Customer Reviews

The Ultimate Book of Business Breakthroughs: Lessons from the 20 Greatest Business Decisions Ever Made

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Most books written by successful business leaders are a combination of history and vanity. The history is adapted to suit the writers theme and the vanity can often obscure the lessons to be learnt from what the writer has achieved. This book manages to avoid both pitfalls by just looking at twenty decisions which have actually made a difference to the companies concerned. Some, almost by definition, are more relevant than others and some will already be familiar to readers. We all know the Ford story but the argument over the marketing name for the Sony Walkman will give confidence to many internet pioneers (perhaps including Amazon) who worry about the gramatical purity of the name they have chosen for their site. Some of the chapters will, at first sight, seem out of place. Was the decision to make the James Bond movies a business decision or a bit of artistic good luck? Professor Cannon shows that it was the former and how belief in a project can carry things forward to the point of success. The story of the Co-operative movement in Britain will probably be unfamiliar to US readers but it is an intriguing contrast to the stories on individual enterprise. Some of the chapters are a bit short but the excellent bibliography for each chapter will be extremely helpful to those who want to know more about a particular story. This is not a textbook for MBA students to learn by rote. It is light and easy to read and will appeal not just to managers wanting to gain lessons from the successes of the last two centuries but also to anyone who wants to know how many of the standard products which we now take for granted came to be in our homes. It's the sort of book we will be getting down from the bookcase in ten years time to settle an argument or to remind ourselves that determination is the basis of all success

I haven't bought whole bunch of business book but I can still tell this is one of the gem. The stories spawn through Silicon Valley to Henry Ford to McDonalds. The stressing point of each story is the decisions they tool which made them a huge success. Along the way you also get to know the way they confronted to problems, chances they decided to take and some highlights of the inner working of these organizations. This is extremely valuable text to learn lessons from the history. This compact readable book is a definite keeper on the shelves of any entrepreneur.