

Never the original purpose of the authors, this book enables you to have dialogs with anyone you meet in any business gathering. It's 100 books on successful brands combined. I like it because typical books on single brands' success "stories" are mostly written by the non-founders. They all end up sitting somewhere on your bookshelf, unfinished, because of the unnecessary (and mostly dull) details plus the authors' second-guesses of the founders' original intents.

On the contrary, this book is written in a reporter's perspective, with no "MSG" added. Covering all the big brands and a few you don't (or I don't) know. Though each brand has only 3 to 4 pages of coverage, it has all you want to know plus some uncommon interesting details even for common brands. Perfect preachers for "Less is more".

Indeed, who on earth today is interested in 800-page details of one single brand while 777 of them are only author's views of the founder's?

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Lacking Insight, March 19, 2006

By 

Ron Padzensky (Deerfield, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 100 Great Businesses and the Minds Behind Them (Paperback)

If you're lookiing for valuable insight into how great businesses were conceived and executed this is not the book for you. Each business is given only a few pages of what essentially amounts to fluff. Most of the information is anecdotal in nature and rarely goes beyond the sort of superficial treatment one might get in People magazine. The articles reminded me of something a high school student might turn in as a short essay assignment. The roster of companies chosen is rather suspect. There is disproportionate representation by the cosmetics and fashion industries. I think that every company that sells makeup is covered here. Many of the other selections are some of the more glamorous and obvious success stories. C'mon, we ALL know the MicroSoft story by now. I was also puzzled by the lack of variety in the writing. Time and time again profit is referred to as "turnover", going public is referred to as "floating", a line of products is called a "range" -- was this book edited? I cannot recommend this book for business persons. It may be appropriate for a young person who has not been exposed to these canned legends before.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiration, July 27, 2006

By 

Amy Monty "Amy" (Maroubra, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 100 Great Businesses and the Minds Behind Them (Paperback)

In all my years of scouring the bookshops and newsagencies for books to assist my dream to think up the ideal business I have never seen a better book. I loved reading about totally different products and think that they all came from the minds of very ordinary people.