این کتاب مشتمل بر 100 ایده شغلی و تجاری است که در 17 دسته بندی ارائه شده است. مطالعه این کتاب برای کسانی که به دنبال ایده های شغلی یا نوآوری در بیزینس خود هستند میتواند بسیار مفید باشد. ایده های موفقیت آمیز شرکتهایی همچون BMW, 3M, IKEA, VOLVO,.... در این کتاب آورده شده است. کتاب به زبان ساده بوده و برای کسانی که به عنوان مطالعه عمومی میخواهند از آن استفاده کنند نیز بسیار مفید است. این کتاب به زبان انگلیسی و شامل 195 صفحه میباشد.
A famous business aphorism has been applied to many companies. It goes ‘All their
plans were unsuccessful, and all their successes were unplanned.’ Planned or unplanned,
the ideas in this book have the common factor of ‘success’, sometimes
simple but hugely significant (see the Biro Idea 57), sometimes hugely complicated
ideas whose physical success did not lead immediately to financial reward (see
Euro-tunnel Idea 22).
Thus our definition of success can be seen as wider than financial gain. Overwhelmingly,
however, the famous, occasionally infamous, great business ideas have
led to huge financial rewards to innovators (see Edison Idea 4) and shareholders (see
Coca-Cola Idea 54).
Perhaps the trickiest part of the title is the bit that says ‘of all time.’ There must
have been a time before money Idea 39 was invented – and that, along with interest
rates, really enabled almost all of the other ideas to be expressed and compared. To
look after this type of business idea, there is a section on great financial ideas that
enable business to exist.
When you look at great business ideas you are immediately struck by the fact
that, however brilliant they were, almost all of them needed to be sold. New selling
ideas are in abundance, from good old door-to-door salespeople, through great selling
innovations to the wondrous activities made possible by the Internet. I also
include the greatest selling or closing techniques which, proven over the ages, are
still the best tips for selling things or just for getting your own way.
Then there is computer technology. This has growth on a logarithmic scale.
Microsoft Idea 50 had a growth rate that is far more dramatic than that of IBM Idea
92 as they each became dominant in their own area. One could be forgiven for
believing that nothing could grow faster than sales of Windows software, but only
shortly afterwards comes the mobile phone Idea 96 whose growth we can still only
guess at, but in sheer volume will probably be the fastest ever, for the time being.
This last one, the mobile phone, has a well-recognized downside as do a remarkable
number of other great ideas. Where this is so, we have recorded it under the heading
‘On the other hand.’
In technology as well, we have not forgotten the enablers of technological leaps
forward. Windows cannot exist without the ‘graphical user interface’ (GUI), which
was the basic idea.
We have avoided the topics of inventions. We were looking for business ideas,
particularly ones that current managers might learn from, so generally speaking
there are no inventions per se.
This means that we have missed out, for example, the spectacular rise of glasses.
There is an Italian fresco of 1352, which is the earliest known representation of
spectacles. They were invented in medieval times to correct loss of ‘accommodating
power,’ the change in middle age that makes reading difficult. The earliest, made
between 1268 and 1289, were two magnifying glasses with their handles riveted
together, which were hand held or balanced on the nose. Concave glasses for short
sight arrived in the sixteenth century. Bifocals, for short sight and loss of accommodating
power, were invented about 1750 by Benjamin Franklin, the US statesman
and scientist. There is no doubt that a lot of people have made a lot of money out of
spectacles, but it counts as an invention and will not, therefore, be found in this
book.
But of course the way to become really wealthy in business is to take a cut of
other people’s labour, as any entrepreneur will tell you. How to organize people and
motivate them is another area where there have been some great ideas. Nineteenth-century
mill owners did it one way, the idea of Theory X and Theory Y Idea 62 did it
another.
In trying to pin down the 100 greatest ideas I also became from time to time
more philosophical. War Idea 72 and religion Idea 71 must have a mention as two
business drivers without equal. Now calling war a great business idea may seem
insensitive, but the financial side of them is never far buried and economics plays a
huge part in war’s planning and outcome. I take no moral position on making money
out of war or religion; I just note the opportunities that arise from them. I have
drawn the line at slavery, where labour costs are literally minimised, as too close to
even the modern day bone to call a great business idea. It still exists in places.
There is a very successful bunch of people who make a lot of money eventually
out of doing absolutely nothing. Gamblers and franchise owners come to mind in
this regard, and we have looked at lotteries and the stock exchange for clues on
joining this particular band of money makers.
Product innovation, bumper stickers and training techniques all find their way
into the list, as do junk bonds Idea 69 and the South Sea Bubble Idea 70.
A lot of great business ideas are based on somewhat cynical ideas of giving the
public what it wants and outsmarting the competition, but there are some theories
of economics and some patient advisers on, for example, pensions matters who
genuinely made a positive difference to how we live. There are even some computer-
based innovations that really do make life easier and we have included spreadsheets
Idea 48 and call centers Idea 51 as examples of great ideas that make their owners
money and the consumer happier.
We have not restricted ourselves to great ideas that benefit the customer or
consumer. Great business ideas usually make money for shareholders; sometimes
they benefit the customer as well. Indeed unit trusts Idea 24 is an example where the
benefits of the person offering the service are obvious, but the reasons for people
buying the service less easy to demonstrate.
How do you choose 100 ideas out of the millions that have created products,
services and profits? The answer is to ask a lot of people, and we have done this. We
have spoken to people on both sides of the Atlantic, which has tended to give the
ideas a UK/USA bias. We apologize for that and for all our readers’ pet ideas that
we have missed out. Researching the book has reminded us of the infinite ability of
man to think of and implement great ideas, and choosing a hundred is a more or less
impossible task. But we have done it, and if you and a number of other people buy
the book, who knows – we might have discovered number 101.
One of the main criteria for including ideas was whether or not we can learn a
quick and useful lesson from them. Where possible we have tried to draw hints for
the future from the great ideas of the past. At the end of many entries, ‘Ask yourself’
and ‘Here comes the twist’ are challenges to the modern-day businessperson to
expand the original idea into their own environment. This should also ensure that
you can claim the book’s price on expenses. After all, anyone in business can become
a billionaire; it’s just a question of implementing a great idea. Go on, prove
the old saw wrong, make a plan and then make it successful.
کتاب 100 ایده برتر شغلی به زبان انگلیسی
