Everything Finance

The Benevolent Dictator: Empower Your Employees, Build Your Business, and Outwit the Competition

Before I share how much I like this book, let’s talk about the title first, because you might be thinking the same thing I was. From day one, I was not crazy about the title of Feuer’s book. Anything related to dictatorship runs counter to my view of business leadership. However, I thought there had to be a reason this title was chosen, and why it made it past the publicist, so I did a little research. Here is what I found:

“A benevolent dictatorship is a form of government in which an authoritarian leader exercises political power for the benefit of the whole population… A benevolent dictator may allow for some democratic decision-making to exist…”

If we take that definition and apply it to business, we have an idea of what this book is about. How can an entrepreneur get an idea to market quickly and successfully? How can a business owner beat the competition? How can you manage a business through fast-track growth?

A benevolent dictator knows what this book tells readers. You need a little leadership for the whole group, a little dictatorship when things just need to get done, a little wisdom based in experience, and a little bit of luck for good measure.

Feuer guides the read through the four phases of a business or product life cycle: idea development, build out, continuous improvements, and cash out. These phases are shared through 40 lessons based on Feuer’s personal experience as co-founder of Office Max, and Dustin Klein’s experience as publisher and executive director of the Smart Business network.

A sampling of the chapter titles reveals the type of information shared. Lesson #9 is “Business is a series of “go” and “no-go” decisions. Lesson 16, “Managing people is about achieving objectives.” Lesson #26, “When communicating, cut to the chase.” Lesson #38, “Payday…and lessons from the IPO roadshow.”

This book is about — and for people who want to have — a better life, and a road map on how to get there!

It delivers no-nonsense lessons and real-world examples, including:

• The Law of Other People’s Money, the easiest path to hyper-growth
• The power of focus, discipline, and follow-u
• Look at an idea through a customer’s eyes—not just from an operator’s perspective
• Always play by the “Mother Rule”: If you don’t want your mother to know about it, don’t do it—because it is probably wrong
• Know when to pull the plug
• How to put lightning back in the bottle again and again

I highly recommend this book.

About Tushar Mathur

Tushar Mathur has been blogging about Personal Finance since January, 2007. This has helped him recognize what topics readers like and relate to. The goal is to spot good news-worthy info and get it out to the public as soon as possible. Tushar Mathur maintains this Personal Finance blog called Everything Finance. The blog articles fall under these categories: Investing, saving money, shopping, blogging and making money online. Send Tushar Mathur an email at tushar@everythingfinanceblog.com