Archive for the ‘Books’ Category
The Long Tail, Why The Future Of Business Is Selling Less Of More (Chris Anderson)
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | July 3, 2008 – 1:41 pm |
2 Comments
Chris Anderson’s book The Long Tail, is one of the business books that I found really interesting and worthy of reading, in how it explains and advocates why the future of business is selling less of more, as it’s title clearly puts it.
It all started with an article Chris Anderson, who is editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine, wrote in Wired that was called “The Long Tail” and that became quite popular and famous; after that he started a blog about it and then expanded his thoughts into a book.
In short the phrase “The Long Tail” is to describe certain business and economic models where products that are in low demand or have low sales volume can collectively make up a market share that rivals or exceeds the relatively few current bestsellers and blockbusters, if the store or distribution channel is large enough and the necessary filters are available to drive people to find these products. Examples of companies using such a model are Amazon, Netflix, iTunes and Google.
The book and the concept are very interesting, and with the evolution of the internet it’s easier than ever to cater to all tastes and provide all products: general best-sellers and niche products, increasing the scope of products available for sale, and obviously the opportunities to make more revenue.
If you’re selling products, marketing them or just interested in business: I recommend you read the article as well as the book; they’re really interesting and provide several examples and rich insight into how the business world and markets are changing.
# Amazon: The Long Tail
Blue Ocean Strategy (W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne)
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | June 13, 2008 – 5:14 pm | 1 Comment
One of the really interesting business books I’ve read and that I think are really useful for entrepreneurs and business people is “Blue Ocean Strategy (How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant)” by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne.
The book explores the authors’ vision of the kind of expanding, competitor-free markets that innovative companies can navigate. Unlike “red oceans,” which are well explored and crowded with competitors, “blue oceans” represent “untapped market space” and the “opportunity for highly profitable growth.
Using dozens of examples, from Southwest Airlines and the Cirque du Soleil to Curves and Starbucks, they present the approaches these companies took to open new doors for their businesses and reach out to satisfy untapped demand.
The key to create these “blue oceans” and navigate away from the fierce competition and into very profitable waters is through what they call “value innovation”, that focuses on utility, price, and cost positions, to create and capture new demand and to focus on the big picture, not the numbers.
The book isn’t just talk and theory, it actually provides a set of tools and frameworks businesses can use to develop their own “blue ocean” strategies. It’s more of a guidebook and action plan.
I personally found it to be a really great business book and very thought inspiring. A must-read for everyone involved in running a business.
# Amazon: Blue Ocean Strategy
Rules For Revolutionaries (Guy Kawasaki)
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | May 16, 2008 – 12:49 pm | 1 Comment
One of the very good books I recommend for entrepreneurs aiming to launch the next big product or service, is Rules For Revolutionaries: The Capitalist Manifesto for Creating and Marketing New Products and Services by Guy Kawasaki in collaboration with previous coauthor Michele Moreno.
Guy Kawasaki was former chief evangelist at Apple Computer, is currently Managing Director of Venture Capital firm Garage Technology Ventures and founder of Alltop.com;
This was the first book I read by Guy Kawasaki, and I truly enjoyed it; His writing style is really light and entertaining; yet precise, clear and straight to the point.
The book is divided into three parts, whose titles alone show the book’s style and tone:
1. Create Like a God: This part discusses the way that radical new products and services must really be found, thought of, developed and updated.
2. Command Like a King: This one explains what kind of leaders are truly necessary in order for such revolutionary products and developments to succeed, the best way to market them and how to avoid the usual big mistakes.
3. Work Like a Slave: This last part focuses on the kind of commitment that is actually required to beat the odds and change the world, and how clients should be dealth with and treated.
A concluding section presents a bunch of entertaining and inspirational quotes on topics like technology, transportation, politics, entertainment, and medicine that illustrate how even some of history’s most successful ideas and people have prevailed despite the scoffing of naysayers.
This book is a very interesting read that I recommend for everyone looking to create a new product or service; it really provides a bunch of very useful advice and tips and gives you pointers on how you should go about it all.
The Tipping Point (Malcolm Gladwell)
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | May 3, 2008 – 4:06 pm | No Comments
Every entrepreneur’s dream is to see their new product or service catch on, break into the mainstream and reach widespread adoption. Malcolm Gladwell’s book ‘The Tipping Point‘, published in 2002, talks about just that: the point where products, services, messages or ideas tip over and become a big success.
The book explores the concept of “epidemics” and how ideas, products, messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do, and what it is that makes them tip over and become an epidemic; starting from the influential kinds of people who can spread the message, to the stickiness of the message itself and the context in which it came to exist.
The book also discusses the three pivotal types of personalities that trigger “word-of-mouth epidemics” and help spread the message: Connectors, sociable personalities who bring people together; Mavens, who like to pass along knowledge; and Salesmen, adept at persuading the unenlightened.
It’s a very interesting read and provides a new way of thinking for how to handle promoting a product, idea or message; and how to eventually make it a success.
The book is very well written, in a really simple style, explaining the different concepts and ideas and giving a number of examples to illustrate everything, making the discussed points even clearer.
This book is recommended to every entrepreneur looking to build an effective marketing strategy for their new business; it really gives you a new perspective and line of thought that is very interesting and could help enormously in generating the required buzz around your ideas and creating a hype around your products, which should eventually result in more sales and success.
The Art Of The Start (Guy Kawasaki)
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | April 21, 2008 – 7:08 pm | No Comments
Many books have been published, walking new entrepreneurs through their first steps of setting up and running their business, but not all of them come from someone like Guy Kawasaki, former chief evangelist at Apple Computer, current Venture Capitalist and successful entrepreneur who has been involved with several startups over the years.
In his book “The Art Of The Start“, as its name suggests, Guy talks about the art of starting a business and how each and every task at hand should be handled; from identifying your customer base and writing a business plan to raising capital and bootstrapping to recruiting, establishing partnerships and building brand identity.
‘The Art of the Start’ shares all the essential steps to launch great products, services, and companies, as well as the ways you can unleash the entrepreneurial thinking and creativity that can keep you ahead of the pack.
Kawasaki provides readers with GIST, Great Ideas for Starting Things, that include his field-tested insider techniques for bootstrapping, branding, networking, recruiting, pitching, rainmaking, and buzz building.
The book is a very handy resource for anyone starting a business, giving them a checklist of points they have to focus on and consider to get their startup off the ground, up and running.
At different points, it does feel like the book is targeting technology startups seeking venture capital a bit more than others, but for entrepreneurs in the Arab world who don’t have as much access to venture capital for the time being, the focus should be more on the lessons and less on the specific details in these parts of the book.
#Amazon : The Art Of The Start (Guy Kawasaki)
Common Sense Business (Steve Gottry)
Mohamed Marwen Meddah | April 9, 2008 – 9:53 am | No Comments
As a small business that’s still making its first steps in the world, every startup needs as much advice and assistance as possible on how to move forward, what to expect, how to grow the business and what problems to avoid.
Steve Gottry’s book “Common Sense Business : Starting, Operating, and Growing Your Small Business–In Any Economy” is one of those books that does just what its title says, guiding any budding entrepreneur through the different stages of his startup’s life.
The book is a pretty light and very interesting read; in it the author pulls from his business experience and the ups and downs he’s been through to share the knowledge he accumulated and the different lessons he learned with the reader.
Gottry guides the reader through the six stages of the small-business “life cycle,” from dreaming and planning through the practical stages of implementation and growth. He advises on how to capitalize on your own personal strengths in relation to employees, customers, and vendors. He also shows how to structure your day, remain sane, and keep your business alive without drowning in it and becoming a workaholic.
In clear, direct writing style with quite an inspirational tone, Gottry’s advice is well organized and sincere; From implementation to growth, to preservation and evolution, to downsizing, he includes specific how-to’s, which explain the different aspects of running a business day in, day out.
It’s a really good read and practical guide based on real personal experience, which makes it very useful for any person planning to launch a business or already running one.
It would’ve been an even better book, in my opinion, if it got into a bit more detail on the initial phases of business concept creation and the launch details, but it still is worth the read.
# Amazon: Common Sense Business (Steve Gottry).
