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Growing a Business (Paperback)

~ (Author) "WHEN I started my first company in Boston twenty years ago, I had little interest in business..." (more)
Key Phrases: United States, Palo Alto, Apple Computer (more...)
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
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Growing a Business + The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability + Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution
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Editorial Reviews

Review

San Francisco Chronicle Growing a Business is highly readable....Its ideas on doing business deserve widespread circulation, discussion and recognition. -- Review


Review

Kirkus ReviewsA standout in an overcrowded field.

Entrepreneur...a wonderful combination of hardheaded business acumen, plain common sense, humor, and warmth.

San Francisco ChronicleGrowing a Business is highly readable....Its ideas on doing business deserve widespread circulation, discussion and recognition.
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1 edition (October 15, 1988)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0671671642
  • ISBN-13: 978-0671671648
  • Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #25,353 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Paul Hawken
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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First Sentence:
WHEN I started my first company in Boston twenty years ago, I had little interest in business. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, Palo Alto, Apple Computer, San Francisco, Ecology Action, Carl Schmitt, Matthew Reich, University National Bank, West Coast, Yvon Chouinard, Bank of America, Federal Express, Third World, Alice Medrich of Cocolat, Banana Republic, Bulldog Tool Company, General Motors, Ian Hall, North American, Small Business Administration, The Great Game of Business, The New Yorker
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Customer Reviews

41 Reviews
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4.8 out of 5 stars (41 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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52 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Valuable, November 2, 2002
By M. Thomsen "mark1958" (San Pedro, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I read this book and watched the TV series around 1990. I credit Growing a Business, as much as anything I ever read or heard, for the success of my company today.

In 1992 a group of first-time entrepreneurs started a company together. Some of the group had a blueprint of how a company is supposed to start. Get capital. Build something. Launch it. Succeed. They had not read the book, or they had but did not believe it spoke to us.

Some of the group had a more organic idea, inspired in part by this book. Each company has its pace, its flow, its learning curve. The CEO is the clock, the pacer, the navigator. There is a constant calculator going on each decision, each day, extrapolating payoffs, comparing the costs and benefits. And there is a recognition of what we are going into business for and structuring the business to support those objectives.

For example, we wanted a great place for employees. Each employee would share the experience and benefits. The "Startup 101" types of books treat this topic as an add-on after you do all the important things. Hawken makes it primary. It is primary if you want a place for the best people to do their best work. Structure your company around the employee experience and all else falls into place - if that is the kind of company you want.

An important lesson from this book is serious initial capital for inexperienced entrepeneurs can be a mistake. Hawken describes this. So important. So easy to overlook.

Large amounts of startup capital allows you to outsource parts of a company you may not totally understand yet. It makes some mistakes very expensive. It dulls the creativity at times, the innovation to do more with less. It might encourage one to do things just because you see other companies doing them. It tempts you to make large steps, when it is critical in modern markets to learn to make many smaller steps.

And so on. This book may not fit every entrepreneur. It certainly does not provide all the information you need for growing a company. But for some of us it describes a pattern for growing a good company.

If you are thinking about starting a company, or are in the early stages of a startup, I recommend this book. It might change how you do things, and you might get more satisfaction from the adventure as a result.

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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful, inspiring, useful, October 25, 1998
By A Customer
I started my business in 1988 and no advice I received was a valuable at Paul Hawken's. He helps you to see a business from 10,000 feet as well as from just inches below the surface: in your heart, where ultimately your business must succeed.

I recommend this book to everyone, but have ceased lending my copy out-two have disappeared. Today, my business is an enormous success-indeed, a somewhat famous one-and no one deserves more credit than Mr. Hawken, for the advice and inspiration of this lucid and engaging book.

To every small business owner: buy it today, read tonight, and see if it doesn't change things immediately.

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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars There is no formula for success!, April 2, 2002
By A Customer
The reason I like this book is because it does not follow popular style "10 ways to get rich" or "how to make business in 5 minutes". It is focused on individuality and it recognizes that every business is different, the same way we are. It does not give you a recipe on how to grow business, because lets face it, there is no recipe. If it was easy everybody would be doing it. However, it does give you a sound advice that makes sense. I think that lots of small business owners are thinking the same way and it is nice to read that somebody experienced same kind of problems and faced similar obstacles as well as how they approached the problem. It is great book that simply makes sense...
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Keep it handy
I bought this book years ago and was thrilled to find a book that went beyond the start-up phase of a business. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Christine Posti

5.0 out of 5 stars Why blow bubbles when you can grow a company?
"Growing a Business" is pretty old, from 1988, so there is no mention of the Internet, little about software, and nothing at all about startups. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Aamir Virani

5.0 out of 5 stars A timeless piece of gold
Published 20 years ago, this book's advice couldn't be more superbly useful today. In fact, over the past 20 years, the polluting tripe that we are fed in terms of advertising... Read more
Published 11 months ago by CA Hofmeyr

5.0 out of 5 stars great book
good book for the people who are already in to business or planning to start
Published 14 months ago by Latheesh Koroth

5.0 out of 5 stars Works for any serious (and serial) entrepreneur
Form any startup, the founding team must commit to a getting it right - for it is not easy to getting your market and product right - what you need is likely what I needed for my... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Andrew Ari Clibanoff

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Wonderful
What a spectacular little business bible for a world that has forgotten that business and people are one and the same. Read this book.
Published 21 months ago by Teja Van Wicklen

5.0 out of 5 stars For the budding entrepreneur
This book was my constant companion when I first started my company 12 years ago. I underlined, starred and highlighted countless passages and dog-eared the corners of numerous... Read more
Published 23 months ago by David Lott

5.0 out of 5 stars Business is about practice
1. Tire of spending too much time looking for natural foods, Hawken starts Boston's first natural food store. Read more
Published on April 23, 2007 by Golden Lion

3.0 out of 5 stars so-so
"growing a business" comes across as an early attempt to form his message ... mr. hawken really seems to hit his stride with the opus, "the ecology of commerce"
Published on February 19, 2007 by J. Earle

4.0 out of 5 stars Sincere and Practical... you won't regret reading this!
I liked the abridged audiobook so much that I bought the paperback version. Most business books don't relay sincere, real-world examples and because of this, they are usually a... Read more
Published on January 9, 2007 by Christopher Burriss

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