Interesting but...

Well-structured with concrete examples in tech, dot.com, consumer goods, etc.
Could be shorter
Caters more to entrepreneurs with large aspirations that are seeking venture capital funding
Does not cater to luxury businesses or to niche-businesses

A lazy cash in.

To put it simply this book is lazy. As an experienced seller it was promised that there would be something in here for me, in fact if you have a feedback score of 5 or more there is nothing in here for you at the very least you will find much better info on ebays community boards. If you have never logged onto ebay or are having difficulty using the site then I can see how this book might be of use. What the majority of this book is, is a summary of ebay's help pages thats it !!! also the whole way through all it does is state the bloody obvious Page 115 for example under the heading"Price" he states this is the minimum price you are willing to sell your item for ? Another example"If you choose will post worldwide your item will be available to ebay members all over the world".Well no s**t sherlock<br />Another problem with this book is his impartiality to ebay, even though he says he doesnt work for them anymore he questions anybodys integrity who has a bad word to say about them, and he loves pay pal so much surely he must be on comission.<br />There are no decent links in this book as another reviewer pointed out. Throughout the book its just links to ebay and if its not he tells you to search google, as well as that there is no index in the back either.<br />The only person who will be making serious money is Dan Wilson with this ridiculous book.<br />If you want a good book on ebay then a far better choice would be Robert Pugh's ebay business handbook where there is a wealth of knowledge and tips that you wont find on ebay itself.<br />

How to make any business more valuable

<br />This is one of the titles in the"Memo to the CEO" series published by Harvard Business Press, each less than 200 pages in length and superbly produced. In fact, none of them is a"memo" nor were any of them written only for CEOs. In this volume, Orit Gadiesh and Hugh MacArthur explain how to make any business more valuable while acknowledging that the lessons to be learned from the private equity (PE) industry are not rigorously and consistently applied by businesses around the world. Why?"We see two main reasons for this: first, the application of these lessons drives real change in many businesses, and, for better or worse, change brings risks, both real and imagined...Second, many leaders apply the lessons that we will discuss, but incompletely. It is easier to do"fine" than to the"best" a company can do. We call this [begin italics] satisfactory underperformance [end italics] - a pervasive disease in business that is the direct target of this memo." <br /><br />Gadiesh and MacArthur are eminently well-qualified to identify and then examine the tools and techniques used by the best PE firms. She is chairman of Bain & Company, the first management consulting firm to develop a global PE practice that is now the largest of its kind. MacArthur heads it. Moreover, even a cursory review of their respective careers suggests a scope and depth of real-world business experience in all areas of operations with global companies in a variety of industries. They speak with unique authority when asserting that the smartest PE investors"have realized that the only way to reliably increase the value of their portfolios is to maximize the operating value of the underlying businesses in them. For this reason, the best PE firms have shifted many of the resources that they once poured into financial engineering to ward creating value - and they are doing it in a way that is more systematic, focused, and aggressive than the practices in most companies."<br /><br />It should be noted that the lessons they discuss and the recommendations they provide with those lessons can be of substantial value to decision-makers in any organization, whatever its size and nature may be. For example,"to improve profits and stock price [or value if the company is privately owned], you need to make strategic choices with a clear picture of the full potential of your company in mind." Define that potential by answering, with rigor and accuracy, this question:"How high is up?" Next, develop as"blueprint" or"road map" for getting to that full-potential destination. That is, the"who, what, when, where, and how" while establishing and then sustaining strategy, resources, execution, and measurement in proper alignment. The next objective is to accelerate performance at all levels and in all areas of the given enterprise while harnessing the talent (i.e. hiring,"growing," and retaining only those who possess the talent, skills, experience, and character needed) because"the best-laid plans go nowhere without the right people to implement them." <br /><br />Gadiesh and MacArthur also urge their reader"embrace LBO economics" which in part means getting comfortable with leverage. For<br />example,"eliminating unproductive or underperforming capital, often by cutting pieces out of the business. It also may mean finding new ways to convert traditionally fixed assets into sources of financing." A number of excellent books have been published in recent years in which their authors offer excellent advice on how an organization can become more agile. (Two of the best are Fast Strategy: How Strategic Agility Will Help You Stay Ahead of the Game and Corporate Agility: A Revolutionary New Model for Competing in a Flat World co-authored by Charles Grantham, Jim Ware, and Cory Williamson.) Meanwhile, the best PE firms"work their magic" by helping C-level executives in their portfolio companies foster a results-oriented mindset that ensures results-driven performance.<br /><br />By devoting a separate chapter to each of these six core principles, Gadiesh and MacArthur are able examine all of them in much greater depth."We use the best private equity practices as the benchmark, but in reality [lessons to be learned from them] have been around for a long time. They just haven't been codified as formally by most businesses. Whatever the ownership of your company, our advice is to look at how the best PE people operate, and to use their techniques to compete against them and everyone else." <br /><br />None of the lessons to be learned from private equity that Gadiesh and MacArthur have identified is a head-snapper, nor do they make any such claim. Ultimately," winners" and"losers" will be determined by the results their people produce. However, it is at least as important (if not more important) for decision-makers to understand what not to do as it is to understand what must be done and how to do that. In 1963, Peter Drucker spoke to this point:"There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all." <br /><br />Frankly, I am surprised that so much valuable information and (especially) advice can be presented, and presented so well, within a narrative only 122 pages in length. Orit Gadiesh and Hugh MacArthur are to be commended on their brilliant achievement. <br /><br />Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out the aforementioned Fast Strategy and Corporate Agility as well as Roger Martin's The Opposable Mind, Gary Hamel's The Future of Management, Henry Chesbrough's Open Business Models, Richard Ogle's Smart World, Frans Johansson's The Medici Effect, James Kilts's Doing What Matters, Dean Spitzer's Transforming Performance Measurement, and Enterprise Architecture As Strategy co-authored by Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, and David Robertson.

Invaluable

Loved this book! Read it in one sitting! Finished the book with a more realistic vision of running a florist shop and a greater appreciation of the lifestyle it provides as opposed to profit. It has given me much food for thought and the author deserves a massive thank you for putting a candid, helpful and inspiring book such as this on the market.

Inspiring

I found this book extremely inspiring. Although it does not go into great depth, the book offers insight into where to search for a new idea by showing many different case studies. The enthusiasm of the entrepreneurs filled me with energy and motivation to take this path.

You don't miss anything

The book is easy to read and pretty refreshing as anecdote, but basically is the author point of view over anything else,is to personal to be a business start up book.

A Refreshing Change to the norm!!!

Just finished reading Spare Room Start Up and really enjoyed it. Having read a number of business start up books before setting up my own business I have to say what a breath of fresh air! The layout and pictures make it a really different type of book. I have really enjoyed it and find myself keeping it on my desk to flick through during the course of the day. The pictures and style is inspiring.<br /><br />Well done!!

Packed with Knowledge !

Six Sigma books often couch their wisdom in acronyms or jargon, or they offer vague, unfulfilling anecdotal narratives. This book is different. As trim, focused and efficient as if a Six Sigma team had designed it, it gets the job done. Its mission is simple: explain the basic structure of Lean Six Sigma initiatives to readers who are likely to become involved in one. While select case studies are judiciously sprinkled throughout, this is a meat-and-potatoes book that tells you what you need to know in clear, straightforward prose. Although the authors - Mike George, Dave Rowlands and Bill Kastle - humbly issue the caveat that this is not intended to be a comprehensive reference, its terse yet relevant style will probably make it one of those dog-eared volumes that barely gets back to the HR bookshelf before it's checked out again. Because of its plainspoken functionality, we recommend this manual strongly to anyone whose future may involve Lean Six Sigma.

Out of date

Having looked at eBay's own help pages and read this book I can say that the book is so out of date it is more or less useless!<br />There is no mention of eBay business accounts, apparently this type of account is a legal obligation for ANY eBay business.<br />The web-sites referenced in the book are mostly non-existant and tools recommended have all been replaced with updated versions.<br /><br />Use the eBay help pages instead, at least then you can't go wrong with your buisness.

Agenda for Solving the Most Important Problems with Improved Socially Focused Organizations

Most books about emerging, improved leadership and management methods capture high points among well known examples that haven't changed in years: Fortunately, The Power of Unreasonable People is a happy exception to that common weakness in being forward looking. As an example, the book ends with a call for filling in what's missing for social entrepreneurs to become an unstoppable force that solves the world's most important and persistent problems.<br /><br />Who should read this book? Anyone who wants to make a difference in producing a society that provides better opportunities and qualities of life for everyone. If you think you might want to start a social enterprise, you should be reading this book today.<br /><br />Why do I say these things? I recently sat through four days of conferences at a well-known university where the leading lights among its alumni described what they were doing as social entrepreneurs. I was appalled by what I heard. All but one organization had no larger vision than to slowly build a small effort from foundation grants. If you added up all of the likely results from these organizations, it wouldn't amount to much . . . except to warm the heart strings. Clearly, no major solution problems were going to be improved except in a few locales.<br /><br />What's more, the leading lights were almost totally unaware of other, more effective methods for how to accomplish similar things. They needed to read this book rather than attend those conferences.<br /><br />I started writing about social entrepreneurs in 2002, and it was hard then to find examples of superior operating models being used by entrepreneurs (as opposed to attention-getting methods that reporters like to write about) that were affecting over 10 million people. A lot has changed since then. Now I run into social entrepreneurs all the time through my teaching who are developing operating models that could affect hundreds of millions of people.<br /><br />I was pleased to find out about a number of social operating models in this book that could serve as useful examples to others in different fields. I intend to recommend this book to everyone I know who wants to learn about such new models. I also intend to read more about the most interesting of the many cases in this fine book. That's rare for me because I read a lot. I applaud the intensive research that is the basis for this book. Well done!<br /><br />The book does have one limitation that I think would be worth addressing in a future book that updates what is reported on here: There isn't enough discussion of how to develop better business models by assembling bit and pieces of what others have done in new ways.<br /><br />For example, the book correctly applauds (through different examples) the operating principles of open-source innovation, serving more people by eliminating harmful costs to provide offerings for 5-10 percent of the usual resources, employing local people with a good understanding of what's needed, measuring social performance as a way to inexpensively encourage others to shift their focus, and being able to become large rapidly. Imagine what could be accomplished if the best enterprises mentioned in this book had a process to add the aspects of those approaches that they aren't using now.<br /><br />Check it out and take action!<br />

Simplistically Vague

I like Martin Webb and enjoyed 'Risking It All' and he obviously knows what he is doing.<br /><br />I did, however, find this book both vague and quite basic. It is also very much based around the Author's experience in leisure retailing (bars and clubs) so it's not so suitable for business to business advice.<br /><br />He gave some glimpses into his own experiences (almost in an autobiographical way) but again, it was too much of everything and not enough substance.<br /><br />A good book for a novice but you'd need more to 'Make Your First Million'.

What a fantastic story of Leadership.

I have now read this book three times and find it compelling reading. I would recommend all managers to read this journey undertaken by Joseph Jaworski. It is so well written.

Good book for building good teams

I enjoyed reading the introduction chapter of the book, which contains a lot of good examples, dos and donots. The only bad thing to write about the book is that some of games are too american and difficult to adapt to other cultures.

Great for MBA students

I recommend this to any business student. Most of the main theoretical models are covered in enough depth to aid understanding and justify/otherwise inclusion in assignments.

Well worth the money.

Lot’s of detail, too much, not inspiring

i was dissapointed when i bought my copy of this book. it is set out very much as an academic text and not very user friendly. i was surprised by the style of book the author chose to do. mostly forms and questionaires to fill in, followed by some short paragraphs. it is very much the typical type of offering from an hr department when they are encouraging time management, or reflective practice. not inspiring or motivational at all. the content is ok, but reminded me very much of the type of exercise they gave us for professinal development courses at university. i did not get a lot from them either. thorough but left me dissapointed.