Business Techniques in Troubled Times by Thomas H. Gray – book review

Business Techniques in Troubled Times by Thomas H. Gray

This book starts out with the premise that it is the availability of business advice not been the problem, but the value and relevance that advice provides. The author pursues a real issues are around “how do I know I need help?” And “what advice can I trust?”

In his book Gray aims to provide solutions to both of these issues, helping the reader know when they do need help in the business and identifying the advice they can trust.

Book structure:

• Strategy and planning
• Financing your business
• Effective marketing
• Day-to-day management and operations
• Growing and exiting your business
• Distressed businesses

The book starts out in the traditional approach looking at business vision and business plan and target market along with competitor analysis and then starts looking into the broader issues of writing the business making sure the market knows that you’re there and with these you can do and then he turns that once we know the remit marketplace and the people know what the daily into looking at what the business actually does on a day-to-day basis and how it can make that much more fluid. What’s a business is running its own about growing the business maximising what is wanted to achieve for us and looking at what the exit options for business owners might be.

Flicking through the book

When I get a new book, one of the first things I do is flick from cover to cover a look at the overall approach. I look at the design how the graphics are laid out, any white space, and the use of tables throughout. What immediately struck me about this book that is different from any other’s that I read recently is the way that the very back of the book is an index of topics and techniques.

Running over six pages and in four columns, is presented one of the neatest and practical book indexes I’ve seen for a very long time.

It is laid out in the following four columns

• Topic,
• Technique,
• Content and
• Articles

Where in the articles column, we are directed where to find the topic and technique in the book.

It’s about more than the product

Traditionally many small business owners are experts in the production side of the businesses, they however are not experts in managing the business. Looking at the financial and operational results often reveals what works and what is not, and yet many small business owners tend to shy away from analysing the numbers.

The tools and techniques in this book “business techniques in troubled times” are perfectly designed to help those business owners who are focused on production to look at other aspects of their operations.

The business and the whole business

Unlike many business books that tend to focus on finance marketing operations, this book takes a measured approach at looking at the business as a whole rather than as a series of departments and functions. This is an approach that many small business owners have taken for many years and I hope that those readers that are involved in larger organisations also take some of these concepts into account.

While detail on some of the tools and techniques is a little on the light side, the book does put the tools and techniques into context for the business manager. It provides a starting point and a friend reference for anyone who is reviewing a business in troubled times.

This book is clearly aimed at the owners of small businesses, and for them this book is a great starting point. I would also suggest that this book is appropriate for anyone involved in marketing or human resources as within its 310 pages from cover to cover it provides a great strategic perspective on what it is functional specialists are supposed to be contributing towards.