January 17, 2010 25 Comments

Business Stripped Bare – Book Review

I love love loved Richard Branson’s Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur. It resonated with me as the owner of a small business, and also as someone who’s helping big businesses develop. His storytelling style is great, and the ideas that the book gives you are immediately applicable. I took tons of notes and have already started implementing them into how I do business. It’s much better written than Branson’s first two books, and has the benefit of time, too. Definitely worth reading.

Sorry for how I look in the video. This was yesterday, just before I realized I was coming down with a cold.

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  • http://www.buildthaltist.com/ Tom | Build That List

    Richard Branson just oozes creativity when it comes to business. And while I have not read this book. I have read one or two others of his and I find him really inspirational. I will be adding this book to my 'must read' list.

  • http://www.yukiba.com/ Travel

    Great video and great post

  • http://www.onlineinvestingai.com/blog/ George

    That's a great book. I read 2 others by Branson, and my favorite is the well-titled “Losing my Virginity”. It is absolutely masterful. I love it because it is so much fun to read, and he shares some wonderful lessons with us.

  • http://www.davidwalker.tv/ David Walker

    Looks like a good read. Like George, I've also read, “Losing my virginity”, found it practical and fun reading.
    You're right Chris, when you say, “the way Branson does what he does is pretty good”. I find him an inspiration and will definitely check out the book soon.

    Sorry about the cold. Hope you get better soon.

  • http://twitter.com/Israel_Garcia Israel García

    I'm reading it now and all I can say is that Mr.Branson has an enlightening approach of the entrepreneurship concept, it's impressive of how he simplify things. I really love one of his thoughts about branding “When brand stretching stretches credibility”
    To me is like a is a breath of fresh air.
    Although, I have a question for you…Do you think is all about having fun?
    Thanks for sharing Chris

  • http://subject2.com Nick Johnson

    I agree with you Tom but I just for some reason never got around to reading any of his books :( It looks like I'll have to get to it considering his other books apparently are decent as well.

  • http://www.webuildyourblog.com/ Andrew

    This is pretty interesting! I like books that is presented storytelling style. Will definitely be grabbing a copy, looks like there's a lot to learn from it. Thanks for sharing!

  • http://www.thanhdlu.com/ Thanh

    I'm looking forward to a book that talks about how successful people started out and their thinking behind it. Kiyosaki just came out with a book that illustrated his thought evolution in Rich Brother Rich Sister that I thought was a fantastic read. It really made a significant impact on me and wrote up a summary of it at my site at http://www.thanhdlu.com. I highly recommend it. I love to understand how these people think.

  • http://www.shop78.blogspot.com/ BlogTech

    Great book to Read,thank you chris

  • philipletts

    Chris, glad you enjoyed the book and took notes. Someone I know well forwarded your article and suggested you might want to take a look at http://Innovatrs.net. We launched it a few months ago as a free resource to support entrepreneurs – in it blur Group open sourced its leading startup and business build system – Innovate. It could provide you with more tips and tools. Some really cool entrepreneurs use it. For your info. Thx

  • http://BuckingtheRealEstateTrend.com SusieBlackmon

    Branson and Brogan in one post… almost too much for me. ;-)

  • http://moregspinsights.blogspot.com gspinsights

    I agree with Susie Blackmon – Brogan and Branson in one post ! Both my heros. No seriously – I'm not being sycophantic. Chris because he never writes a post that isn't worth the read and I learn so much from him. Sir Richard because he took on British Airways and did not let them intimidate them, is super creative and a great guy. A little anedcote about RB – several years ago I had a senior role in a travel company and Virgin were about to start flights from Toronto. There was a big bash for us all in Toronto – I met him, we chatted, I said I need to negotiate a contract with Virgin so he told me to track down whoever. Hours later he came and found me to check that I had spoken to the person. Months and months later – another big bash to celebrate the inaugural flight from Toronto to Heathrow (he throws fabulous parties by the way) and I'm stood next to him watching the fireworks and the plane flying overhead, he turns to me and says Hi – I assume he's being polite – but not a bit of it – because he then said ” did you get that contract negotiated ?”. I was more than impressed that he remembered -I almost need to be picked up off the floor.
    Now I'll go get a copy of the book and read it – agree with you Chris that the first two were not that well written – but I think he had a ghost writer for both of them.

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    See? That's something I really admire. I do my best to remember everyone in detail, so that I can do the same thing. William Jefferson Clinton also does that, you know.

  • advertisinguru

    I'm reading this book now and I must say that there are so many reasons why this is a great read. First of all Branson is one of the great entrepreneurs of our time. His advice based on the experience of running Virgin are useful and applicable for both large and small enterprises. Branson also shows first hand what great storytelling really is. If you're interested in storytelling you are far better of reading this than any book on the subject of storytelling.

  • http://www.twitter.com/mariobox/ mariobox

    Hi Chris:
    Will definitely check the book out. I couldn't help by seeing your notes and how they're all on one page, and wonder what is your methodology for taking notes: how much information do you put on them, what are the things that you look for in the content, do you review your notes periodically, how do you follow up and act on them? I just think it could be an interesting topic for a future post of yours, since most of us tend to read books fast, maybe missing many important details.

  • http://www.zoombits.de/speicherkarten cheap speicherkarte

    God, have you ever tried reading Gordon Ramsey’s work though? Cookbooks: fine. Business books; yawn.‘Losing My Virginity’, on the other hand is brilliant. A great read and full of inspiration. I don’t know why Branson bothered following it up with Business Stripped Bare. Greed I suspect.

  • http://www.fourthwaveinstitute.com/ Dennis Charles

    Chris

    Loved the book. Nice review, but I loved the autobiography much better.

    • http://www.poloralphlaurencanada.ca/ ralph lauren home

      This is a great reading.This information is useful to me.

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  • http://www.yuregininsesi.com yuregininsesi

    This is pretty interesting! I like books that is presented storytelling style. Will definitely be grabbing a copy, looks like there's a lot to learn from it. Thanks for sharing!

  • http://twitter.com/MotorWebNZ MotorWeb (VIR)

    Do you have a list of your top 10 books of all time?

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