"Demystifying Business with
Cookies and Elephants" By Gordon Ettie, (Frederick
Fell Publishers Inc., $20).
The book answers an important question:
"How can one teach the basics of how a business operates
to those without a solid business background?”
Why is that answer so important? Look around most
organizations, and you'll find that many workers have
little business background - such as IT, engineering and
support staff. It's difficult for them to take
empowerment seriously when they don't understand how
their jobs fit into the system from two standpoints: 1.
"Why is my job important to the firm?" within the
context of "What are we all here to do?" and 2.
Potential financial contribution.
The
book starts with the parable of the "Blind men and the
elephant" to emphasize that if the people involved in
the business touch only one part, they don't understand
what the total business is really like.
Using a cookie factory as a model, Ettie Takes readers
through a basic business model divided into five
dimensions: people, leadership, external management,
internal management and capital. Every business serves
three types: customers, employees and stakeholders
(e.g.,. owners, suppliers, bankers, etc.) Of these,
employees are the most important. Why? If the right
employees aren't in the right slots, a business cannot
profitably manage relationships with customers and
stakeholders.
-By Jim Pawlak, Syndicated columnist (This review
appears in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, Nov, 15 2005)
BY RICHARD PACHTER
rpachter@herald.com
Demystifying Business with Cookies and Elephants. Gordon Ettie. Frederick Fell. 224 pages. $20.
Miami consultant Gordon Ettie uses a cookie-baking
business to illustrate the principles of capital and
investment, as well as manufacturing, marketing,
distribution and the rest. Fortunately, Ettie eschews
the inexplicably popular device of employing a parable
to illustrate his points, 'so the reader needn't suffer
through the machinations of rodents, fleas or other
pests. He draws from his own experience and amplifies
his insights with observations from others.
Ettie's lessons are clear and comprehensible, and along
with its handy glossary, his succinct primer provides a
useful introduction — or refresher — for neophytes and
journeymen alike.
-excerpt from the Miami Herald (Broward Edition) Oct 10,
2005
The San Francisco Examiner
Business
One Good Book
Published: Tuesday, December 6, 2005 9:14 PM PST
"Demystifying Business with Cookies and Elephants: How
to Make Money in Business..."
By Gordon Ettie (Frederick Fell Publishers, 2005,
hardbound, 120 pages, $20)
A straightforward primer that
can be read on a single BART commute trip and saved as a
reference. Ettie explains the core principles of what
everyone in every department in a business must know in
order to make it profitable and thrive. He uses the
examples of a cookie-making company and the fable of the
Blind Men and the Elephant to drive home points. There
is a whole chapter of business terms defined, along with
understandable examples of how costs, productivity and
profits are measured.
— Staff report
Helpful
business books and products
By
PAUL TULENKO
July 31, 2005
Regular readers expect to discover factual, practical
information to help you succeed in your business,
whether it is a home-based business, on the web or a
giant factory on the outskirts of town.
Occasionally, though, I turn the space over to other
writers who, by authoring books, go to depths a weekly
column cannot achieve.
The four books listed below pretty much cover the
subject of marketing. If you have all four of these
books at your desk, and if you actually read them with a
highlighter in hand and then apply what
you've read, you will become one of those people the
other guy calls, "Lucky." I suggest reading them
in the order listed below for the most impact.
-
"Demystifying Business with Cookies and Elephants: How
You Can Improve Upon, Invest In
and Succeed in Business,"
by Gordon Ettie. Frederick Fell, $20.
Once in a while a book comes along that can really help
any company, large or small, to become successful. This
book does just that. Using a chocolate cookie factory as
a referral post, and the old tale about the six blind
men describing an elephant, Gordon leads us through just
about everything we will ever need to guide our
businesses to success, no matter what it's size or type.
I rate this book 5 of a possible 6 stars.
The only way it could be improved upon is to have Gordon
sitting across from us encouraging us to succeed.
Release date for the book is Sept. 1...
(Paul
Tulenko is a small business success consultant based in
New Mexico. Additional tips and suggestions are
available at www.tulenko.com or call
(toll-free) 1-866-TULENKO.)
This review is from
The
Albuquerque Tribune
