What Works: Success in Stressful Times
Hamish McRae
Language: English
Pages: 356
ISBN: 0007203780
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Using examples ranging from Ikea to the slums of Mumbai, leading economic expert Hamish McRae studies which businesses, organisations and initiatives have what it takes to succeed, and what it is that distinguishes them in an increasingly competitive global marketplace.
Calling on years of experience as an award-winning financial journalist and international public speaker, the author brings a fresh perspective to the question of success, differentiating the few 'big ideas' that have transformed the marketplace from passing trends and over-hyped blind alleys.
Through an extraordinary range of case studies and an authoritative grasp of his material, the author demonstrates that although there is no surefire recipe for success, there are several key ingredients – such as sense of mission and market sensitivity – which ambitious readers can apply to their own business practices. This is a book of very real successes rather than overblown ideologies: each case study is based around an on-site visit by an author and interviews with the people in charge. Bearing in mind the role of fashion, scale and other less predictable factors, ‘What Works’ ultimately offers the general reader the chance to learn from some of the grandest economic successes and unexpected failures in the world today, through a series of imaginative, unusual and insightful examples.
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Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) began alongside the main festival in 1947 with the original aim of screening the new wave of documentary films. That remit widened to include independent and art-house productions from around the world and its schedule now encompasses new international and UK films from both established and first-time directors. Steven Spielberg’s ET had its UK premiere at Edinburgh, and other films to have taken off in Britain from the EIFF springboard include The
fund-raising 84; gift relationship 89, 293; government action, no substitute for 89, 90; High Line 93, 294; immigrants financing of development in poorer countries as 89; listening to the market 266; local community, benefits to 90; notes and sources on 290–4; objectives can become perverse when donors have ideological motives 91–2; religion and 86; sense of global drive 86, 90; social status, enhancement of 85; tax rates and 85, 87; undemocratic 89–90; vulnerability to swings in personal wealth
There are many more such institutions, mostly set up with private wealth, and it is those that make New York such a special place. In the case of MoMA, the achievement has been to make New York the world centre of modern art. In the case of Visiting Neighbors the achievement has been to make the lives of thousands of people more fulfilling. We can learn from both. •Move quickly •Inject drive •Spend wisely 3. WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Philanthropy faces a host of challenges worldwide. The
some 25,000 a year, almost as many as the whole of the USA put together.15 But the most recent phenomenon has been US-based staff, mostly of Indian origin, coming to Bangalore to do their work.16 As a result, there are clusters of gated communities between the city and the science parks that look just like the communities in Silicon Valley. We looked round a mini California called Palm Meadows, with its clubhouse, sports centre, library, supermarket and so on. Aside from the density-the homes
this is extreme stuff. The lesson therefore is not just to permit the creation of a market but also to relish it. Lesson two is to blend top-down and bottom-up. There is no single mind planning what happens in Edinburgh; there are and always have been lots of minds, which work in different ways. Some of these, such as the director and governing body of the International Festival, have to exert a top-down discipline. The companies performing have to be invited. Funding has to be found, venues
