Difference between revisions of "Newest Business and Finance Reviews"

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[[Category:Business and Finance|*]]
 
[[Category:Business and Finance|*]]
 
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{{newreview
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|author=Richard Baldwin
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<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->
|title=The Great Convergence
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{{Frontpage
|rating=4
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|isbn=0241636604
 +
|title=The Trading Game: A Confession
 +
|author=Gary Stevenson
 +
|rating=4.5
 +
|genre=Autobiography
 +
|summary=If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson.  A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice.  There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School of Economics.  Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy.  He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid.  It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank.  Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|author=Fiona Parashar
 +
|title=A Beautiful Way to Coach
 +
|rating=5
 
|genre=Business and Finance
 
|genre=Business and Finance
|summary=The globalisation of the world economy is a central factor in life and politics today. 'The Great Convergence' attempts to explain the current driving forces behind the phenomena and the likely consequences. It is well argued, and supported by a wealth of data and research, but it is not one for a general reader. A background in economic principles and an understanding of some key concepts would be a key requisite in getting the most out of this book. Without this background, the reader will be constantly switching from the text and cross-referencing the meaning of some of the vocabulary used. With that note of caution, and the required understanding, Richard Baldwin's analysis is compelling.
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|summary= So what am I doing reading this book, using this book, and being audacious enough to review it?  Truth is I bought it out of curiosity. I was at an on-line launch for the book and Fiona’s description of her Vision Days appealed to me. I wanted to see if there were things in there that I could use with someone I am currently helping / supporting / trying to mentor – without committing them to a full day, which I know would send them scurrying for their burrow.  I also wanted to see if I could give myself a Vision Day, to bring me away from their vision and back to my own.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>067466048X</amazonuk>
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|isbn=103211603X
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Julian Wiles
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|isbn=303091657X
|title=Thinking Allowed
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|title=Disaster in the Boardroom: Six Dysfunctions Everyone Should Understand
|rating=4
+
|author=Gerry Brown and Randall S Peterson
 +
|rating=5
 
|genre=Business and Finance
 
|genre=Business and Finance
|summary=''Thinking Allowed''? ''Hmm'', I thought, ''what has that got to do with building a thriving optical lens business?'' But within a few pages of starting to read, I was convinced that it was perfectYou see, this isn't a book which you read, rather like a Delia Smith book, to give you a precise recipe for how you must proceed to achieve  a perfect result.  No two businesses are alike, any more than any two owners are alike and Julian Wiles allows you to approach ''your'' business from all angles: there are even ways you can get his personal adviceThis is no ordinary 'how to' book.  
+
|summary=Boards must act in the best interests of their stakeholders and ensure that they are well-managed and financially secure. This might seem obvious but a series of disasters - some of which have resulted in death or the collapse of a major company - have left interested parties asking what the board was doing.  Where were theyOccasionally the boards were unaware of what was happening or they preferred to turn a blind eye, leaving watchers wondering which was worse - ignorance or criminalityThe 21st century has delivered some major company scandals but what has happened is nothing new: Gerry Brown and Randall S Peterson give us a very readable trip through such major debacles as railway mania, the South Sea Bubble and even tulip maniaOver three centuries we seem to have learned very little.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524633100</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Alastair Fraser
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|isbn=1529393930
|title=Forestry Flavours of the Month: The Changing Face of World Forestry
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|title=Making a Living: How to Craft Your Business
|rating=4.5
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|author=Sophie Rochester
|genre=Business and Finance
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|rating=5
|summary=Alastair Fraser's experience of forestry spans more than five decades and having the benefit of the long view he's ideally placed to consider the changes which have occurred over the course of his careerHe also has the ability, not as common as it ought to be amongst professionals, of being able to look at what he does both from the point of view of the business ''and'' the people who work in it and are affected by it.  There's a lack of tunnel vision too: he sees what's happening in forestry both in the narrow focus and where it sits globally so far as economics and politics are concerned.
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|genre=Crafts
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524628921</amazonuk>
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|summary=''Starting a creative business has never been easier.''
 +
 
 +
''If not now, when?''
 +
 
 +
I know that I'm not alone in having wondered whether or not I could turn my hobby into a business.  There's a lot of motivation to do so: I make more items than we can sensibly use and there are a lot of people who have been delighted to accept what I make as giftsSelling would offset the costs, which can be quite considerable and it could be fun to do, couldn't it?  But where to start?  What do I need to think about?  Well, the first thing anyone who is considering turning a crafting hobby into a business should do is to read ''Making a Living''.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Chris Voss and Tahl Raz
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|isbn=suppl_stafl
|title= Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It
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|title=Supply Chain 20/20: A Clear View  on the Local Multiplier Effect for Book Lovers
 +
|author=Kim Staflund
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Business and Finance
+
|genre=Reference
|summary= Negotiation is ''nothing more than communication with results'', according to Chris Voss.  ''Never Split the Difference'' is all about maximising the chances of these results being in your favour. Drawing upon years of experience as a crisis and kidnapping negotiator, Voss has developed a set of highly honed tools, field-tested in numerous high-stakes negotiation situations involving the FBI. In contrast to the widely accepted paradigm for negotiation taught in schools and universities, this toolkit throws aside complex game theory and dense mathematical considerations in favour of an approach that places emotional intelligence, empathy and subtle communication techniques at its core. The focus is on developing an understanding of the thought process of individuals during any given discussion. Effective communication not only helps derive these insights, but allows them to be used to move a negotiation in the direction you want it to go, while simultaneously resolving a discussion with minimal conflict.  
+
|summary=So, you've finished writing your book and you think the hard work is all done?  You're convinced that all you need to do now is get it published and the money will start rolling in?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847941486</amazonuk>
+
 
 +
Wrong and wrong again. You presumably wrote the book because you wanted to - and you had a talent for delivering the written word. You knew your subject back to front.  Now you're going to have to get to grips with the book supply chain, which even parts of the publishing industry believe to be wrong but it's too difficult to change and no one wants to be the first to try.  Then, when you ''finally'' have a copy of the book in your hands, you're going to have to work out how to sell it - because it ''is'' going to be down to you.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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|author= Liam Byrne
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{{Frontpage
|title= Dragons: Ten Entrepreneurs Who Built Britain
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|isbn=0008350388
|rating= 4
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|title=We Need to Talk About Money
|genre= Business and Finance
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|author=Otegha Uwagba
|summary=Liam Byrne MP, a minister in the last Labour government, has come up with a novel way of telling British history through the ages in this bookHis approach is not one of Kings and Queens, wars or scientific discoveries, but through the business world and several of the key – and often unsung – entrepreneurs and commercial venturers from medieval times to the twentieth century.   As he says in his preface, the people through whose lives he has chosen to narrate the saga reveal the best and worst of human endeavours, as he serves us up several explorers, inventors and moral leaders alongside a motley crew of fraudsters, warmongers and unembarrassed imperialistsAll of them took risks, some made fortunes and some lost them, but for better or worse they all contributed towards the tale of British enterprise and the making of the modern world.
+
|rating=5
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781857474</amazonuk>
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|genre=Politics and Society
 +
|summary=''To be a dark-skinned Black woman is to be seen as less desirable, less hireable, less intelligent and ultimately less valuable than my light-skinned counterparts...''  ''We Need to Talk About Money'' by Otegha Uwagba
 +
 
 +
''0.7% of English Literature GCSE students in England study a book by a writer of colour while only 7% study a book by a woman.''  ''The Bookseller'' 29 June 2021
 +
 
 +
Otegha Uwagba came to the UK from Kenya when she was five years oldHer sisters were seven and nine.  It was her mother who came first, with her father joining them later.  The family was hard-working, principled and determined that their children would have the best education possible. There was always a painful awareness of money although this did not translate into a shortage of anything: it was simply carefully harvested.  When Otegha was ten the family acquired a carFor Otegha, education meant a scholarship to a private school in London and then a place at New College, Oxford.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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|author= Stephen Witt
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{{Frontpage
|title= How Music Got Free: The Inventor, the Music Man, and the Thief
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|isbn=reed3
|rating= 4
+
|title=Why You? 101 Interview Questions You'll Never Fear Again (3rd Edition)
|genre= Business and Finance
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|author=James Reed
|summary= In the digital age, new technology made recorded music a free-for-all. It was good news for the consumer, but dealt a major blow to the beleaguered music industry.  Where people once amassed physical collections, they now had the choice of file-sharing instead.  This book describes how everything changed from the mid-1990s onwardsIt is however written more with the computer enthusiast or business student than the music lover in mind.  
+
|rating=5
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445636786</amazonuk>
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|genre=Business and Finance
 +
|summary=Six years on from the original edition, the book is being re-issued with a bonus chapter entitled ''The Future of Work'' which includes an additional 10 questions.   I've come to this some 6 years after reviewing the original book and my life has changed significantly in the meantime. I'm no longer working in middle-management having opted for a down-shift into reduced hours freelancing to enable me to focus on other (not necessarily paying) workI can therefore relate to the first point made in this chapter namely that independence and flexibility are core skills that employees need to have.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Rasmus Hougaard, Jacqueline Carter and Gillian Coutts
+
|isbn=3110706075
|title=One Second Ahead: Enhance Your Performance at Work with Mindfulness
+
|title=Making a Difference: Leadership, Change and Giving Back the Independent Director Way
 +
|author=Gerry Brown
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Business and Finance
 
|genre=Business and Finance
|summary=Have you ever worked at a task and found your mind wandering to something else?  Do you find yourself breaking off what you're doing to answer an email? Do you try to multitask, thinking that you're being more efficient?  Do you have far too much to attend to, to complete and nowhere near enough time to do it all?
+
|summary=''You're not there to run the organisation. You are there to make sure that it is run properly.''
  
You do? Me tooYou need this book.
+
Gerry Brown is passionate about the benefits which Independent Directors can bring to a board - not just a corporate board, but the board of an NHS Trust, a university, a sports organisation or a charity. He's particularly keen that there's increased diversity on these boards and feels that this would help to avoid some of the scandals (Oxfam, Kids Company - we're thinking about you) which have occurred in recent yearsFor this to happen, boards need to have a wider field of people to choose from when they're looking for an ID.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1137551909</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Danny Rogers
+
|isbn=3030513025
|title=Campaigns that Shook the World: The Evolution of Public Relations
+
|title=The Independent Director in Society: Our current crisis of governance and what to do
|rating= 5
+
|author=Gerry Brown, Andrew Kakabadse and Filipe Morais
|genre= Business and Finance  
+
|rating=5
|summary= I dithered about how to begin this review. On one hand I thought I should probably start by saying that I have a work related interest in marketing and communications. On the other hand, Danny Rogers has written a book which appealed to me on several levels. Campaigns are about psychology and storytelling – which of course leads us into branding but also feature critical issues around concept delivery. In short, I was looking forward to reading this for many reasons – and it didn’t disappoint.
+
|genre=Business and Finance
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749475099</amazonuk>
+
|summary=Independent Director: ''a job for which no one is qualified''  (''Financial Times'')
 +
 
 +
Independent Director: ''An independent director is a member of the board of directors who (1) do not have a material relationship with the company, (2) is not part of the company's executive team, and (3) is not involved with the day-to-day operations of the company. (Corporate Finance Institute)
 +
 
 +
Gerry Brown, Andrew Kakabadse and Filipe Morais feel that the relationship between the executive members of boards and the independent directors (formerly known as non-executive directors), trustees or governors of organisations is frequently unbalanced. The function of the independent director is to have general oversight of the executive side of the board - to spot when and where things are going wrong - but all too often the relationship is too cosy, too antagonistic or the independent director lacks the knowledge and/or experience to understand what's happening or to know how to intervene. Covid-19 has highlighted the failings and weaknesses of leadership and governance and you might be tempted to think that these are extraordinary times and that all will be well once we get back to 'normal' but a pandemic was predicted and modelled in the past and there has been a general failure to prepare for what has happened - and is still happening.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Tony Crabbe
+
|isbn=0241453585
|title=Busy: How to Thrive in a World of Too Much
+
|title=Banking On It: How I Disrupted an Industry
 +
|author=Anne Boden
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Lifestyle
 
|summary=Serendipity often brings you to the important books.  Recently I heard myself say to a friend: ''I'm far too busy to do some of the important stuff''.  It pulled me up short: there was definitely something wrong here - and then I had the opportunity to listen to an audio download of ''Busy'' and I knew that it was something I ''had'' to do and take notice of if I was to stop going ''backwards''.  Because that was what I was doing.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B01727ER84</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Shaun Smith and Andy Milligan
 
|title= On Purpose: Delivering a Branded Customer Experience People Love
 
|rating= 3.5
 
|genre= Business and Finance
 
|summary= This is a book about business things – branding, specifically. How to communicate your purpose to customers through an identifiable marketing strategy. How to ensure your company portrays the image you want and how to get your staff, and customers, to buy into it.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749471913</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Kate Tojeiro
 
|title= The Art of Possible
 
|rating= 4
 
|genre= Business and Finance
 
|summary= As I recently wrote on this website, I started reading management manuals and self-improvement books at a time when my life was not going so great.  Since then, it seems that they have continued to drop into my life just as I need them.  I'm sure there's something to the science of "serendipity", which basically means we notice stuff more when it's what we need.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0993236901</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Damian McKinney
 
|title= The Commando Entrepreneur
 
|rating= 4
 
|genre= Business and Finance
 
|summary= It always helps to know the bias of anyone reviewing a book for you, so cards on the table: I am something of a "self-help" / "self-improvement" junkie.  I use both expressions because it's often difficult to know where the boundary between management text books and teach-yourself-a-better-way-to-live books lies.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1909273619</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Ray Barron Woolford
 
|title=Food Bank Britain
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|summary=One morning Ray Barron Woolford watched as a smartly-dressed young man foraged in waste bins for food, less than a mile from the riches of the City of London.  Intrigued as to what was going on he went to ask.  The man explained to him that he'd just got a job after two years of being unemployed, but it would be five weeks before he was paid.  He couldn't claim benefits as he was in work and had no savings, so the bins had to be his source of food and by the following week he would have to walk to work as he couldn't afford the fares.  That was the inspiration for the [http://www.wecarefoodbanks.co.uk/ We Care Food Bank].
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>099308091X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Gerry Brown
 
|title=The Independent Director: The Non-Executive Director's Guide to Effective Board Presence
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Business and Finance
 
|genre=Business and Finance
|summary=In the United Kingdom independent directors are usually known as non-executive directors to distinguish them from the executive – those people charged with actually running the company on a day-to-day basis - but Gerry Brown usually refers to them as independent directors, a phrase which is common in other parts of the worldInitially, I found the phrase somewhat unusual but as I read ''The Independent Director'' I came to prefer that usage as it stresses what the director must be  above all else – independent and able to stand back from the management of a business and view what is happening  and what is planned with a dispassionate and critical eye.  There's little in the way of training and it can be argued that no one is actually qualified to do the job, but Brown's book is as good as you're going to get in terms of spelling out the responsibilities and pitfalls.
+
|summary=Anne Boden had an impressive track record in the financial services sector: she had thirty years experience at a senior level including Group Chief Operating Officer at Allied Irish Bank.  AIB was in the throes of recovering from the 2008 financial crisis when she arrived and she was one of the first to realise that banks needed to do things differentlyAIB thought it was at the cutting edge when it proposed opening a branch which allowed customers to access their accounts via a terminal. Boden took things a step further, realising that customers could access their accounts from their homes: the old branch network, employing thousands of people, would soon become redundant.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>113748053X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Stephen Platt
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|isbn=3110641119
|title=Criminal Capital: How the Finance Industry Facilitates Crime
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|title=The Journey Mapping Playbook: A Practical Guide to Preparing, Facilitating and Unlocking the Value of Customer Journey Mapping
|rating=4
+
|author=Jerry Angrave
 +
|rating=5
 
|genre=Business and Finance
 
|genre=Business and Finance
|summary=It used to be estate agents we reviled the most, but they've now achieved relative respectability.  MPs briefly took the top spot, but for many years now the list has been topped by bankers following the 2008 financial crisis, when huge taxpayer-funded financial bailouts were required to keep the world's financial system afloatMost people will think that we've heard the worst of what has been going on, but Stephen Platt believes that excessive risk taking and mis-selling might well be just a minor part of what is ''still'' happening in the industry and that government attempts to counter the problems are misguided and unlikely to be effective.
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|summary=I had no idea what 'journey mapping' was until I read this playbook but any business that engages with their customers will benefit from reading the book and acting on the contentsYou're going to learn how to run a workshop to discover what it feels like to be one of your own customers.  At this point, please don't say 'oh (expletive deleted) not another workshop' because this is going to be fun and you're going to be surprised by what emerges.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>113733729X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Jonathan Gabay
+
|isbn=3110641291
|title=Brand Psychology: Consumer Perceptions, Corporate Reputations
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|title=The Radical Innovation Playbook: A Practical Guide for Harnessing New, Novel or Game-Changing Breakthroughs
 +
|author=Olga Kokshagina and Allen Alexander
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Business and Finance
 
|genre=Business and Finance
|summary=Confession - I'm a bit of a brand geek. I do have some marketing work experience but that isn't the reason why I'm a bit of a brand geek. I think the attraction for me is that brands have, or in some cases, are, stories. I have always been fascinated by how and why people can relate to those stories, in the same way that I am fascinated by how anyone relates to any story! If you have any interest in the business of brands, this is a fascinating read and it delivers on far more fronts than just the business one.
+
|summary=So, why bother?  Every time you set out to do something new you end up with the same thing in a slightly different form and quite a bit of money spent. Why not just leave it as it is?  After all, it's ''roughly'' working, isn't it?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749471735</amazonuk>
+
 
 +
You might not have said it, but you've probably thought it. You've also thought the small, incremental improvements which you have been able to make - the optimisation of your core business with cost efficiencies wherever possible, the extension of your existing products into new areas - haven't really delivered in terms of ''growth''. It's been manageable and largely risk-free but you could easily be challenged by a competitor who takes a more radical approach.  You've merely kept the business ticking over and there's a nagging suspicion in the back of your mind that an organisation designed for the twentieth century might not survive in the twenty-first.  What you need is innovation - ''radical'' innovation.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Jacky Fitt
+
|isbn=1472962044
|title=How to Get Inside Someone's Mind and Stay There: The business owner's guide to content marketing and confident copywriting
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|title=Creating Value Through Technology: Discover the Tech that Can Transform Your Business
|rating=4
+
|author=Andrew Hampshire
 +
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Business and Finance
 
|genre=Business and Finance
|summary=As a small business owner I know it's difficult - sometimes it feels impossible - to get your message out to your potential customers in a manner which is going to reward the effort which you put into itBesides, how do you know who your potential customers are? How do you know how they would like to be approached? In fact, how are you going to get inside their head - and stay there? Jacky Fitt has written a comprehensive guide which takes you through what's needed and allows you to develop your own action plan for your business.
+
|summary=I was once told that 'technology' is anything that happens after you're eighteen, so there's been a lot of technology in my life.  I once worked for a manager who judged if an accountant was reputable by establishing whether or not they had a typewriterTimes  - thankfully - have moved on. Nowadays the problem is that someone running a business doesn't have the time to keep up with constant innovation and they might also be scared because previous IT investments haven't delivered as expected. It's also a fact that no one develops a business because they have the knowledge of the required technology, so they start off in conversations about technology feeling that they're at a disadvantage. They need help, but they frequently don't know what help they need.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00MXXQ5GU</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Gareth Murphy
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|isbn=1526362759
|title=Cowboys and Indies: The Epic History of the Record Industry
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|title=Dosh: How to Earn It, Save It, Spend It, Grow It, Give It
 +
|author=Rashmi Sirdeshpande
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Entertainment
+
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=It’s not difficult to find a history of popular or recorded music, written around the musical names who made it happen.  ''Cowboys and Indies'' takes a different approachWhile there is plenty in these pages about several of the most important stars, there is just as much again if not sometimes more about the movers and shakers, the inventors, managers, impresarios, and record label founders without whom there would not have been a record industry.
+
|summary=What a relief!  A book about money, for children, with clear explanations of what it is, why it matters, how to acquire more of it (nope - robbing banks is out) and what you can do with it when you've managed to get hold of it.  Your reasons for wanting money don't matter: we all need it to some extentYou might want to go into business, be a clever shopper, a saver (you might even become an ''investor'') and there might be something you really, ''really'' want to buyThere's also the possibility of using to do good in the world.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781254524</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Ann Handley
+
|author= Linda Scott
|title=Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content
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|title= The Double X Economy
|rating=4
+
|rating=5
|genre=Business and Finance
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|genre= Politics and Society
|summary=Ann Handley has compiled a one stop resource for writers of any kind of marketing and promotional material. Assuming you have command of basic vocabulary and know how to write a simple sentence, Handley takes you through everything you could ever need to know for a huge variety of platforms, purposes and problems, in order to better represent your business on the internet.
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|summary='' Women are economically disadvantaged in every country in the world''. It's a bold statement for an opening chapter, but it's far from hyperbole as the following pages explain. This book shines a light on what is happening in different places, and the impact on the local and world economy. What can be learnt from the great strides in gender-equalising legislation in the west? What can be done about the selling of young women into marriage, and what can chimpanzees and bonobos teach us about mothering?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00PJOTG4I</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571353606
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|title=Why You? 101 Interview Questions You'll Never Fear Again
+
|isbn=0349424926
 +
|title=Life's Work: 12 Proven Ways to Fast-Track Your Career
 
|author=James Reed
 
|author=James Reed
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Business and Finance
 
|genre=Business and Finance
|summary=No-one likes doing job interviews. This includes most recruiting managers, but for candidates it is one of life's most stressful situations.  No matter whether it's the next step in our carefully planned career or ''just a job'', no matter whether it's our first job or our fifteenth, that 45 minutes to an hour of conversation has the potential to fundamentally affect our happiness for the foreseeable future.
+
|summary=Do you have a guaranteed and more-than-adequate income which will last the rest of your life? Do you have no need to work, either for income or fulfilment?  If you even hesitate over either of those questions then you really ought to read ''Life's Work': 12 Proven Ways to Fast-Track Your Career''.  If you're not yet in work or considering that you might need to make some changes then this is the book you need.  James Reed is the chairman and chief executive of REED, Britain's biggest and best-known name in the recruitment industry.  Who better to give you the advice you need?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241970210</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|title=Encyclopedia Paranoiaca
+
|author=Anne Boden
|author=Henry Beard and Christopher Cerf
+
|title=The Money Revolution
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
+
|genre= Business and Finance
|summary=We're screwed. Wherever we look, whatever we think of doing, there is a reason why we shouldn't be doing it, and people to back that reason up with scientific data.  Take any aspect of your daily life – what you eat, how you work, how you rest even, what you touch – all have problems that could provoke a serious illness or worse.  And outside that daily sphere there are economic disasters, nuclear meltdowns, errant AI scientists and passing comets that could turn our world upside down at the blink of an eye. Perhaps then you better read this book first – for it may well turn out to be your last…
+
|summary= Money is changing. It might not be in the ways you think. We’re not suddenly getting a 3p or £3 coin (and have you ever even found a country that offers anything different to the 1, 2, 5 model?) We’re getting a lot more digital with payments, which seems to suit most people apart from charity collectors and the homeless on the street, but although this book has the subtitle that includes the word ''digital'', it’s not really about this either. Instead, it's about the ''management'' of your finances, and how to take control.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715649213</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1789660610
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=The Price of Fish A New Approach to Wicked Economics and Better Decisions
 
|author=Michael Mainelli and Ian Harris
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Business and Finance
 
|summary=Don't be put off by the title. The Price of Fish isn't just a treatise on how the local fishmonger chooses to mark up his prize catch.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1857886224</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Steve J Martin, Noah J Goldstein and Robert B Cialdini
+
|isbn=1949395324
|title=The small BIG: small changes that spark big influence
+
|title=Financial Accounting Essentials You Always Wanted To Know: 4th Edition
 +
|author=Kalpesh Ashar
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Business and Finance
 
|genre=Business and Finance
|summary=It's a commonly-held belief that if you want to advance your business - bring in the extra money, get more customers and generally move up a step - then you're going to have to spend big money and bring in the experts.  Martin, Goldstein and Cialdini tackle the problem from the other end: sometimes it's the smallest, least expensive and quick changes which can bring about the improvement that you needIn ''The small BIG'' they offer over fifty tips, hints, ideas which can make the differenceSometimes they cost nothing, but bring in millions. Occasionally they require a small investment of your time, but it can be as little as five minutes.
+
|summary=''Financial Accounting Essentials You Always Wanted to Know ''gives people without an accounting background who have risen in a company the knowledge to understand the accounts which show how the company is doing.  The book begins by looking at why financial accounting systems are necessary, then moves on to give an excellent overview of the types of accounting systems which will be encountered and the terms usedWe then look in detail at the balance sheet, the income statement and the statement of cash flows...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781252742</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=William Poundstone
+
|isbn=1946383627
|title=How to Predict the Unpredictable: The Art of Outsmarting Almost Everyone
+
|title=Cost Accounting & Management Essentials You Always Wanted To Know
|rating=4
+
|author=Vibrant Publishers
|genre=Reference
 
|summary=William Poundstone believes that we are all in the business of predicting, whether it be something as minor as playing rock, paper, scissors to pay a bar bill though to anticipating how the housing or stock markets are going to move. Now, I'm not particularly competitive - if whatever it is means ''that'' much to someone else then I'd rather let them have it - so this book didn't appeal to me on the basis of doing better than someone else, but I was interested in how it might be possible to predict what is going to happen.  So, care to predict how it stacked up?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780744072</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=The Economist
 
|title=Pocket World in Figures 2015
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Reference
+
|genre=Business and Finance
|summary=There are people who don't understand the joy of raw data: no accompanying analysis (or spin) - just a collection of figures relevant to a particular circumstanceIf you're one of those people then this book will mean little to you, but if you want a pocket (well, certainly handbag or briefcase) work of reference then this book will be a treasure.  I once gave a copy to a diplomat and he kept his wife awake until the early hours as he came across another gem which she had to know without delayThe 2015 edition is the twenty fourth in the series - and diplomatic (and similar) spouses everywhere should prepare themselves for the onslaught.
+
|summary=I'm capable of drawing up a profit and loss account (income statement in the USA) and a balance sheet and I do so for my own business and for another organisationThe accounts give me ''broadly'' what I need: I know whether we're making a profit or a loss and I can look at the expenses and see what looks as though it could be trimmed back in future yearsMy problem was that the accounts didn't really give me any help in making decisions, which was why I turned to ''Cost Accounting and Management'', part of Vibrant Publishers' Self-Learning and Management series...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781252734</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Alannah Moore
+
|isbn=1072549271
|title=Create Your Own Online Store (using WordPress) in a Weekend
+
|title=The Simple Act of Self-Publishing With Amazon: A Simple Step by Step Guide
 +
|author=Georgianne Landy-Kordis
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Business and Finance
 
|genre=Business and Finance
|summary=I've run a website for over eight years now but I've always shied away from any inclusion of e-commerce on the site.  It seemed like too large a subject, too much complexity and choice and the possibility of problems which could go disastrously wrong.  I first encountered Alannah Moore when I read [[The Creative Person's Website Builder by Alannah Moore|The Creative Person's Website Builder]] and was impressed by the way that she approached her subject, so when I had the opportunity to see how to create an online store in a weekend, I jumped at the chance.
+
|summary=I frequently meet authors who are struggling to be published by the traditional houses, but when I suggest self-publishing they explain that they don't have the big bucks required to go down that road with Author Solutions or Matador or their like.  I then ask if they've considered Kindle and the answer is, inevitably, that they wouldn't know where to start.  I can empathise with thatDespite having used a computer for about thirty years, running most of my life ''and'' a website online, I'm still nervous when it comes to starting something newI like someone to hold my hand as I go through it for the first timeThat was why I was very interested when ''The Simple Act of Self Publishing With Amazon'' came across my desk...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781571430</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Money: The Unauthorised Biography
 
|author=Felix Martin
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Business and Finance
 
|summary=Occasionally books are not exactly what they seemWhen I picked this up, read the blurb and began the contents inside, I was expecting a kind of biography or history of money through the agesThe opening chapter, a brief sketch of the economy of the Pacific island of Yap and how it worked, seemed to confirm thisIt tells us how in the late nineteenth century Yap, east of the Philippine Islands, had an unwieldy coinage consisting of stone wheels around 12ft in diameter, called fei.  The population did not carry these around, let alone own them like we possess pounds and pence, as they were part of a sophisticated system of credit management.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099578522</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 +
 +
Move on to [[Newest Children's Non-Fiction Reviews]]

Latest revision as of 11:17, 27 March 2024


0241636604.jpg

Review of

The Trading Game: A Confession by Gary Stevenson

4.5star.jpg Autobiography

If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader. Full Review

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Review of

A Beautiful Way to Coach by Fiona Parashar

5star.jpg Business and Finance

So what am I doing reading this book, using this book, and being audacious enough to review it? Truth is I bought it out of curiosity. I was at an on-line launch for the book and Fiona’s description of her Vision Days appealed to me. I wanted to see if there were things in there that I could use with someone I am currently helping / supporting / trying to mentor – without committing them to a full day, which I know would send them scurrying for their burrow. I also wanted to see if I could give myself a Vision Day, to bring me away from their vision and back to my own. Full Review

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Review of

Disaster in the Boardroom: Six Dysfunctions Everyone Should Understand by Gerry Brown and Randall S Peterson

5star.jpg Business and Finance

Boards must act in the best interests of their stakeholders and ensure that they are well-managed and financially secure. This might seem obvious but a series of disasters - some of which have resulted in death or the collapse of a major company - have left interested parties asking what the board was doing. Where were they? Occasionally the boards were unaware of what was happening or they preferred to turn a blind eye, leaving watchers wondering which was worse - ignorance or criminality. The 21st century has delivered some major company scandals but what has happened is nothing new: Gerry Brown and Randall S Peterson give us a very readable trip through such major debacles as railway mania, the South Sea Bubble and even tulip mania. Over three centuries we seem to have learned very little. Full Review

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Review of

Making a Living: How to Craft Your Business by Sophie Rochester

5star.jpg Crafts

Starting a creative business has never been easier.

If not now, when?

I know that I'm not alone in having wondered whether or not I could turn my hobby into a business. There's a lot of motivation to do so: I make more items than we can sensibly use and there are a lot of people who have been delighted to accept what I make as gifts. Selling would offset the costs, which can be quite considerable and it could be fun to do, couldn't it? But where to start? What do I need to think about? Well, the first thing anyone who is considering turning a crafting hobby into a business should do is to read Making a Living. Full Review

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Review of

Supply Chain 20/20: A Clear View on the Local Multiplier Effect for Book Lovers by Kim Staflund

4.5star.jpg Reference

So, you've finished writing your book and you think the hard work is all done? You're convinced that all you need to do now is get it published and the money will start rolling in?

Wrong and wrong again. You presumably wrote the book because you wanted to - and you had a talent for delivering the written word. You knew your subject back to front. Now you're going to have to get to grips with the book supply chain, which even parts of the publishing industry believe to be wrong but it's too difficult to change and no one wants to be the first to try. Then, when you finally have a copy of the book in your hands, you're going to have to work out how to sell it - because it is going to be down to you. Full Review

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Review of

We Need to Talk About Money by Otegha Uwagba

5star.jpg Politics and Society

To be a dark-skinned Black woman is to be seen as less desirable, less hireable, less intelligent and ultimately less valuable than my light-skinned counterparts... We Need to Talk About Money by Otegha Uwagba

0.7% of English Literature GCSE students in England study a book by a writer of colour while only 7% study a book by a woman. The Bookseller 29 June 2021

Otegha Uwagba came to the UK from Kenya when she was five years old. Her sisters were seven and nine. It was her mother who came first, with her father joining them later. The family was hard-working, principled and determined that their children would have the best education possible. There was always a painful awareness of money although this did not translate into a shortage of anything: it was simply carefully harvested. When Otegha was ten the family acquired a car. For Otegha, education meant a scholarship to a private school in London and then a place at New College, Oxford. Full Review

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Review of

Why You? 101 Interview Questions You'll Never Fear Again (3rd Edition) by James Reed

5star.jpg Business and Finance

Six years on from the original edition, the book is being re-issued with a bonus chapter entitled The Future of Work which includes an additional 10 questions. I've come to this some 6 years after reviewing the original book and my life has changed significantly in the meantime. I'm no longer working in middle-management having opted for a down-shift into reduced hours freelancing to enable me to focus on other (not necessarily paying) work. I can therefore relate to the first point made in this chapter namely that independence and flexibility are core skills that employees need to have. Full Review

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Review of

Making a Difference: Leadership, Change and Giving Back the Independent Director Way by Gerry Brown

4star.jpg Business and Finance

You're not there to run the organisation. You are there to make sure that it is run properly.

Gerry Brown is passionate about the benefits which Independent Directors can bring to a board - not just a corporate board, but the board of an NHS Trust, a university, a sports organisation or a charity. He's particularly keen that there's increased diversity on these boards and feels that this would help to avoid some of the scandals (Oxfam, Kids Company - we're thinking about you) which have occurred in recent years. For this to happen, boards need to have a wider field of people to choose from when they're looking for an ID. Full Review

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Review of

The Independent Director in Society: Our current crisis of governance and what to do by Gerry Brown, Andrew Kakabadse and Filipe Morais

5star.jpg Business and Finance

Independent Director: a job for which no one is qualified (Financial Times)

Independent Director: An independent director is a member of the board of directors who (1) do not have a material relationship with the company, (2) is not part of the company's executive team, and (3) is not involved with the day-to-day operations of the company. (Corporate Finance Institute)

Gerry Brown, Andrew Kakabadse and Filipe Morais feel that the relationship between the executive members of boards and the independent directors (formerly known as non-executive directors), trustees or governors of organisations is frequently unbalanced. The function of the independent director is to have general oversight of the executive side of the board - to spot when and where things are going wrong - but all too often the relationship is too cosy, too antagonistic or the independent director lacks the knowledge and/or experience to understand what's happening or to know how to intervene. Covid-19 has highlighted the failings and weaknesses of leadership and governance and you might be tempted to think that these are extraordinary times and that all will be well once we get back to 'normal' but a pandemic was predicted and modelled in the past and there has been a general failure to prepare for what has happened - and is still happening. Full Review

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Review of

Banking On It: How I Disrupted an Industry by Anne Boden

5star.jpg Business and Finance

Anne Boden had an impressive track record in the financial services sector: she had thirty years experience at a senior level including Group Chief Operating Officer at Allied Irish Bank. AIB was in the throes of recovering from the 2008 financial crisis when she arrived and she was one of the first to realise that banks needed to do things differently. AIB thought it was at the cutting edge when it proposed opening a branch which allowed customers to access their accounts via a terminal. Boden took things a step further, realising that customers could access their accounts from their homes: the old branch network, employing thousands of people, would soon become redundant. Full Review

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Review of

The Journey Mapping Playbook: A Practical Guide to Preparing, Facilitating and Unlocking the Value of Customer Journey Mapping by Jerry Angrave

5star.jpg Business and Finance

I had no idea what 'journey mapping' was until I read this playbook but any business that engages with their customers will benefit from reading the book and acting on the contents. You're going to learn how to run a workshop to discover what it feels like to be one of your own customers. At this point, please don't say 'oh (expletive deleted) not another workshop' because this is going to be fun and you're going to be surprised by what emerges. Full Review

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Review of

The Radical Innovation Playbook: A Practical Guide for Harnessing New, Novel or Game-Changing Breakthroughs by Olga Kokshagina and Allen Alexander

5star.jpg Business and Finance

So, why bother? Every time you set out to do something new you end up with the same thing in a slightly different form and quite a bit of money spent. Why not just leave it as it is? After all, it's roughly working, isn't it?

You might not have said it, but you've probably thought it. You've also thought the small, incremental improvements which you have been able to make - the optimisation of your core business with cost efficiencies wherever possible, the extension of your existing products into new areas - haven't really delivered in terms of growth. It's been manageable and largely risk-free but you could easily be challenged by a competitor who takes a more radical approach. You've merely kept the business ticking over and there's a nagging suspicion in the back of your mind that an organisation designed for the twentieth century might not survive in the twenty-first. What you need is innovation - radical innovation. Full Review

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Review of

Creating Value Through Technology: Discover the Tech that Can Transform Your Business by Andrew Hampshire

4.5star.jpg Business and Finance

I was once told that 'technology' is anything that happens after you're eighteen, so there's been a lot of technology in my life. I once worked for a manager who judged if an accountant was reputable by establishing whether or not they had a typewriter. Times - thankfully - have moved on. Nowadays the problem is that someone running a business doesn't have the time to keep up with constant innovation and they might also be scared because previous IT investments haven't delivered as expected. It's also a fact that no one develops a business because they have the knowledge of the required technology, so they start off in conversations about technology feeling that they're at a disadvantage. They need help, but they frequently don't know what help they need. Full Review

1526362759.jpg

Review of

Dosh: How to Earn It, Save It, Spend It, Grow It, Give It by Rashmi Sirdeshpande

5star.jpg Children's Non-Fiction

What a relief! A book about money, for children, with clear explanations of what it is, why it matters, how to acquire more of it (nope - robbing banks is out) and what you can do with it when you've managed to get hold of it. Your reasons for wanting money don't matter: we all need it to some extent. You might want to go into business, be a clever shopper, a saver (you might even become an investor) and there might be something you really, really want to buy. There's also the possibility of using to do good in the world. Full Review

0571353606.jpg

Review of

The Double X Economy by Linda Scott

5star.jpg Politics and Society

Women are economically disadvantaged in every country in the world. It's a bold statement for an opening chapter, but it's far from hyperbole as the following pages explain. This book shines a light on what is happening in different places, and the impact on the local and world economy. What can be learnt from the great strides in gender-equalising legislation in the west? What can be done about the selling of young women into marriage, and what can chimpanzees and bonobos teach us about mothering? Full Review

0349424926.jpg

Review of

Life's Work: 12 Proven Ways to Fast-Track Your Career by James Reed

5star.jpg Business and Finance

Do you have a guaranteed and more-than-adequate income which will last the rest of your life? Do you have no need to work, either for income or fulfilment? If you even hesitate over either of those questions then you really ought to read Life's Work': 12 Proven Ways to Fast-Track Your Career. If you're not yet in work or considering that you might need to make some changes then this is the book you need. James Reed is the chairman and chief executive of REED, Britain's biggest and best-known name in the recruitment industry. Who better to give you the advice you need? Full Review

1789660610.jpg

Review of

The Money Revolution by Anne Boden

4star.jpg Business and Finance

Money is changing. It might not be in the ways you think. We’re not suddenly getting a 3p or £3 coin (and have you ever even found a country that offers anything different to the 1, 2, 5 model?) We’re getting a lot more digital with payments, which seems to suit most people apart from charity collectors and the homeless on the street, but although this book has the subtitle that includes the word digital, it’s not really about this either. Instead, it's about the management of your finances, and how to take control. Full Review

1949395324.jpg

Review of

Financial Accounting Essentials You Always Wanted To Know: 4th Edition by Kalpesh Ashar

4star.jpg Business and Finance

Financial Accounting Essentials You Always Wanted to Know gives people without an accounting background who have risen in a company the knowledge to understand the accounts which show how the company is doing. The book begins by looking at why financial accounting systems are necessary, then moves on to give an excellent overview of the types of accounting systems which will be encountered and the terms used. We then look in detail at the balance sheet, the income statement and the statement of cash flows... Full Review

1946383627.jpg

Review of

Cost Accounting & Management Essentials You Always Wanted To Know by Vibrant Publishers

4.5star.jpg Business and Finance

I'm capable of drawing up a profit and loss account (income statement in the USA) and a balance sheet and I do so for my own business and for another organisation. The accounts give me broadly what I need: I know whether we're making a profit or a loss and I can look at the expenses and see what looks as though it could be trimmed back in future years. My problem was that the accounts didn't really give me any help in making decisions, which was why I turned to Cost Accounting and Management, part of Vibrant Publishers' Self-Learning and Management series... Full Review

1072549271.jpg

Review of

The Simple Act of Self-Publishing With Amazon: A Simple Step by Step Guide by Georgianne Landy-Kordis

4.5star.jpg Business and Finance

I frequently meet authors who are struggling to be published by the traditional houses, but when I suggest self-publishing they explain that they don't have the big bucks required to go down that road with Author Solutions or Matador or their like. I then ask if they've considered Kindle and the answer is, inevitably, that they wouldn't know where to start. I can empathise with that. Despite having used a computer for about thirty years, running most of my life and a website online, I'm still nervous when it comes to starting something new. I like someone to hold my hand as I go through it for the first time. That was why I was very interested when The Simple Act of Self Publishing With Amazon came across my desk... Full Review

Move on to Newest Children's Non-Fiction Reviews