The Entrepreneur E-Book

William Heinecke

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 335

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

* Written in a lively and practical style that will be of great interest to budding and blooming entrepreneurs. * The rules covered in this book are applicable to any entrepreneur around the world.

Leseprobe

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Rule 1: Find a Vacuum and Fill it

Rule 2: Do your Homework

Rule 3: You Won’t be Committed if you’re not Having Fun

Rule 4: Work Hard, Play Hard

Rule 5: Work with Other People’s Brains

Rule 6: Set Goals (But go Easy on the “Vision” Thing)

Rule 7: Trust your Intuition

Rule 8: Reach for the Sky (At Least Once)

Rule 9: Learn to Sell

Rule 10: Become a Leader

Rule 11: Recognize a Failure and Move On

Rule 12: Make the Most of Lucky Breaks

Rule 13: Embrace Change as a Way of Life

Rule 14: Develop your Contacts

Rule 15: Use your Time Wisely

Rule 16: Measure for Measure

Rule 17: Don’t Put Up with Mediocrity

Rule 18: Chase Quality, not Dollars

Rule 19: Act Quickly in a Crisis

Rule 20: After a Fall, Get Back in the Saddle Quickly

Rule 21: Fight the Good Fight (Especially those that you Can Win): Pizza Wars — Act I

Rule 22: People Build Brands, Brands Do not Build People: Pizza Wars — Act II

Rule 23: Be Prepared for Anything: the September 11 Rule

Rule 24: Reinvent yourself: Onwards and Upwards

Rule 25: Be Content

Chronology

Bibliography

Index

The ENTREPRENEUR

25 GOLDEN RULES FOR THE GLOBAL BUSINESS MANAGER

So you want to be a successful entrepreneur? Fed up with taking orders on high, you want to be your own boss, make your own decisions and go head to head with the big boys in the world of business.

Here is the book just for you. It comes from the heart of a man who has seen and done it all in one of the world’s toughest markets. Bill Heinecke started his own business in high school, was a millionaire before he was 21 and now runs a business empire that straddles Southeast Asia.

Heinecke’s world was shaken to its foundations by the Asia crisis that started in his own backyard in 1997 but he emerged stronger than ever. He then triumphed in a bruising battle against the world’s largest fast food company, Tricon. The skills that ensured his survival are revealed here in The Entrepreneur.

American-born and now a naturalized Thai, Heinecke has spent more than 30 years defining his 25 Golden Rules for entrepreneurs. They make compulsive reading for anyone who wants to follow in his footsteps.

Among the compelling new chapters in this revised paperback edition are:

Heinecke’s strenuous but ultimately successful battle against the world’s largest fast food companyThe amazing success of his new Pizza Restaurant CompanyThe valuable lessons learned from September 11Heinecke’s grand plans to expand his empire internationally.

This is a book for people bursting with energy and ideas. Read on — it may just help you change your job — or even your life.

Praise for The Entrepreneur (1st edition)

“The Entrepreneur is a must-read for managers and those who want to be their own boss. The 21 rules are indeed a set of golden rules, distilled from real experiences . . . All in all, don’t miss it.”

Bangkok Post

“It is rare to get a business book that is both entertaining and useful. Michael Bloomberg’s Bloomberg on Bloomberg was one. Bill Heinecke has written another. It is simple and easy to read and understand his 21 rules . . . The great virtue is that he is honest enough to admit his failures and has a sense of humor about his shortcomings.”

Hong Kong Standard

‘The fact that this book relates the remarkable life story of William Heinecke alone justifies it as being an extremely enjoyable and informative read . . . It has a very easy-to-read formula, crisp writing and loads of street-wise advice.”

New Straits Times

“In The Entrepreneur, Heinecke draws on his own experiences to highlight some of the crucial dos and don’ts of making a go of it in business. And he’s not afraid to use his own past slip-ups to illustrate some of the ‘don’ts’. This is probably the biggest selling point of The Entrepreneur. Its personal touch makes for a highly entertaining read. . .”

Asian Business

“Heinecke’s autobiography is a good read . . . I was reminded of Richard Branson’s autobiography. Both books offer an insight into the personality of the entrepreneur, and both are good because their writers are even more enlightening about their business failures than their successes.”

Finance Asia

Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons (Asia) Pte Ltd

Published in 2003 by John Wiley & Sons (Asia) Pte Ltd

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All rights reserved.

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Library of Congress Catalogning-in- Publication Data

978-0-470-82098-8

To my wife Kathy, and children John and David, who have been my greatest inspiration, as well as my mother Connie, my brother Skip and the over 10,000 associates whose support has made the Minor Group the success we are today.

Preface

Do you think you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur?

An entrepreneur is a person who gauges the risks and rewards of a business and works quickly to initiate, organize, and manage a particular opportunity, idea, or concept. The key words are “risk” and “business” The entrepreneur will often risk more, work harder, and demand more of himself or herself than any ordinary business person. The rewards, however, can be immeasurable.

Intrigued? If so, then perhaps the time has come to be your own boss. But before you quit your nice, cushy job with the monthly pay check, the modern office, the efficient secretary, and that comfortable feeling of security that comes with working for an established organization, consider the guidelines for success presented in this book. Bill Heinecke has spent a lifetime doing business in a challenging, ever-changing environment. These “rules” should help anyone who wants to follow in his footsteps.

Introduction

In 1967, an American teenager with a high school education, a blank resume, and slender financial resources strode into a lawyer’s office in Bangkok. He handed over the equivalent of US$1,000 and signed the necessary papers to register two companies, Inter-Asian Enterprise and Inter-Asian Publicity. While the names sounded grand, their assets were meager. The registration fee gobbled up most of the US$1,200 the young man had borrowed from a moneylender; what little remained was spent on plastic buckets and floor mops for his new cleaning business, and a few minutes of air time on a local radio station. Cleaning offices and writing simple advertisements wasn’t glamorous work, but it was a start. Bill Heinecke had taken his first faltering step into the world of commerce.

Thirty-five years later, that teenager has turned 53 and sits on top of a sprawling business empire. He has become the most successful foreign businessman in Thailand and perhaps one of the smartest expatriate entrepreneurs in the whole of Southeast Asia. Heinecke has persuaded the spice-loving Thais to eat pizza; he has built luxury hotels and shopping malls where others feared to tread; he has spotted trends and opportunities where competitors saw only red ink and dead ends. Scattered over the country is a chain of more than a hundred pizza restaurants, two ice cream franchises, steak restaurants, and a host of manufacturing and licensing operations that include the world’s largest golf glove factory, Esprit fashion, Sheaffer pens, cosmetics, and a company that provides catering to offshore oil rigs. He is the chief executive and major shareholder of three publicly listed companies — The Minor Food Group, Royal Garden Resorts and the Minor Corporation — that employ more than 12,000 people. In 1998, magazine voted Heinecke’s The Pizza plc one of Thailand’s best-managed companies. A few months later, named it one of the best 300 small companies in the world — it was the only Thai company to be nominated.