Straightforward, play-it-smart advice for business owners as they cross the minefield laid by their own flaws and foibles.
A cheeky collection of thou-shalt-nots for aspiring business owners.
Most books on small-business management offer tips on what to do to increase the likelihood of success. In his debut work, Gous, a South African serial entrepreneur and consultant, takes the opposite approach. He compiles a quirky yet instructive list of don’ts to help owners avoid mistakes that have doomed uncountable fledgling businesses. But don’t expect to find technical advice on budgeting, incorporation or supply-chain management. Instead, Gous believes the life or death of a company is determined more by the owner’s interpersonal relationships than by business acumen. Uncouth behavior by a boss among family, colleagues and customers can lead to disaster if left unchecked, he says. Divided into short, humorous chapters that can be read between staff meetings, the book forces readers to examine their own character. Not surprisingly, the first topic is society’s attitude toward money. “Money makes you ‘free,’ but at a cost,” Gous writes. “Never allow it to control you, because you will become its slave.” Most of the author’s proscriptions amount to common-sense warnings about work-life balance, self-control and dealing with difficult people. A few, however, address emotional issues often overlooked in business literature but painfully familiar to entrepreneurs, such as loneliness and worry. Gous also tackles one of the ultimate workplace taboos: sex. His admonition against office romance is summarized in a prudent, though crude, aphorism: “Don’t dip your pen in the company’s ink pot.” The author admits he wrote from a male perspective, and chapters entitled “High-Maintenance Wives” and “Busybody Wives” may make female readers cringe. While the book encourages ethical behavior, Gous seems equally concerned with the practical implications of an owner’s actions. Ultimately, he advances a philosophy akin to the golden rule yet mixed with a dose of entrepreneurial pragmatism. Tax evasion, underpaying employees and mistreating suppliers should be avoided not just because they are morally wrong, but also because they threaten what the owner has built.
Straightforward, play-it-smart advice for business owners as they cross the minefield laid by their own flaws and foibles.Pub Date: April 3, 2013
ISBN: 978-1481796736
Page Count: 150
Publisher: AuthorHouseUK
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
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These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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