A well-designed business book can be a real boon

摘要

In its enthusiasm to do the opposite, the world of business books tends toward the uninspiring. At one end there's the tasteless covers of the high-fiving positive-thinking brigade from across the Atlantic, at the other more design-sawy books, which take a jazzy cover, one word concrete noun for a title and churn out 360 pages and the promise of how to excel. Yet, for all those which besmirch the genre, the well-written, concise and well-designed business book can be a real boon, whether it's to learn about a well-known business' early days, hear the howlers or get the finer points of a particular strategy. When I recently edited an AJ Editions monograph for Darling Associates, this scarcity of concise and well-designed business advice came to mind. Having founded and seen the rapid expansion, contraction and then further expansion of his practice, it soon emerged that founder Chris Darling had many pithy tips for would-be company founders.