Synopses & Reviews
For eight years between 1998 and 2006, Luke Johnson wrote a regular column as 'The Maverick' in The Sunday Telegraph. His short, pithy essays tackled subjects ranging from rich lists to bankrupt companies, from high finance to investment techniques, from philanthropy to trophy wives, bringing a practitioner's eye to the commercial world and the people in it. The Maverick quickly developed a cult following among readers who wanted to understand the blunt truth about investment, entrepreneurs, business history, and corporate life. This book brings together 84 of the best articles, with updates, in a single volume. What makes them unique is that Luke Johnson is not just a first-class writer, he is also one of Britain's most successful entrepreneurs. He made his name with PizzaExpress, has run and owned businesses in many different sectors, and now takes stakes in fast-growing businesses through his company, Risk Capital Partners. He is also Chairman of Channel 4. The diversity of his experience enables him to write with insight and perspective about the very serious matter of making and losing money. If you are in business, you will find The Maverick entertaining, informative and inspiring. If you are not in business, you will discover what makes business people tick, the hurdles they have to overcome to succeed, and the substantial benefits they bring to society. www.lukejohnson.org
About the Author
Luke Johnson is Chairman of Channel 4 Television and Risk Capital Partners. For eight years he wrote a weekly column on business in The Sunday Telegraph. He was Chairman of PizzaExpress during the 1990s and is currently an owner and Chairman of Giraffe restaurants and Patisserie Valerie. He has also owned companies in recruitment, dentistry and retailing. He graduated from Oxford and worked as a stockbroking analyst covering the media sector in the 1980s. He lives in London and is married with two children.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1.Entrepreneurs and the Rich Why Run Your Own Business? Founder's Courage Getting on the Rich Lists 50 Reasons To Be An Entrepreneur How Tycoons Breed Success Corporate Executive vs Entrepreneur Trophy Wives Billionaire Politicians Paradise Syndrome Inheritance Letting Go Legacy 2. Management and Corporate Life Business Maxims Executive Disease Business Language Seven Deadly Sins Corporate Comedy Vicious Business Old Raiders Face Music Boards Buzzwords Selling 3. Winners World-Beating, Single-Product Companies Champagne Ineos Digital Radio Air Conditioning Trademark Companies Book Publishing 4. Problems What Can Go Wrong Things Fall Apart The Worst Business Decision of All Time The Downside of Downsizing GEC a Go-Go Health Clinic Cammell Laird - A Marine Tragedy The Software Industry Rip-Off Frank Timis 5. Economics A Philosophy of Capitalism China The Importance of Title Russia Student Misery Japan Will Recover The Age of the Dumpies is Dawning 6. Business History Let's Support the Inventors of Real Wealth Four of the Really Big Losers Coke, Big Mac and Harry Hyams The First American Boss of the Tube Georges Doriot United Fruit A to Z Airline Pioneers Alfred Nobel Who Remembers the Founder of GM? The Panama Canal Selfridges and Whiteley's Richard Cobden George Hudson Sir Henry Wellcome 7. Investing The Key Questions About Every Investment Estate Agents Perception and Reality in Chairmen's Statements Forestry Langbar Why to Buy a Share A Really Ethical Portfolio A Bitter Pill from My Vet Give these Market Myths a Miss Ten-Baggers Selling Signals Regus PartyGaming The Loser's Game, the Winner's Curse and Freud Is the Neuer Markt a Giant Ramp? Why Stock Markets Always Kill The Ones They Love The Most 8. Business and Society Who Says Tycoons Are Always Wicked? Public vs Private Sector Public Schools The Lawyers Will Kill Us All! Twenty-First Century Philanthropists Reinventing the NHS Money War of the Ages Appendix A list of books referred to in articles