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Rating: 
Summary: Pleasantly Surprising
Review: I did a quick web search on Gary Sutton and found very little info about him other than in the Teledesic episode. At least what he said about himself is true: he does not self-aggrandize. His track record seems genuine so I gave the book a shot. The book turned out to be quite fun to read. Sutton packaged his valuable experiences into 60+ chapters of easy-to-remember sound bites. Some of the advices are real gems. All this and without insulting your intelligence (unlike those E-Myth/Rich Dad junk). This book may be about fixing troubled companies, but the advice here can probably be applied to startups as well.
Rating: 
Summary: First Source for Turning Finances Around
Review: The first place you should turn when your business or personal finances are in trouble is this book. Next, follow the advice and stop the hemorrhaging. Gary Sutton is a hard nosed genius you will emulate if you want to save what's impotant to you.
Rating:
Summary: A Turnaround MBA in 290 Pages
Review: There is big difference in 20 years of experience and one year of experience twenty times.Sutton?s experience is worth far more than the number of years he has invested. He writes in a lighthearted style for such a serious subject as business turnarounds, that makes this an easy but powerful read. With success in reversing the dismal fortunes of several companies in a variety of industries, the author gives a sharp insight in how to correct it in your company and better yet how to avoid it altogether. A quick glance at the table of contents will load you with ideas for improvement for any company. Some ideas are obvious and simplistic- "Eliminate Sex", "Attack Drugs and Alcohol" and "Fight Politics", for example. Most of the examples, however, are valuable and brief. Some ideas challenge the obvious: "Downgrade Education?", "Reverse Discriminate" and "Cash Makes You Stupid." This is a good book to have on your shelf to scan for ideas to improve your business. A straight read will be a great checklist for weaknesses in your organization that can come back to hurt you later. For those business rookies fresh with the theories about how business is supposed to work, here is a great source to show you how it really works in the world of obstacles. A smart man learns from his mistakes, a wise man learns from the mistakes of others. There are plenty of blunders here to learn from. But you can also learn how to fix them.
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Summary: Practical, easy to read book on turnarounds
Review: This is a great book on business turnarounds. It is eminently practical, humorous in spots and filled with interesting stories that highlight the advice being given. The author offers 69 small chapters of advice. There's everything from what to do first on a turnaround... to how to get the best price selling your company. Nearly every page is heavily underlined in my book. The topics that I particularly found valuable were: "Find the margin, cut all other costs"; "Specialize, do it where the margin lives, stop everything else"; "franchising is more about real estate than the business";his chapter on "make what sells" and the importance of low cost and his abundant advice on how to cut costs; his recommendations on increasing price on certain product types; setting your debt levels at the "10 year flood plain" for your company; demoting IT because it operates with its own agenda; stopping the CFO from gambling; cutting down on consultants and moving them over to more of a performance basis... well the topics go on, but you get the idea. There's lots of advice. It's blunt and somewhat in your face. The text is easy to read and interesting too. There are lots of small stories that illustrate the points. Overall I recommend this book most highly, not only for business turnarounds, but for any CEO or CEO wanna-bee. It would make a great book to take on business travel and read on the airplane. It's easy to read with the small chapters, and many topics. This is easily a 5 star book. John Dunbar
Rating:
Summary: Scariest Book You'll Ever Read....If You're a Struggling CEO
Review: Wow, what a book!! As Mr. Sutton says in the introduction, "If you're the CEO of a struggling business, let's hope we never meet...." Ominous words indeed. The book is much more than that however, it contains a wealth of information and "how to's" even if your business isn't in trouble. Told with humor, bravado and balls - this is a book that everyone in business needs to read today. Hurray Mr. Sutton, we need more leaders like you.
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