20 founders and 31 people worth following: what they did, what you can take from it, and where they got it wrong. With the books and the models behind them, explained plainly.
What they did at the start, what it cost them, and what went wrong.
Founded her software firm in 1959 with capital of £6, working from her dining room, staffed almost entirely by women working from home.
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Prototypes of a cyclonic separator before he had a machine he was satisfied with, for a product nobody in the industry wanted to sell.
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Began selling surplus groceries from a market stall in the East End of London with his army gratuity.
Read the profile →105 of the big business books: what each one actually teaches, what to do with it this week, and where it falls short.
What each of them teaches, and the best place to start.
Still publishing, posting and recording.
Grew a family wine business by getting to a new platform before anyone else.
Spent a decade asking high performers how they actually operate.
Made the case that people respond to why an organisation exists before what it sells.
Essays that shaped how a generation of founders think about building something people want.
The people most of today's business advice is built on.
Essentially invented management as a subject.
Taught post-war Japan that quality is a property of the system.
Argued that effectiveness comes from character and principles.
Turned sales and personal productivity into simple, repeatable, teachable steps.
The books behind the names, broken down: what each one teaches and where it falls short.
The models and theories behind what they did, from GCSE to MBA. 125 of them, free to read.
Four steps, run round and round, which is how almost all continuous improvement actually works.
W. Edwards DemingPopularised the cycleWhy, how, what. The argument for leading with why a business exists before what it sells.
Simon SinekStart with WhyEvery system has exactly one bottleneck. Improving anything else is wasted effort.
Eliyahu GoldrattThe GoalThe GCSE Business syllabus topics, written against the subject content, and the simpler models.
GCSE models →Models at A Level depth, including the ones the papers ask you to apply and evaluate.
A Level models →Degree-level frameworks, including the core Harvard, London Business School and Manchester share.
MBA frameworks →How businesses actually get started and funded, and why most new ones fail.
Starting up →Andy's seminars on growth, cash flow, getting paid and knowing your numbers.
The seminars →50 courses across six tracks, each with written lessons, a workbook and a certificate, plus Andy's 9 business seminars. The founders, voices, books and models stay free.
Photographs from Wikimedia Commons: Steve Jobs (Matthew Yohe, CC BY-SA 3.0) · Sara Blakely (Gillian Zoe Segal, CC BY-SA 4.0) · Gary Vaynerchuk (Vaynermedia, CC0) · Warren Buffett (USA International Trade Administration, Public domain) · Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel (Los Angeles Times, CC BY 4.0) · Richard Branson (U.S. Department of State from United States, Public domain) · Stephen R. Covey (Neshan H. Naltchayan, Public domain) · Henry Ford (Ford Motor Company. Photographic Department, Public domain) · Tim Ferriss (Todd White, CC BY-SA 4.0) · Dame Stephanie Shirley (Lynn Hart, CC BY 4.0) · James Dyson (Royal Society uploader, CC BY-SA 4.0) · Jack Cohen (British Army, Public domain) · Simon Sinek (Lance Cpl. Brendan Mullin, Public domain) · Paul Graham (Sarah Harlin, Public domain) · Peter Drucker (Jeff McNeill, CC BY-SA 2.0) · W. Edwards Deming (FDA, Public domain) · Brian Tracy (Daniel Wikberg, CC BY 2.0) · Seth Godin (Joi Ito, CC BY 2.0) · Sam Walton (George Bush Presidential Library and Museum, Public domain).
