Formium Development

Tag: business plan

  • The Financial Times Essential Guide to Negotiations

    The Financial Times Essential Guide to Negotiations

    This book provides what it promises on the cover – how to achieve win-win outcomes in each of your business deals.  A straightforward, practical guide that lists what is required to achieve success.

    Geof Cox’s book comes with a great, logical and easy-to-follow structure:

    1.Planning it

    2.Doing it

    3.Reviewing it

    The writer recognises and comments older models for the negotiation process by Chester Karras, Roger Fisher & William Ury, Neil Rackham and others.

    The recommended resources concentrate on prep work and communication skills as well as the effective use of set-piece negotiation models. Novices are warned about tricks and dubious tactics and for advanced negotiators, the author suggests strategies for complex situations, such as negotiating across cultures or with several stakeholders.

    In line with the style of the FT Essential Guides series, Cox uses practical case studies and instances, along with easily adaptable tables and diagrams all throughout his book.

    The task and results-orientated publication’s style is simple, clear and easily interpretable.  Reading Cox’s book itself is not a guarantee of success but following the steps, taking his advice and learning from others’ mistakes will definitely help you to accomplish negotiation success in the long run.

    The book is available on amazon.co.uk and amazon.com.

  • The business starter pack

    The business starter pack

    The First Mile by Scott D. Anthony

    Many people think about starting their own business. Lots of us started a business in childhood – do you remember the cliché of the Lemonade Stand from American movies? Yes, some people stop right there, but some try again and run their businesses for years.

    But how to start? The first mile of an innovation is that critical stretch when your idea moves from concept to the real world. Hidden traps, risks and challenges are everywhere. Scott D. Anthony’s book will come and give you a hand. The First Mile is a practical and easy-to-follow guide to starting a business.

    The book has two parts. The chapters of the first part build the First Mile Toolkit – a 4-step process for managing strategic uncertainty. You will learn how documenting an idea helps surface hidden assumptions; how to evaluate that idea from multiple angles; focus on the most critical strategic uncertainties; then test rigorously and adapt quickly. DEFT, the easy-to-note acronym is a reminder that you need to be adroit at handling the twists and turns of the first mile.

    Part two describes four common challenges, signs that you may have not followed the ‘yellow brick road’ and tips for getting back on track and get to your ‘Emerald City’.

    The challenges:

    • Making a wrong turn
    • Running out of fuel
    • Picking the wrong driver
    • Spinning out

    Anthony explains why each challenge happens and what the questions are that need to be discussed. He summarises this in a table, on a single page but I highly recommend reading the detailed versions. He speaks about interesting examples and in a very reader friendly way, highlighting the key messages of every chapter.

    Scott D. Anthony shares real-life experiences in his easy-to read and follow guide. The First Mile is a great a starter pack with a toolkit, tips and tricks to starting a business.