Book Review: How Some Small Businesses Get Their Ducks in a Row and Grow—While Others Remain Undistinguished

The book titled How Some Small Businesses Get Their Ducks in a Row and Grow—While Others Remain Undistinguished by Shil Niyogi is a brilliant addition to the literature of management education. It imparts knowledge on three basic pillars of excellence in business management focussing primarily towards small business entrepreneurs and its employees. The book is an excellent narration of real-life case studies with witty cartoon illustrations on three basic facets of successful business. The author has labelled these three-pronged frameworks as procedural, behavioural and strategic. The substance is expressed in simple language, which makes its content more interesting. The book can no way be restricted to small business undistinguished entrepreneurs and its employees. Its simple style of presentation should appeal to wide class of readers; aspiring entrepreneurs, leaders and managers.

The book has covered some complex but most common management issues of an enterprise in just 197 pages. Its content is divided into three broad sections; procedural, behavioural and strategic. Each section has 16 to 18 issues which are most commonly faced by leaders and managers in every organization. Each topic is presented as case studies of successful entrepreneurs with a humorous pictorial portrayal. The length of each topic is kept limited to a maximum of three pages. The readers should cherish every bit of the book and would not to be able put it down till the end.

Procedural rules imply introducing effective procedures within the organization and adhering to those. Procedural section has 18 interesting situations which should resonate to both entrepreneurs and employees; to highlight a few; ‘Early to work has its perk’, ‘Set job descriptions and employer expectations’, ‘Preach against micromanagement and encourage delegation’, ‘No bypassing’, ‘Use positive feedback to build a team’ and ‘Prevent fires: keep your schedule visible’. Behavioural rules aim at developing discipline and infuse culture within the firm. This section covers 17 behavioural situations; some of them are; ‘Start saying NO’, ‘Manage “I want this now” attitude’, ‘Provide constructive feedback when you disagree’, ‘Push for ethics in the organization’ and ‘Don’t partake in politics’. Final section of the book addresses strategic aspects of an enterprise which are most commonly observed in a small business entrepreneurial firm, however, not uncommon in large organizations also. Strategic rules focus on building long-term goals to secure firm’s future. The section has 16 situations. Some of those are; ‘Focus on profitability, not sales’, ‘Be an asset, not a liability’ and ‘Make yourself indispensable’.

Procedural Ways: ‘Use Positive Feedback to Build a Team’

In chapter twelve, the author discusses the importance of giving positive feedback about colleagues and maintaining good working relationship with everyone in the firm. He takes the case of a fresh engineering graduate to demonstrate the success story of building a good team and implementing an innovative idea to foster the growth path of the enterprise. He has also explained the value of ‘Forming-Storming-Norming-Performing’ approach suggested by Bruce Tuckman in 1965 to develop a high performing team in simple language.

Behavioural Ways: ‘Start Saying NO’

In chapter twenty, the author explains wonderfully the implications of not being able to say ‘NO’ to (undistinguished) entrepreneurs on one’s career path. He discusses the case of a mechanical engineering graduate working in auto industry in Michigan, USA. The author highlights the critical phase (leaving the firm) the employee had to pass through for his inability of declining the requests of entrepreneurs wisely and respectfully. The author does not stop here; he goes on to recommend ‘integrative bargaining’ over ‘distributive bargaining’ to overcome the ‘Chronic Yes-man Syndrome’ successfully.

Strategic Ways: ‘Be an Asset, Not a Liability’

In chapter forty-five, the author advocates on being a ‘profit-account’ employee in order to earn trust, rewards and applauds from the entrepreneur and co-workers. He tells the story of an employee who works in a publishing company in New York, USA to prove the significance of being projected as a tangible asset in the firm. The author suggests promoting low-cost projects which have the potential to fetch high or at least decent Return on Investment (ROI) to improve the employee value in the firm by manifold.

In these fantastic illustrations of multifaceted management issues, the author would make readers belief that these situations are most commonly encountered by undistinguished entrepreneurs and its employees only; which is not true. In fact, readers who have been leaders or managers in large multinational or domestic firms would realize that these issues often arise in their organizations also. Hence, the title of the book does not completely support the subject matter. Finally, the title of the book could have been more attractive and simple like its content.