Newest Business and Finance Reviews
Put Your Mindset to Work: The One Asset You Really Need to Win and Keep the Job You Love by James Reed and Paul G Stoltz
It's well over a decade since I was involved in hiring staff for an employer but over the last seven years I've been active in bringing reviewers to Bookbag. Certain reactions stand out from both experiences. The first is that skills rarely matter: if they're important for the job I can usually teach or polish them. In fact well, this is how we did it at... can be a disadvantage not least because the temptation to throttle someone can become quite overwhelming on a bad day. Paper qualifications are not really that important either: for the most part the bare minimum will suffice and I've often found that the more highly-qualified applicants can find it quite difficult to adapt themselves to the job I'm offering. At the other end of the scale I've taken people on and after a while thought that if I had half a dozen people of this calibre I could send the rest home. What marks these people out is their attitude. Nowadays it's called mindset. Full review...
Brick by Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry by David Robertson and Bill Breen
There can be few of us whose lives were not untouched at some stage by a phase of building things out of LEGO bricks. They comprised a time-honoured toy for children of all ages which weathered many a storm since Ole Kirk Christiansen, a master carpenter, founded the family-owned company in Billund, Denmark in 1932. However fashions change, and this was never more true than when computer software swept nearly everything before it towards the end of the last century. Brand loyalty and an inability (or refusal) to adapt sufficiently was not enough to protect it from the combined onslaught of video games, MP3 players and other hi-tech delights, or a harsh business climate in a cut-throat market where competition was intense and famous names were rapidly going to the wall. In 2003, three years after two different surveys had called the LEGO brick ‘the toy of the century’, the Group announced the biggest loss in its history and it appeared to be doomed. Full review...
Managing Yourself (The Checklist Series: Step by step guides to getting it right) by The Chartered Management Institute
When you start work, when you become a manager or move up the ladder it's assumed that you will need training in managing. This is always assumed to be managing other people, but it's only very rarely that any consideration is given to managing yourself - and then probably only in specific areas. But - if you haven't sorted yourself out, thought through your own actions and motivations, how can you give leadership to others? Managing Yourself remedies this and covers the cradle to grave of working life. If you have ambitions to move up the career ladder - or even if you just want to have a more rewarding and stress-free working life - this book is essential reading. Full review...
Winning Without Losing: 66 strategies for succeeding in business while living a happy and balanced life by Martin Bjergegaard and Jordan Milne
It's a common assumption that if you're a serious entrepreneur then you're going to have to dedicate your life to making money, passing up on the good things (apart from those which can be bought, obviously) such as a happy family life, the world outside of work and quite probably your health too. But what if there was a way to have it all? Winning Without Losing' doesn't give a blueprint which will enable you to go out and make your first million and have a wonderful life outside work - but it does give you sixty six ideas for ways in which you could adjust your working life to make the most of it without ruining everything else. Full review...
Made to last: The story of Britain's best-known shoe firm by Mark Palmer
From its founding by the Quaker brothers Cyrus and James Clark in the Somerset village of Street, to its present-day status as a global shoe brand, the name of Clark has weathered many a storm as it draws close to its bicentenary. This account of the company, by a distant kinsman of the two original founders, has drawn heavily on the archives and on in-depth interviews with the family to tell the full story. Full review...
Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue 2013: Commonwealth and Empire Stamps 1840 - 1970 by Hugh Jefferies
You might think that as all the stamps in this catalogue have been in existence for at least forty years there can be little more to be said about them but this 115th edition is acknowledged to be the most significant in many years. Most exciting (but probably more so to sellers than buyers) is the fact that in a time of economic downturn there are thousands of price increases and evidence of a very lively market. Demand for good stamps is greater than it has been at any time in the last thirty years according to editor Hugh Jefferies, although he does add that prices are rising faster in some areas than others. It's difficult to see how a serious collector - or seller - can be without an up-to-date copy of the catalogue for this reason alone. Full review...
Ausperity: Live the Life You Want for Less by Lucy Tobin
Clever title, eh? It's a conflation of austerity, of which we must all be sick to the back teeth and prosperity, which we'd all love. At a time when incomes are standing still (unless you're very lucky) but costs are going up all the time. For most people this means that it's the pleasurable parts of life - the treats - which get squeezed out, leaving a life that's dull and rather unrewarding. Lucy Tobin, personal finance editor of the London Evening Standard thinks differently. She's brought together hundreds of money-saving tips which might make that holiday possible - or suggests cheap or free trips in place of the holiday. There are also lots of ways in which you can raise extra money which don't involve a dodgy loan that will cost you more in interest than you borrowed in the first place. And, yes - there's all the information about credit cards, mortgages and budgeting that you need to set you on the right path. Full review...
Business Continuity For Dummies by Stuart Sterling, Brian Duddridge, Andrew Elliott, Michael Conway and Anna Payne
When you build a business you set off with unbridled enthusiasm and if you're lucky it does seem as though the Gods are flying along with and you holding your hands. But they have other calls on their time and at some point something will go wrong. It's inevitable. It might be something unforeseeable, something outside of your control, or an event which you really should have prepared for. In addition to growing this fledgling business you're now trying to troubleshoot, to second guess and eventually you stop moving forward and do little but worry about what can go wrong. There's a temptation to try and put it out of your mind: why give your nightmares an outing during the day? What you need is a plan - a structured, unthreatening way of looking at what can fail and how you would deal with it. Full review...
