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

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Michael Feuer cofounded OfficeMax in 1988 starting with one store and $20,000 of his own money, a partner, and a small group of investors. As CEO, he grew it to more than one thousand stores worldwide with annual sales topping $5 billion. He is also CEO of Max-Ventures, a venture capital and retail consulting firm, and cofounder and CEO of Max-Wellness, a comprehensive health and wellness retail chain that launched in 2010. After opening initial laboratory test stores in Florida and Ohio, a national roll-out is now underway.

Dustin S. Klein is the Publisher and Executive Editor of Smart Business Network, publishers of Smart Business, the nation's second-largest chain of regional business publications. He has interviewed thousands of senior executives and civic leaders across America. He is a regular presenter on business-related issues for public and private business audiences and is a frequent guest on television, radio, and Internet programs.

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PRAISE FOR THE BENEVOLENT DICTATOR

"Michael stands out as one of those rare entrepreneurs who started with a blank piece of paper and built a national brand in a crowded field. His book chronicles the seldom discussed aspects of the how-tos of doing it and doing it big, fast."
CHRISTOPHER CONNOR, Chairman and CEO, Sherwin-Williams Company

"In this book, Michael reveals step-by-step how an entrepreneur can navigate the twists and turns of building an enterprise. Expect the unexpected in this narrative, which provides 'the best of the best' reading on how he did it, and how his experiences can help the reader do it, too."
MORRY WEISS, Chairman, American Greetings Corp.

"Sitting through business lectures can be boring at times. Reading The Benevolent Dictator is anything but with its fast-paced prose, punctuated with dry humor. This book uncorks the unique methods that the author used to create huge success by empowering his team and outwitting the competition. Read this book once and it's guaranteed you'll refer to it time and time again."
FELIX ZULAUF, twenty-year member of the Barron's Roundtable, The Dow Jones Business and Financial Weekly

"Using his unorthodox teaching style, Michael keeps my high-potential students on the edge of their seats. He guides readers, too, down the path to accelerated success. His secret is a preoccupation with achieving results; his gift is teaching others how to do it."
RICHARD L. OSBORNE, Theodore M. Alfred Professor of Management, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University

"Michael Feuer isn't only 'benevolent,' he's also quick, insightful, experienced, and engaging. His lessons and manner of communicating have produced profound benefits to all who serve with him as he advises our board and leadership team. And that's exactly what readers will find when they learn from this vital, no-nonsense, no-holds-barred book."
-ALLEN WEISS, MD, MBA, President and CEO, NCH Healthcare System

"The difference between Michael and many other successful CEOs is that he can explain how to replicate his success with his entertaining, yet insightful, and finely honed words. His book accentuates the obvious and unlocks the obscure to help put readers on their own fast track."
-JACQUELINE WOODS, Chair, Kent State University; retired president, AT&T Ohio

Aus dem Klappentext

When you're running the gauntlet of building a business, you can't keep stopping to ask for consensus. You can't hold a protracted debate about strategy while your competition passes you by. At some point, you--the entrepreneur with everything at stake--must embrace your role as the benevolent dictator.

Great companies that made it to the top survived the daunting start-up phase by possessing a singular idea and one individual willing to take the chance and pull the trigger. The Benevolent Dictator recognizes that entrepreneurs have to possess the courage to lead and the good sense to always put the entity--its employees, investors, and customers--way ahead of themselves. In scores of specific leadership lessons, this gung-ho guide lays out the leadership methods that can effectively launch a new business and navigate it through fast-track growth phases. 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

Success comes from a combination of focus, determination, diligence, pure grit, luck, and chutzpah--and knowing when to be an autocrat. Now that you know what you are, learn how to make it work for your current or next big idea.