I am happy to say that I was asked by the author, Arnold S Grundvig Jr to review this book for him. Having said that, what you are about to read is my objective opinion of the book.

The sub title of this book is for thos too busy doing things right to do the right things. This is rather a twee sub title but it does reflect the kind of pithy saying that you will hear being spoken by lecturers (or faculty) on an MBA programme.

I have to say that this is not a traditional MBA book: take a look at the business section of a bookshop in an international airport and you will find the more traditional type of MBA book. For example, The Finance MBA in a week ... the 10 day MBA ... (I think I made up those titles!). What Grundvig has done with this book is to take the core elements of what he calls an entrepreneurial seminar that he created at the request of the United States Small Business Administration. Then in 149 pages, Grundvig unveils what he considers are the most important things that a small business person needs to know.

You won't find Michael Porter in this book and neither will you find Robert Kaplan and David Norton. I think Tom Peters gets a mention but Alfred Chandler doesn't. Peter Drucker might!

What you will find is a series of facts, opinions and cases that might best be described as top tips for small business people. The table of contents should confirm the point I am trying to make

• embezzlement
• profit versus cash
• cash management
• accounting
• payroll
• cost control
• growth
• SOP
• SWOT
• employee satisfaction
• counselling an employee
• marketing versus advertising
• do you know at all?
• can you do it all?
• your dreams
• the trap
• Management versus leadership
• small business and the economy
• MBA commencement exercise: the meaning of life in business

if you have already completed an MBA or are about to you should notice that the use headings are very practical. For example, embezzlement didn't feature in my MBA at all; profit versus cash was buried in the preparation of financial statements; cash management was probably buried in working capital management; payroll didn't feature at all. And so on. These headings are definitely small business oriented.

As I was reading through the first few chapters I made note in the margin. For example, in the chapter entitled embezzlement I made a note on page 3 of the case of ZZZZ Best, a company run entirely on fraud with is a fascination an excellent case study that anyone interested in embezzlement. On page 5 when Grundvig says, " sometimes when embezzlers set up phoney vendors, they broadly used their own home address: in the margin I wrote Benford's law, a fascinating insight into embezzlement if ever there was one.

Page six illustrates perfectly how the bookkeeper in even a small company can end up owning two homes, a 4x4 car, holidays abroad, private education of their children... heed that advice!

The chapter on profit versus cash says a lot but it takes only a page and a half to say it. Given the audience of this book, I'm not sure that's enough. the chapter on cash management he is much longer and on page 22 there is an illustration, a form of spreadsheet, four readers to work through: again to say I didn't think the example was very good.

The chapter on accounting he is again relatively lengthy and it makes some very good points with a lot of case studies: very short that to the point. For example, accounting data is not information... it's a fair point? I think so. Similarly, on page 35 Grundig says "If we're serious about business, we cannot afford to improvise with our accounting tool."

The chapter on payroll he is very USA centric. Now, that's fine if you are based in the USA but since I'm not then chatted like this a weakness for the international market. Nevertheless, although it's not an extensive chapter it does contain some very useful insights that I think small businesspeople would do well to read and learn.

The rest of the book is in a similar vein and for a large part of it I didn't make any more note in the margin. However, I did like the excellent point in the chapter on banking which is to bank with at least two banks: read the chapter beginning on page 88 to see why that is; I think that's a really excellent idea. I'm afraid, however, I couldn't fathom Grundvig's point on pages 98 when he talks about bringing dollars to the bottom line, not percentages. Read out and see if you agree with me that he's got it wrong.

See the anecdote at the bottom of page and 109: here in the UK, Tesco boasts that they will open a new check out in more than a few people are waiting. On page and nine when one retail outlet failed to respect their own rule in this respect, rather than solve the problem they took away the sign that said how they would solve the problem. Problem solved!

I liked quite a bit of the chapter on marketing versus advertising since the distinction between the two of them is often a problem and I think strategically the distinction is important. That traces two page hundred and 16 of our hundred and 49. I have to say I skipped the rest of the book fairly quickly: it's fine but not exactly and be a material.

Overall, I would say this is a very useful book for small business people: it is a good starter and I can imagine the seminars that go with it are also very useful and probably very lively. As a serious MBA book, however, I don't think so: it's not deep enough, the cases are too short and too trivial for strategic analysis and there are no exercises to get the reader engaged in taking matters further. It is a very practical book, however; and I can see that a lot of small business people could benefit greatly by it. Given that caveat, I would recommend this book as a good and gentle introduction doing the right things in business rather than just doing things right.

I need to say that this book does not appear to be available on amazon.co.uk and so it may be only available, at the moment anyway, in the USA.

Duncan Williamson
7^th July 2007