nickshanagher

Start With Why is a TED talk by Simon Sinek that has been watched more than 24.8 million times. Plus a further 701,000 views on YouTube. It takes 18 minutes to watch and is inspiring. There is also the book , advertised as a global bestseller. It will take you four to six hours to read and I recommend that you take longer than this. While the talk is brilliant and the book seems to say not much more across its 200 pages, the benefit of spending time with Sinek’s ideas comes from challenging how well you can answer the question: “Well why should I do business with you?” The first part of the book is all about business as usual. The manipulations that companies use to keep customers - price, promotions, fear, aspirations, peer pressure, and novelty (a.k.a. innovation) - are all entertainingly eviscerated. “Price always costs something. The question is, how much are you willing to pay for the money you make?” Sinek prompts. Manipulations are perfectly valid strategy for drivin...

In 2004 Dieter Brandes leaked the secrets of Aldi’s success in his book, Bare Essentials , that is now available on Amazon for an amazing £196.90 a copy (it goes up and down) or maybe in an e-book format for a fraction of that price. (There is talk of a new English edition soon.) Don’t buy the book because you want to emulate Aldi as it is too late for that. But do make sure you read it if you want to be a better retailer. This is every bit as good as Sam Walton’s Made in America. Brandes was a top manager with Aldi for 14 years and marvels at how this secretive company’s simple formula was so widely misunderstood by competitors. The formula for success was a surprise for its founders, too. But Karl and Theo Albecht were astute business people who quickly recognised how the money was made and then kept the discipline. Put simply, the secret to making money is to stock a tight core range and sell lots of every product. While Walmart sells 100,000 items, its average turnover per ...

If you earn your living in the retail industry the possibility that the business that you’re in will still exist in two, five and 10 years is very slim, says Doug Stephens, US retail expert in the first line of his new book The Retail Revival . “Sorry for the buzzkill,” he adds. “But it’s true.” Fizzing with ideas, this book is the start of a journey. Stephens tackles all of the issues that you’ve heard about, such as big data and showrooming and puts them into context. In a chapter entitled The Destination is You he discusses how mobile phones open up the possibility that big brands will find shoppers wherever they go. In the future as a customer is about to enter your shop, big brands could push promotions towards them and your competitors, like Tesco Express, could try and poach their business with a home delivery offer. Sam Walton’s reputation as a genius of retail comes under close scrutiny from Stephens. He argues that demographic changes lay behind the success ...

Luke Johnson, the entrepreneur behind Pizza Express and former head of Channel 4, is a compulsive reader and he warmly recommended Made in America by Sam Walton. For years I resisted the chance to read the story of the man who made Walmart and boy was I wrong. Quite simply this is a brilliant manual on what you need to do to be a successful independent retailer. In one chapter on thinking small, Walton says: “I always wanted to be the best retailer in the world, not the biggest.” In 1960 in a newspaper article called Success Story of the Year it described how he and his family and managers had built up a nine strong chain of variety stores. He told the paper that nine was as big as it could get as it was as many as he could supervise. Most readers don’t need to worry how he moved beyond nine to become the biggest retailer in history (he did this by hiring and inspiring great people). What they need to recognise is that Walton remained a great independent retailer till...

Key insights and practical lessons from the world’s largest retailer, promises the cover of Natalie Berg and Bryan Roberts’ new book, simply called Walmart. Selling at £29.99 (or £22.99 on Amazon ), this book will represent fantastic value for local retailers who want to understand how their industry works. The first Walmart was opened in rural America in 1952 by Sam Walton and its success was driven by his obsessions. Other books may tell the story with greater panache but Berg and Roberts capture the key moments with studied neutrality. They are both retail analysts. The audience that the authors have in mind are the major global suppliers who want to be listed by Walmart. For them this is a handbook that explains how to work with Walmart and provides hints at what to expect. “There is a difference between being tough and being obnoxious,” Claude Harris, Walmart’s first-ever buyer, says. “Every buyer has to be tough. That’s the job. You’re not negotiating for Walmart, you’re ne...