Book Description
Small Business Management, with its loyal following and great package, is far and away the market leading text in small business and has been for many years. It is a proven text, comprehensive in its approach, with the best fully integrated content, graphics, and resources devoted to business plan development. SBM has always been a step ahead of the competition (first to cover family businesses and first to integrate computer technology for small business) and continues to provide innovative coverage in each new edition. Increasingly adopted in hybrid courses that combine small business management and entrepreneurship and in standalone entrepreneurship courses, SBM shows aspiring business owners not only how to start a business but how to grow one.
Customer Reviews:
Not helpful supplement to actual textbook.......2007-09-13
This book claims that you will "never hightlight again," but actually all this is is a glossary-like listing of vocabulary words from each chapter of the actual textbook. The general point of the information from the actual text does not come through at all. If you are using the actual textbook for a class, you will not understand the material if do not read the actual text. If you already bought the textbook, this is not a necessary (or even helpful) supplement.
Good Product.......2007-03-21
Great shape, quick shipping. Too expensive, but that is what this product normally runs unfortuantly. Overall good experience
Book for online course.......2006-11-03
I am using this book for a online college curse and the book it's great! It provide many tools like the textbook's website to help you to understand the material and exams online. In general, I like the little cases that are update and motivate you to keep reading.
If this book by itself can help you to develop you own Small Business, it worth.
Book Review.......2006-03-04
Good overview on what you need to consider before you start your own business.
It's... OK........2002-08-26
The presentation of this book is excellent; It holds the reader's interest quite well. However, despite a recent "update", it shows it's age when the author regularly goes off on dot-com tangents, bringing the internet up in contexts that I believe the last few years have proven are not viable. Good grief, ppl. This isn't freaking 1997! We need a business text, not the wet dreams of a bunch of computer geeks turned businessmen! Anyways, if you are looking for a text with a lot of depth, look elsewhere. This book is to business textbooks what Quickbooks(c)(R)(TM) is to accounting software. In short, don't waste your money, unless you need it for a class. If so, be happy. If your prof teaches out of this, your tests will be very easy.
Book Description
In finance, it's all about smart decisions. ENTREPRENEURIAL FINANCE closely follows the life-cycle of a financial firm and shows you sound financial management practices that will enable you to run and grow your business venture. By introducing the theories, knowledge, and financial tools needed by an entrepreneur in starting his or her own business, ENTREPRENEURIAL FINANCE gives you the information you need to succeed. And because it's easy to understand and full of study tools, with ENTREPRENEURIAL FINANCE you'll succeed in class as well.
Customer Reviews:
Vague, Poor Learning Tool.......2006-12-05
As an senior undergraduate in entrepreneurship and finance, I expected this text to really explore the basic concepts of entrepreneurial finance, however, it has only led to many frustrating hours of reading and re-reading sections, only to return to class as confused as when I left two days prior. Definitions are unclear, if provided at all. The cases are often excessive and complicated, and overshadow the true learning outcomes of the case study. The text makes far too many assumptions, so if you are looking for an introduction to entrepreneurial finance, which this book claims to be, look elsewhere.
Entrepreneurial Finance.......2006-11-04
It had good information, but some of the concepts weren't thoroughly explained. The terminology used isn't consistent with accounting terminology, so it makes it difficult to keep things straight (considering both finance and accounting cover a lot of the same ground for similar reasons). It's definitely more appropriate for more advanced levels of finance, but not so much for a finance introduction.
Silicon Valley Finance primer.......2006-09-04
If you are involved in a high-tech startup or you want to run the financial side of such an operation then this easy-to-read textbook makes that job much easier. It is not a regular finance textbook which is designed for firms in which intellectual property is not the prime ingredient. It is for people who need to deal with venture capitalists or screen high-tech startups for financing.
The participants on both sides of high-tech finance, those who start companies and those who would like to fund them need to know how financial projections and valuations should be done and how they should be evaluated. For those who would like to learn how Silicon Valley's real main industry of starting companies happens this is an extremely valuable book to have.
This text still needs to have a bibliography to point readers to some of the specialized texts needed to deal with writing the business plan, intellectual property law and general legal issues. A lot of very usefull ideas are held by people who don't know how to start companies to bring those ideas to market.
Book not very helpful.......2003-10-08
I'm amazed that this book is for MBA level students! I am currently an undergraduate student and have the opportunity to use this textbook for a finance class and find this book very vague on termology and not very helpful when it comes to difficult concepts. Anyone with basic knowledge of business can understand the book so that's why it amazes me that this book is used for MBA's!
Customer Reviews:
Essentials of Entrepreneurial Marketing in Building a Company's Enduring Value.......2007-08-21
The tangible value of marketing is well illustrated for both the aspiring and established entrepreneur in this perceptive, well-organized textbook by Len Lodish, a Wharton marketing professor; Howard Morgan, former vice chairman of leading internet incubator Idealab, and Shellye Archambeau, chief executive of MetricStream, a company focused on compliance and governance solutions. The co-authors succinctly show how the days of marketing as a discretionary expense are obsolete, that it is as much a business driver as operational efficiency and innovative product development. Moreover, they bring to light how marketing can shape the success of not only actual products but also a company's stock and corporate image.
The book revolves around a straightforward, cross-selling matrix, which shows that every venture has three key things to sell - products/services, shares and image - to five different constituents. These constituents include customers, the one who give money in exchange for something they want, but there are separate targets identified as users who may or may not pay, investors, employees and others such as suppliers and strategic partners. Only when there is a conscious effort to address every type of constituent across the three dimensions does a company have a probable chance toward sustaining success. More often, companies focus so much on marketing the product that little effort is made in marketing, for example, the stock to the investor. Toward that end, the co-authors delve into critical questions regarding pricing and the importance of knowing why customers will pay you for a product.
They point to smart marketers like Victoria's Secret, who investigate and experiment, learning not only what competitors charge but also precisely why customers value a particular product or service. When possible, these companies try different prices and strive to charge more if their offerings have distinctive qualities valued by customers. That's how Victoria's Secret took a simple product and repositioned it as desirable, naughty female apparel and elevated the brand into a $3.2 billion-a-year business. Through adaptive experimentation, the company has significantly changed the perception people have of an already established commodity into a relatively inexpensive way for women to feel good about themselves. Looking at price by itself, according to the co-authors, is a precarious exercise, especially when the price point is well known by the public.
The natural urge to match a competitor's price has to be counterbalanced by a heightened attention to the brand and measuring its value within a marketplace that could be changing in value itself. A company that epitomizes this broader approach is Apple, which under Steve Jobs' leadership, has figured out how to build products that transcend their functionality into a direct tie-in to people's enjoyment and sense of empowerment. Renowned examples like Victoria's Secret and Apple bring home the co-authors' points about maintaining differentiation in an evolving marketplace that encompasses globalization, corporate mergers, stricter government regulations, increasing interests for "green" issues, sensitivity around privacy and security. Lodish, Morgan and Archambeau have put together a helpful marketing primer for the future.
Geat Guidance for the Young Entrepreneur.......2007-05-24
"Marketing that Works" is a quick read that provides very valuable insight into how to properly position your company, product, services, etc... The examples that are used are both personal triumphs (and failures) of the authors as well as companies that you've probably heard of (or should have, had the companies heeded the advice in this book).
If you are thinking big, then even one small kernel of guidance from this book will pay you back in spades and more than cover the cost of the book. I am already applying some of the wisdom the book imparts to my current entrepreneurial enterprise and can see a significant difference in how I will successfully sell my product. And when I do, I expect my company to be mentioned in the Second Printing of this book.
The Power of "Entrepreneurial Marketing".......2007-05-16
Marketing "works" if it creates or increases demand for whatever is offered for sale, be it a product, a service, or both. Hence the importance of Peter Drucker's widely quoted observation, "If you don't have a customer, you don't have a business." In fact, you don't have (or won't have for long) a business if you don't have enough customers who purchase enough of what you offer, for a sufficient profit. In this volume, the co-authors (Leonard M. Lodish, Howard L. Morgan, and Shellye Archambeau) explain how entrepreneurial marketing can add sustainable value to any sized company. The term "entrepreneurial" refers to a mindset that stresses speed, agility, resilience, independence, unorthodox, etc. In other words, what Jay Conrad Levinson characterizes as "guerilla marketing."
The authors carefully organize and then present their material within 14 chapters whose subjects range from "Marketing-Driven Strategy to Make Extraordinary Money" to "Building Strong Brands and Strong Companies." Along the way, they help their reader to answer questions such as these:
1. Does the market segment want the perceived value that my positioning is trying to deliver more than other segments?
2. How can the segment be reached? And how quickly?
3. How big is the segment?
4. What are likely impacts of changes in relevant environmental conditions (e.g. economic conditions, lifestyle, legal regulations) on the potential response of the target segment?
5. What are current and likely competitive activities directed at the segment?
I agree with the authors that each marketing venture must answer the "what am I selling to whom, and why will they buy?" question before it can create a successful marketing strategy and plan. With regard to the term "customer-oriented marketing," the stakeholders may also include investors, supply chain/channel partners, and employees. "Each stakeholder needs a relevant value proposition on why to stay engaged with the firm. So the same concepts of segmentation and positioning apply to them."
In Chapter 9, Lodish, Morgan, and Archambeau shift their attention to an important but often neglected element of sales: marketing initiatives that help to shorten the sales cycle, increase win rates, and protect margins. Salespeople are not marketing people. They need marketing tools to support the process of selling. For example, lead generation, target customer description, product collateral (i.e. datasheets and brochures), customized presentation materials, product demonstrations, and competitive intelligence data. Lodish, Morgan, and Archambeau offer a number of practical, cost-efffective suggestions insofar as marketing tools to support the sales process are concerned.
When concluding this valuable chapter, they observe that marketing plays a crucial, but often overlooked, role in properly enabling sales success. "From identifying prospective customers through lead generation, to providing sales tools to the sales force to handle prospect objections and close deals, marketing needs to be in lock-step with sales. Marketing needs to understand the sales process to close as well as sales does. Ensuring that the right tools are created to assist sales at each step is a critical responsibility of marketing." I could not agree more.
Presumably Lodish, Morgan, and Archambeau would be among the first to agree that it would be a fool's errand to attempt to execute all of the strategies and tactics examined in their book. It remains for each reader to absorb and digest the material with meticulous care, then select those concepts that are most appropriate to the needs and objectives of her or his own organization. When completing that selection process, I consider it imperative to keep in mind that the sales mindset and the marketing mindset are quite different, and those differences must be fully understood and (yes) respected. That said, it is also imperative that - as the authors correctly insist - "marketing needs to be in lock-step with sales" to sustain effective and productive communication, cooperation, and most important of all, collaboration if both marketing and sales are to be successful.
How marketing should be done.......2007-05-09
I must confess that I have historically had a low opinion of the marketing people that I have firsthand knowledge of. They always seemed to be overstating glad-handers, over-promising to land potential customers and not really interested in learning how difficult it is to implement their promises. When I was writing code full-time, we referred to it as the "couldn't you just" condition. As in "couldn't you just put in this feature" and ignoring any rational response explaining that while the feature appears simple, it could take weeks to add it to the software. I was personally the recipient of a marketing person telling everyone how I was negatively cynical and not a team player when I strongly voiced my objections to an absurd promise that the marketer had made to a potential customer.
Therefore, it was with a great deal of skepticism that I opened this book and began reading. It did not take long before I was sold on the ideas of the authors. They reject the over-promising and blast the world nonsense that so many marketers consider the way to sell their products. Their approach is that of the entrepreneur that lacks a great deal of money for marketing, and that you must avoid an overstatement at all costs. It is better to understate and be proven wrong than overstate and be considered (or proven to be) an unreliable fool. They consider marketing to be a way to add sustainable value to the company, much like the delivery of a quality product.
If I am ever again in the situation where I am confronting a marketing person who values unjustified hype over honest accuracy, I will give them a copy of this book, ask that they read it and then offer to discuss it with them.
A very practical, well organized and concisely written book on marketing for practical entrepreneurs.......2007-04-26
I think that this book is a terrific resource for an entrepreneur who is working on the marketing aspects of his business. One of the common misunderstandings of those not formally trained in business is confusing marketing with advertising or that part of the sales process that directly connects with the customer. While advertising and selling are a portion of the subject in marketing, in reality it is much more than this.
What I appreciate most about this book is that it is a resource of great information, ideas, and practical illustrations from real world business experience. It is not a method that the authors want you to accept whole. Very few methods actually work for people fighting for business in the real world because each businessperson has to find a solution to the problem they are facing in a constantly changing business environment. As businesses compete they are actually changing the environment in which they compete and this is often lost on those who espouse very specific "dance steps" for businesses to follow rather than providing principles. This book is about ideas that have proven themselves and can be adapted or applied to your situation as you see fit.
Most entrepreneurs have to manage every aspect of their small and growing company. Very few are expert in every field and marketing is such a broad and vital topic that it would benefit almost everyone to study the breadth of the topic to learn what it is they should study more deeply. This book has fourteen chapters covering the necessity of multiple marketing strategies (and why), how to generate ideas and screen the good ones from those that might be land mines, pricing, distribution and channel decisions (a very good chapter), launching products to maximize long term profitability, advertising (another fine chapter), public relations, adding value through sales management, marketing-enabled sales (quite interesting), entrepreneurial promotion, resource deployment and allocation (a topic that trips up many young businesses), marketing for financing activities, and building strong brands & strong companies.
The chapters are written in a very organized and concise way that lay out the authors' ideas, back it up with stories of real businesses, usually some graphs and charts, a list of principles or a checklist to use, and a conclusion. This organization and concise writing is helpful because most entrepreneurs are very practical people and have a lot to do every day. The very idea of sitting down to read long chapters of theory and abstract prose would be not only distasteful for such practical people, but impossible from a time management perspective. This book is written with these realities in mind.
As an entrepreneur, I found the book quite helpful. As a person who has studied business as the graduate level, I found the information sound. Recommended.
Book Description
This text covers the process of starting a business, raising capital, managing the finances of the business throughout its growth, and ultimately cashing out of the business. The book is very practical, providing real-world advice and information sought by those who want to start their own businesses. Stancill's text sticks to the nuts and bolts of managing the finances of a start-up or small business.
Customer Reviews:
Financial Street Smarts.......2004-05-07
Professor Stancill, an icon at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business, shows a unique approach to entrepreneurial / mid-market finance. If you are looking for a traditional discussion of financial concepts get one of the the many fine textbooks on the market. But if you are are ready to "get down and dirty", especially if you intend to acquire a small business in an LBO scenario, apply the lessons learned from this book. Stancill applies street-smarts to structuring a deal, and he offers a hands-on, step-by-step approach that is easy to follow even by non-financial types.
Great.......2003-11-01
I was lucky enough to be able to have Jim Stancill as one of my MBA professors at USC -- this book is a great book if you want to learn how to REALLY start a company. Specially for academics and non-business people, this is NOT your corporate finance book. This is how small companies start up and how to run a small company and even how to buy a company.
Book Description
A Blueprint for Building Entrepreneurial Organizations
Nobody needs to tell you that in the new economy, managers using conventional strategies are losing out to smart, fast, entrepreneurial competitors who move on ideas others overlook and who confidently act while others dither. Are the managers of leading companies simply doomed to let this happen? Not at all, argue Rita Gunther McGrath and Ian MacMillan. The fundamental problem is that the tools, training, and conceptual frameworks that work for business-as-usual can't, and don't, work when your main challenge is to bury old business models and aggressively create completely new ones. To succeed, today's strategists need the thought process and discipline that are second nature to successful entrepreneurs.
The Entrepreneurial Mindset offers a refreshingly practical blueprint for thinking and acting in environments that are fast-paced, rapidly changing, and highly uncertain. It provides both a guide to energizing the organization to find tomorrow's opportunities and a set of entrepreneurial principles you can use personally to transform the arenas in which you compete.
Using lessons drawn from leading entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial companies,
The Entrepreneurial Mindset presents a set of practices for capitalizing on uncertainty and rapid change. Like McGrath and MacMillan's bestselling Harvard Business Review articles, such as "Discovery-Driven Planning," the book provides simple but powerful ways to stop acting by the old rules and start thinking with the discipline of habitual entrepreneurs.
The Entrepreneurial Mindset will show you how to:
* Eliminate paralyzing uncertainty by creating an entrepreneurial frame that shapes a shared understanding of what is to be accomplished and what would be worthwhile
* Create a richly stocked opportunity register in which you mobilize great ideas for redesigning existing products, finding new sources of differentiation, resegmenting existing markets, reconfiguring market spaces, and seizing the huge upside potential of breakthroughs
* Build a dynamic portfolio of businesses and options that continuously move your organization toward the future
* Execute dynamically your ideas so that you can move fast, with confidence and without undue risk
* Develop your own way of leading with an entrepreneurial mindset to create a vibrant entrepreneurial climate within your organization
The Entrepreneurial Mindset is about succeeding in an unpredictable world. It will help everyone from independent entrepreneurs to managers of large corporations develop insights that others overlook and act on them to build the truly entrepreneurial organizations of the future.
Download Description
The Entrepreneurial Mindset offers a refreshingly practical blueprint for thinking and acting in environments that are fast-paced, rapidly changing, and highly uncertain. It provides both a guide to energizing the organization to find tomorrow's opportunities and a set of entrepreneurial principles you can use personally to transform the arenas in which you compete. The authors present simple but powerful ways to stop thinking and acting by the old rules and start thinking with the discipline of a habitual entrepreneur. They show how to: eliminate paralyzing uncertainty by creating an entrepreneurial frame that shapes a shared understanding of what is to be accomplished; create a richly stocked opportunity register to redesign existing products, find new sources of differentiation, resegment existing markets, reconfigure market spaces, and seize the huge upside potential of breakthroughs; build a dynamic portfolio of businesses and options that continuously move your organization toward the future while simultaneously leaving the past behind; execute dynamically your ideas so that you can move fast, with confidence and without undue risk; and develop your own way of leading with an entrepreneurial mindset to create a vibrant entrepreneurial climate within your organization.
Customer Reviews:
The "Entrepreneurial" Mindset.......2007-07-02
"The Entrepreneurial Mindset" offers thought-provoking strategies to be successfull in a universe of constant change and high uncertainty. Using lessons from the entrepreneurial world, the authors presents a set of "best practises" that are insightful and quickly applicable to any businesses. Specific advice is given to reframe your product offering and come up with blockbuster extensions, or to build unique business competences and differentiate from competitors. I highly recommend this book.
Excellent Book for Entrepreneurs.......2007-05-16
"The Entrepreneurial Mindset" is one of the best books on entrepreneurship on the market. It will help you to in discover new opportunities for a new or existing product or service or in validating your current product offerings. The invaluable insight it brings will be of assistance in gaining a better grasp of not only your products and services but also your business as well.
The book is based on extensive research of habitual entrepreneurs, that is, those people who started and natured several successful businesses and thus brings out some unique and interesting insights and handy tips and advice that should help you in your business or work. The book is packed with ideas and insights that will assist any manager excel in turbulent and uncertain times.
This is a well written book that will help you avoid making costly errors and propel your business to new heights. I highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to establish a well thought out strategy to ensure future success and open their eyes to new possibilities.
Don't start a business without reading this book.......2007-01-03
One of the best books on advice for entrepreneurs.
It doesn't matter if you are planning to start a new business or managing a critical department in the company you work for - This book describes in simple language, the creation of a mindset that will help you run a successful business in both bull and bear markets.
This book describes the application of various ideas using case studies and ways to harvest them by building an opportunity register.
Essential reading for Executives focused on company growth.......2006-04-17
McGrath and MacMillan have achieved what dozens of authors have only hoped for - written a book that contains strategies and tactics that are powerful and immediately actionable.
The Entrepreneurial Mindset is packed with tools that can be used by CEOs, Division Managers, Product Managers and anyone responsible for driving profitable company growth. Many of the techniques in the book appear deceptively straightforward - yet are powerful and immediately practical.
Concepts like Attribute Mapping and Consumption Chain analysis, for example, can serve as a core framework for developing - or repositioning - existing products and services. The goal is to move away from selling commodities, and creating valueable (and profitable) offerings that customers absolutely must have.
I have used these concepts numerous times and with great success.
Good check lists!.......2004-09-12
You like to learn the entrepreneurial mindsets from this book. The authors teach this course, at the Executive MBA program, of Columbia Univeristy (only $15,000 for five days). Of course your company pays for it. If not, reading this book is a good alternative ($20 is not bad). The problem with the book, is generality. It does not provide examples of any individual or firm that has been successful with the use of the entrepreneurial mindset. It is like teaching you all the theory to be successful, but no examples on how these theories can be put into action. I stronly disagree with most of the reviewers here that this is a useful book to start a business. It is not. However if you wish to learn the theory, this is the book for you. I would like to find out if the authors themselves, started any business of their own by using these theories.
Book Description
In 2004, Carl Schramm, president of the Kauffman Foundation, the world's leading foundation for entrepreneurship, published a groundbreaking essay with a radical premise: that Americans literally have no conception of the secret that truly underlies our economic success, and that for the United States to survive and continue to lead the world's economy, it is imperative we learn to understand and employ that secret.
The secret that has led the American economy to become the world's strongest? Our unparalleled skill as entrepreneurs. As Schramm compellingly shows in this sweeping manifesto, entrepreneurship alone—not anything else—can give America the necessary leverage to remain an economic superpower. Not technology, since everyone now has the same technology, or access to it. Not education—we are years behind other nations in this area. Not basic manufacturing, long since moved overseas from the United States. And not capital markets, now truly global entities.
Drawing on detailed research conducted by the Kauffman Foundation and on his decades of experience as an entrepreneur himself and as a leader and mentor to other entrepreneurs, Schramm persuasively demonstrates in detail what this entrepreneurial imperative means for the way we run universities and foundations, lead companies, make personal job decisions, and even conduct our foreign affairs. The Entrepreneurial Imperative will change not only the way our government, corporations, and nonprofits operate, but also our day-to-day lives as working Americans.
Customer Reviews:
Fresh insight to economic thinking.......2007-01-12
I enjoyed Carl's book. He provides fresh insight among the many economists that all think a like. Carl's insights gave me a fresh perspective on America and what is driving the new economy. I think the book is a required read for anyone managing their own investments, or thinking of a career change.
Everyone Needs Basic Business Skills.......2006-12-22
As a former liberal arts major who picked up my business skills on the fly, I agree with Carl Schramm's contention that entrepreneurial skill development should become a mandatory part of the basic education here in the U.S. While it would have been nice to have learned more about business basics during high school, I think it was too easy to bypass the real world until college was in the rear-view mirror. Now, with the benefit of experience, I wish that my academic experience would have contained some rooting in the entrepreneurial spirit put forward in this book.
With ten years of business ownership now under my belt, I can see the mis-steps that could have been avoided with just a few basic teachings. While I always thought I had "the" idea, I only recently grasped how much earlier my current success could have come if I had leveraged the benefits of others' experiences. This book echoes my personal experience that the power of ideas is substantially strengthened by a collaborative network of people and institutions focused on creating something more. I now see that providing a benefit to a larger group also leads to benefits for me. From that point-of-view, I think Carl Schramm's positions are headed in the right direction.
Mixing it up is a good thing.......2006-12-21
I was taken with Mr. Schramm's challenge to consider how every individual has a part to play in maintaining America's economic strength. While all of us will have different ideas about how to sustain a strong economy, it seems to me that entrepreneurial activities are keeping the innovation engine flowing while politicians and more entrenched institutional structures struggle to keep up.
I look at my own experience in a large company and see that our business could be more strategic and objective-oriented. If we are open to being more entrepreneurial, as Mr. Schramm suggests, smart and fresh ideas for growth and improvement could come from anywhere: our co-workers, our customers, our partners, our vendors.
I see the concept of American entrepreneurialism advocated here as more about providing empowerment to people to shape their own destinies. Looking around the world right now, I'd hope that anyone would agree that we could all use some of that.
Getting The Facts and the Arguments Wrong.......2006-12-19
I was one of the first people to rush out and get this book. I assumed that a book written by the President of the Kauffman Foundation would have important insights into entrepreneurship. Boy, was I wrong!
The book is riddled with inaccuracies. For example, it says that only Israel is a more entrepreneurial country than the United States when the Kauffman Foundation's own research shows only a middling rate of entrepreneurship in the U.S., below that of Peru and Uganda of all places.
In another example, the book says that the current period is the most entrepreneurial in U.S. history, when, in fact, rates of entrepreneurship in the U.S. have been declining for decades.
But it is not just the facts that are a problem. The book's arguments are flawed too. The idea that U.S. foreign policy should focus on entrepreneurship smacks of the 1950s argument that "what's good for General Motors is good for the country". That seems naive, at best.
Similarly, the book is critical of US technology transfer operations. However, we would be hard pressed to improve a system that gave us a company like Google. Dr. Schramm should read the history of Stanford's involvement with Google before he criticize American universities' technology transfer operations.
Finally, the tone of the book is grating. It is both a polemic for entrepreneurship and a PR job for the Kauffman Foundation. Had I wanted that, I could have saved my money and read the materials that the Foundation gives away for free.
Incorrect, Ignorant, Procelytizing.......2006-12-17
I bought this book because it appeared on Economist's list of recommended books. This was a mistake.
This book is written as a pamphlet, and its central theme is the glorification of American Enterpreneurial Capitalism. It is all about American self-glorification.
Unfortunately, this book is a poor pamphlet. Worse, it has got many of its facts plainly wrong. It is amazing that the CEO of the Kauffman Foundation, one of the largest supporters of entrepreneurship research in the US, would be so ignorant of basic research facts, as well as of economic growth in general.
The book defines entrepreneurship as "the process by which one or more people undertake economic risk to create a new organization...". Entrepreneurs, then, are people who take risk to create new organizations. So far so good. Too bad that this definition is not actually used in the book. Only 7 pages later, Schramm states that "Entrepreneurship is a mindset." It is unfortunate that this seems to be the definition that he really uses throughout his book.
A "mindset" is an infinitely pliable definition. Indeed, Schramm appears able to see this "mindset" whenever he so chooses and not see it when he does not care to. Sometimes Schramm's "entrepreneurship" appears to be best described as innovation. In other times he appears to refer to plain initiative, as in the case of those early "entrepreneurial" American university presidents Schramm appears to admire (now, how many new organizations did UC Berkeley president Daniel Coit Gilman start, and how much economic risk did he undertake during the process?).
Schramm reveals some of his ideological undercurrents by stating that there is only one country on this planet more "entrepreneurial" than the US. You guessed it: Israel. According to Schramm, Israel is the most "entrepreneurial" country on this planet.
Too bad that available data on new business foundings, new business ownership, and nascent entrepreneurs does not support Schramm's contention. Much of this data his own foundation has helped create.
It is also astonishing how Schramm ignores some 25-odd years of research by suggesting that "entrepreneurs" are special people who are distinctively different from the mainstream population. Schramm would be well advised to publish his discovery, as he seems to have succeeded where hundreds of researchers have failed over 25 years.
Schramm's argument rests on a few key premises: (1) America is the best country on this planet (except perhaps Israel); (2) American "Entrepreneurial Capitalism" is the best economic model there is (Schramm's model is, in essence, one of uninhibited market capitalism with little or no regulation and minimal government); (3) America should actively export this model to other countries so that World Peace would become possible. This is breathtakingly ideological and naive, given, e.g., the disaster USA has recently inflicted upon Iraq.
The closest equivalent of Schramm's economic model appears to be late 19th-century US. At least he does not hide his admiration of the robber barons of that age.
He gets too many facts wrong to list them all here. He maintains that America invented entrepreneurial capitalism. I wonder if he is familiar with the history of 18th and 19th-century England. Similarly, Tim Berners-Lee might be interested to learn that Americans invented the internet.
As an economist, Schramm comes across as surprisingly ignorant of mainstream economic growth theories. As his pamphlet is all about the creation of economic wealth, it is surprising that productivity does not feature anywhere in his story.
So, how good is Schramm's model? Schramm might be surprised to learn that in Sweden, whose 'socialist model' Schramm surely despises, a child born into low-income family is much more likely to advance to a higher income class during her life than is a child born into a poor family in the US.
In other words, to realize the 'American Dream', so extolled by Schramm, he would be well advised to move to Sweden.
In summary, this book is a waste of time and money. It is not a good source of facts, it does not accurately describe the entrepreneurial phenomenon, and it does not even begin to uncover the factors underlying economic growth.
Book Description
The goal of Strategic Entrepreneurial Growth is to transform the strategic process for entrepreneurs into a growth-oriented approach. The chapters are brief and to the point and include a comprehensive case and relevant journal article. The text explores strategic management process as it relates to building the entrepreneurial firm, planning, growth, and important current and future implications for entrepreneurship.
Book Description
Entrepreneur's Notebook propels you on a whirlwind tour of the start-up process. It is an invaluable reference for new and experienced entrepreneurs that includes chapters on a wide range of topics, from entrepreneurial team building to business plans to financing. This excellent book provides an incredible amount of practical information that will help you make smarter decisions and avoid costly mistakes. The author, Steven K. Gold, is an accomplished entrepreneur who has co-founded and led five early-stage ventures. As an investor and mentor, he also advises many entrepreneurs and young companies. He earned his B.S.E. in Entrepreneurial Management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and his M.D. from Brown University Medical School.
Customer Reviews:
Nice Guide for Beginners.......2007-06-16
The author writes a nice overview of the entrepreneurial process. It's basically for novices but it does a good job for this audience. The only problem I have with this book is that it is too basic and is therefore non-unique because it is so low-level. Regardless, I must say that for the right audience, it does a fine job over giving the big picture.
If you are advanced or aspire to become advanced, I would recommend "The Startup Company Bible for Entrepreneurs" but only for high-tech entrepreneurs. Even this author has recommended it.
A Must-Have for Entrepreneurs.......2007-05-14
Steven gives great illustrations to drive home his insightful advice for entrepreneurs. As he's "been there, done that," we can take his advice to heart in the hopes of becoming a success like him!
Exellent Book.......2007-05-11
Great book for getting ready to open a new business. Would refer to anyone thinking about opening a business.
Brief and to the point.......2007-04-27
This is a delightful little book that contains a wealth of useful and helpful information and ideas on starting a small business and ensuring that it is viable and succesful. The book is well written and easy to follow and interesting to read.
This is a must read for entrepreneurs, particularly budding ones as the information the book provides is very practical and can help you avoid making costly errors. The book covers a wide range of topics including the start-up process, marketing the business on a small budget, cash-flow forecasting, among other things.
The book is an excellent companion for the entrepreneur that is well worth having.
Invaluable advice for the budding entrepreneur.......2007-03-04
This book does a terrific job of presenting some of the most important issues entrepreneurs face when embarking on new ventures, touching on topics such as the business plan, funding, team building, and cash flows. Using simple, yet stunningly accurate models of the entrepreneurial process, Steven Gold distills complex subjects into simple, practical, take-away messages. The classification of entrepreneurial personalities (professionals, pragmatists, and inventors) is something I think we can all relate to. I find the metaphor which compares building a new company to making "stone soup" equally compelling. There are countless books out there for budding entrepreneurs, but this one is no fluff. It gets right down to the nuts and bolts so you can concentrate on your business.
Book Description
In Launching New Ventures, Allen prepares students to spearhead new initiatives—paying special attention to the process and activities required before a start-up can open for business. A conversational approach engages and encourages students to rely on this text as more than just a reference book. Real-world case studies, new venture checklists, plus Allen's own firsthand experience guide students through the logical process of recognizing an opportunity, testing a business concept, and implementing a formal business plan.
- Stressing the early stages of the process, Allen outlines the importance of completing a feasibility analysis prior to developing a business plan—unlike other texts that focus immediately on business plans.
- The Third Edition covers change management, deal structure, database and guerrilla marketing, emerging business models, and business failure.
- Internet Resources, an annotated list of URLs at the end of each chapter, refer students to relevant web sites for more information on chapter concepts.
- Hands-on tools appear at appropriate points throughout, such as outlines for a feasibility plan, a business plan, and an operational plan—plus a 20-point test to verify the status of independent contractors, an incorporation checklist, and a new products checklist.
Customer Reviews:
Very well done!.......2007-03-30
This book is very well done! Although it's over 500 pages, the content is engaging, well-organized, and relevant. It includes great examples, interesting stories, questions, additional sources of information and internet resources. I highly recommend it for anyone considering launching an entrepreneurial venture!
Excellent.......2007-01-10
Fast shipping the quality was as stated for used book. Great to do business with
EXCELLENT TEXTBOOK!!!!.......2005-11-07
This was a required text for my Small Business Management class. I am usually not too fond of textbooks. But this one really sparked my interest. If there were ever a step-by-step guide for starting your own company, this is it. It is very easy to understand. It was written in clear English without any severely technical terms, so you don't feel like you need your MBA before you read the thing. Anything remotely complicated, it breaks down into realy simple terms. I really enjoyed this book. Its not very often you come acroos a textbook you wouldn't mind reading even if you're not taking the class.
Most informative book in 8 years of business college.......1996-10-15
This book fully explains how to start a real entrepreneurial
venture and make it a success! The author is the best
expert in the field. I was introduced to this book through
an instructor who had made this book required reading
for a credit class. Instead of wasting hundreds of dollars on some seminar to start a small business, purchase and
use this book to discover how much success you can
achieve by thinking "outside" of the box. Launch a venture that can give real financial support to you and your employees. Who knows, you may be the next Bill Gates just needing some basic tools to start. Here are those tools.
.......... Michael Taylor
.......... V.P. Students in Free Enterprise
..........University of North Florid
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General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Preparing the Business Plan: Resources for the Classroom (Gc-Principles of Management Ser.))
Managing Human Resources (with InfoTrac 1-Semester Printed Access Card)
Something Ventured: Telecourse Guide
Student Learning Guide for Longenecker/Moore/Petty/Palich's Small Business Management: An Entrepreneurial Emphasis, 13th
Something Ventured Telcourse
