The World's Best Book Summaries
How do you get the right employees on board? How do you keep them around for the long haul? Part of long-term business success is assembling a winning team. In his discussion of how to hire the right people and keep them, Patrick Bet-David argues that you shouldn’t rely on your gut feelings and that you must provide attractive offers with follow-through. Keep reading for more on Bet-David’s hiring and retention strategies.
How can foreign trade policies help poor countries develop? How can fair trade practices backfire? Economist Paul Collier says in his book The Bottom Billion that trade can help poverty, but it can also make things worse. He outlines practices the West can use that will actually help poor nations grow rather than trapping them in poverty. Here’s how trade fights poverty.
How do people judge the value of products and services? What are the key factors that underpin customers’ buying motivations? People judge the value of products/services in the context of their life’s circumstances. If they’re not happy with their situations, they will be most receptive to solutions that claim to alleviate their problems. If, on the other hand, they are happy, they won’t deem those solutions valuable. Keep reading to learn about the key factors that influence customers’ purchasing decisions.
What are the hallmarks of cancer? What are the six characteristics a cell has to possess to be considered cancerous? The hallmarks of cancer are the qualities that cells have to possess to be diagnosed as cancerous. The original six were proposed by Robert Weinberg and Douglas Hanahan: 1) automatic mitosis, 2) non-responsive to antigrowth signals, 3) “immortality,” 4) limitless replication, 5) self-sustaining, 6) mobility. Keep reading to learn about the hallmarks of cancer, explained by oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee.
Are you still using traditional accounting methods in your business? Why don’t these methods lead to long-term success? According to Mike Michalowicz, the author of Profit First, the traditional methods of business accounting don’t work in the long term. He says that the logic of traditional accounting clashes with the natural ways people think and make decisions. Here are the four reasons why traditional accounting doesn’t work.
Who are the SolarCity founders? What was Elon Musk’s role in helping them start SolarCity? The SolarCity founders are Elon Musk’s cousins, Lyndon and Peter Rives. The two cousins founded SolarCity in 2006, thanks to a recommendation and large investment from Musk. The company eventually was bought out by Elon Musk 10 years later. Keep reading for more information on how the SolarCity founders started, grew, and sold their business thanks to Elon Musk.
Is your business financially healthy? How can you assess the financial health of a company? In his book Profit First, business makeover specialist Mike Michalowicz explains how to assess the financial health of your company using the allocation percentage equation. He also provides a table of what a healthy business should look like in terms of allocation percentages for businesses of various sizes. Here’s how to assess your company’s financial health, according to Michalowicz.
When you encounter a problem in your business, what do you do? Do you have a process to solve it? Entrepreneur Patrick Bet-David argues that effective business problem-solving must be part of your strategy for long-term success. He outlines three steps to get to a solution: take ownership of the problem, identify the core problem, and solve the problem with cost-benefit analysis. Keep reading to get a handle on these three steps.
Do you want to know how to help poor countries? How can laws and charters improve the lives of the bottom billion? Paul Collier, a British economist, believes that one of the most cost-effective ways to help the poorest countries is to change their laws. It sounds harsh, but by creating a more ethical system, the economy can start to grow. Here’s Collier’s method for helping the bottom billion.
How do businesses encourage people to hand over their money before they lose interest? What can you do to persuade a customer to buy your product/service, and not the competitors’? Unless your product/service is one-of-a-kind, it will compete with other offers that aim to address the same needs. That’s why you need to think about how to persuade a customer to buy your solution, and not the competitors’. In this article, we’ll discuss customer persuasion tactics businesses use to drive sales. Then, we’ll discuss different strategies for determining your prices.