The Venture

Rating:
Summary: This could happen to you! (or at least I'd like to think so)
Review: I did originally get suckered in by the publisher's positioning of the book as a quasi-"how-to", but I did not regret my purchase decision for a millisecond. This was about as realistic a portrayal of starting a small business as is possible, given the parameters of a novel -- right down to starting the venture with a credit card advance. I found the vast majority of events within the book to be conceivable, including a realistic portrayal of the full spectrum of human responses that inevitably occur under the stress of a start-up. I say this having just finished reading the book "Start Up", which chronicles the rise and fall of a Silicon Valley company called Go! At various points of "The Venture", you could have inserted random chapters of "Start Up" and lost little in the translation.

I just wish I could find Mr. Cox' previous books, "Zapp" and "The Goal".

Rating:
Summary: An honest piece of fiction, not just a "business novel"
Review: I think it is important to keep in mind that Jeff Cox has written a novel--a business novel, certainly, but a novel nonetheless. I doubt that the author intended The Venture to be a how-to primer, although it comes close to it in some ways. So while it is a work of fiction, The Venture is, in my view, a very realistic account of how one group of people with their backs to the wall and their lives on the line respond to being downsized.

I was particularly impressed with Cox's awareness of corporate politics and his ability to convey how gut wrenching and painful it is when loyalties are questioned, trusts and friendships are betrayed, locks are changed, colleagues are pitted against each other, and lies are told to protect the incompetent and justify firings. That happens every day in Corporate America, folks, and The Venture, in my mind, presents the most honest and realistic treatment of this sad situation.

Cox has not taken a Pollyannish (is that a word?) approach to the development of the book's plot. Not every scheme the group tries works. There are fights and disagreements and power struggles galore. Not everything goes by the book. This is not Management 101 by a long shot. Nor is it one of those cloyingly unbelievable "I found true happiness working in my sunny and tastefully decorated family room at home" stories that appear with annoying regularity in suburban newspapers these days.

I think the publisher, by calling The Venture a "business novel" rather than just simply a novel, did the book a slight disservice. Labeling it as such, I feel, doesn't do the the book justice. It might just scare away those who have little interest in business but are looking for a well written, thoroughly enjoyable, and honest work of fiction. The Venture sure fits that bill.

Rating:
Summary: Novel of the Nineties
Review: I was very disappointed in this book, especially in light of the fact that this is the same person who coauthored Goal. The characters didn't even rise to the level of caricatures, every woman in this book was potrayed as gold-digging nymphomaniac and the men weren't that much better. The whole point about how a new business is created got lost in the morass of subplots and soft-porn vignettes.

Just a truly disappointing waste of time and recycled paper.

Rating:
Summary: Of no redeeming value whatsoever
Review: I was very disappointed in this book, especially in light of the fact that this is the same person who coauthored Goal. The characters didn't even rise to the level of caricatures, every woman in this book was potrayed as gold-digging nymphomaniac and the men weren't that much better. The whole point about how a new business is created got lost in the morass of subplots and soft-porn vignettes.

Just a truly disappointing waste of time and recycled paper.

Rating:
Summary: A story from the heart about our corporate times.
Review: I wrote this novel as an expression of what I've personally seen go on around me. It's a story of loyalty, betrayal, persistence, and ultimate gain mitigated by past loss. "The Venture" has a wavelike quality that, for me, is reflective of life. It is not a how-to book on starting your own company (despite the tone of the publisher's reading line on the cover), but it is firmly grounded in the realities of business. It does cover critical phases of starting and running a company (managing cash, adjusting to the market, and the breakout phase of transitioning from a little to a big company.) It's probably one of the few novels ever written with the aid of spreadsheet to work out details of the plot. ;-) It will give you a vicarious sense of what it's like to start a business. But really, "The Venture" was one from the heart. It's dedicated to my father, who died in 1993, but spiritually it's written for all of us who work for our livings, take our hits, and keep on going, perhaps to win. I hope readers enjoy it

Rating:
Summary: Yikes! Don't start reading unless you have plenty of time!!
Review: Not a hard-to-put-down book: An impossible to put down book. As a new entrepreneur, I identify with the main character, the story the action. A lesson in perserverence and determination. The author has written another stunning success (The Goal) that is not only thrilling and fun, it offers a practical blueprint for the start-up. Read the book BEFORE you open your shop. Not only will you have a handy reference manual you will remeber it for the super ride that comes as a bonus. Great job

Rating:
Summary: Novel of the Nineties
Review: Not a how-to on being an entrepreneur, but a novel about life and business in the 1990's. If you lived through corporate downsizing, you'll identify with the characters in this book. This is a story about financial and emotional survival. Try Cox's other books (Selling the Wheel, Zapp, The Goal, Heroz, etc.) if you want to learn and still have a good time reading. The VEnture is about starting a business, but on a very personal level.

Rating:
Summary: Believable, exciting, hard to put down.
Review: The head of a video production department is told to fire his staff, in the name of downsizing, he refuses, and ends up getting canned. The Venture is what comes next. This book is a great mix of personal and interpersonal conflict, pain, love, desire, challenge, and reality. If you've ever started or tried to start your own business or were faced with a great personal challenge, you will be able to identify with the characters in this book, the challenges they must overcome, the fears experienced, the tough decisoins that had to be made, the damaging lack of support from family members, and the resulting consequences of all the above. Set aside a night or two, because this book is hard to put down

Rating:
Summary: Don't try this at home!
Review: The protagonist looses his job because he rejects to downsize his department! In return, he starts his own business, obviously together with those who he did not fire, and is successful - obviously.

As we force ourselves through a stereotype rich business world, Jeff Cox attempts to explain how small businesses can be made work - at least in "The Venture-Land".

Another attempt to capitalize from the fiction of the decade called "The Downsizing of America"?
Reduce your bookcount by this one and improve your intellectual bottom line!

Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but remember its just a novel
Review: This is a novel about a man who starts his own business after having his department downsized. If you bought this book to use it as a guide to starting your own business you probably made a mistake. It is not bad for a novel and the start-up of the new business is interesting. This is an easy read and has a human side to the story. I would recommended it as a fun easy read and it is an interesting book almost from a comical sense on starting a business as told in a story.