The Bear Necessities of Business: Building a Company with Heart (Hardcover)

~ Maxine Clark (Author), Amy Joyner (Contributor) "People often ask how I was able to take the rough idea for Build-A-Bear Workshop and turn it into such a successful business..." (more)
Key Phrases: share your passion, core customer, core user, Build-A-Bear Workshop, Saint Louis, World Bearquarters (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"... it’s well structured so that people can easily dip in and out. Worth reading whatever your line of business." (The Guardian, September 2006)

"The advice is excellent and easily transferable." (Professional Manager, Octobebr 2006)

Product Description

Build-A-Bear Workshop® is one of the most successful retailing concepts in recent history. Starting with just one location in 1997, the company now operates more than 200 stores worldwide.

Leading the way is Maxine Clark, the company's founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Bear. Clark is widely recognized as one of the nation's leading and most creative entrepreneurs. In The Bear Necessities of Business, she reveals how she built this amazing global business from the ground up, while arming you with the tools you need to start, run, and market your own company in today's tough competitive environment. While primarily drawing on real-life experiences from Build-A-Bear Workshop®, Clark also offers wisdom gained throughout her entire thirty-plus-year career, including lessons and examples from some of the other great companies that do so much right.

Straightforward and accessible, The Bear Necessities of Business is divided into seven parts, each built around an essential element that will allow you to stand apart from the crowd. The short, accessible chapters show you everything you need to:

• Get your business started
• Become a great boss
• Connect with your customers
• Add value to the overall experience
• Effectively market your company
• Plan for future growth
• Give back to your customers, employees, and community

Best of all, these principles can be applied to any industry and are proven to work whether your target audience is children, teenagers, baby boomers, seniors, or any age in-between.

Whether you're looking to start a new business, improve an existing one, be a better manager, or hire the best employees, The Bear Necessities of Business contains the insights and information you need to succeed. Even if you work for some-one else and have no plans to strike out on your own, you'll still benefit from the advice found in this book. After all, the best employees—and those who consistently rise to the top—are those who think like entrepreneurs!

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 326 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (April 21, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471772755
• ISBN-13: 978-0471772750
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #739,578 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great story and a worthwhile read, May 25, 2006

By	Build-a-Bear Investor (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

Maxine Clark's book The Bear Necessities of Business: Building a Company with Heart is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand how a capable executive goes about transforming a compelling vision into a highly profitable public company.

For entrepreneurs of humbler ambitions, the book also has loads of good insights and advice about attitudes and disciplines that can work in every business.

Don't be put off by the kid-centric nature of Build-a-Bear and the cutesy "bearisms" -- although Maxine is a CEO with heart, both eyes are always on the bottom line.

This is a very well-written book which I found much better and more useful than many other books in the "entrepreneurial how-to" category.

It might also be an imaginative gift for any little future entrepreneurs, no longer so interested in stuffed bears, who might enjoy learning how grownups who also like bears turned them into a business with $360 million in sales last year.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get it, Get it, Get it!, August 27, 2006

By	Amanda M. Lee (Knoxville, TN<P>Knoxville, TN United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

At first glance this book may appear to be about Maxine Clark's company Build-a-Bear Workshop. While she does share many stories featuring her company, the insights and advice she gives are PRICELESS.

This is a fantastic read for anyone who is starting out, needs a pick-me-up for their current business, or wants to reconnect about what it's like to be a customer. It's not just about bears...it's for all of us!

Way to go, Maxine! Thanks for following through on another great idea. It's the best purchase I've made in a long time.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Bear Necessities of Business : Building a Company with Heart, June 9, 2006

By	George Whalin (San Marcos, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This is a wonderful book for anyone in the retail or consumer products business. It is jam-packed with insights into one of retailing's most successful companies. When the founders of most companies write a book about their businesses the result is usually a "fluff" piece with little in the way of real content. That is not the case with Maxine Clark's story about how she created and built Build-A-Bear Workshop. Her book provides valuable tools for building a unique retail business at a time when innovation is severly lacking in retail.