Hoover's Vision: Original Thinking for Business Success

by Gary Hoover

Through stories and exercises, this book teaches us how to cultivate the virtues of every breakthrough in business and in the rest of life: curiosity, clarity, passion and panoramic vision. It is an... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1587990598
• ISBN13: 9781587990595
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Walks a Fine Line

While there are plenty of "business books" available by armchair CEOs, what made Gary's book stand out is his experience. When Michael Jordan talks about basketball people listen...and when Gary talks about business people listen. Here's why: At the age of 30 Gary founded BOOKSTOP-the first bookstore super chain-which was acquired by Barnes & Noble in 1989 for $41.5 million. A year later he founded Hoover's, Inc. which became the world's largest internet-based provider of information about companies. Hoover's, Inc. sold in 2003 for $117 million. Hoover's Vision offers a glimpse into the thoughts of one of the great business minds of the past two decades. The book walks a fine line. On one side Gary uses examples from his entrepreneurial successes and failures to paint a picture of the principles that guide business today. On the other side Gary provides practical exercises throughout the book to bring the principles home. Jason C. Steinle.

BEST BOOK I'VE EVER READ ON BUILDING BUSINESSES BIG & SMALL

Gary's book is the right book to learn the principles for building your business, no matter what your business is or what size it is. Gary's book is truly about vision -- about seeing truly what the landscape is about and what it could be, and developing the right path that indeed turns that vision into reality. Isaac Newton once remarked "Innovation is tough to sell." Isaac Newton was a vicious optimist. Beyond optimism is entrepreneuriality, as it takes steel-jawed resolve to create the future. Gary's book is nothing less than a manual for creating the future. There are great books about business philosophy, and there are great books about business execution that are very rubber-meets-the-road. Gary Hoover's book takes great business philosophy and vulcanizes right into one's tire treads.

Slow Reading

Have you ever begun a book at your normal reading speed, then felt forced to slow down because you might miss something? That's Hoover's Vision, from start to finish. This is the unusual book that you'll read carefully from cover to cover, then want to read again and use as a reference book. This is a book to treasure.Why do I characterize Hoover's Vision this way? Let's begin with the author. Gary Hoover is an entrepreneur, a highly successful visionary entrepreneur. He's the sort of person that you listen to especially carefully if you meet him at a cocktail party. He started reading FORTUNE magazine when he was 12 and moved into a career with Citibank (securities analyst), May Department Stores (Manager of Strategic Planning), and then his first entrepreneurial venture. He created BOOKSTOP, an innovative large-space retail operation that he sold to Barnes & Noble for $40 million after just seven years. His work was the foundation of the now familiar book superstores. Then he went on to found Hoover's, Inc, the company behind Hoover's OnLine, a premier source for information about corporations. Now, the book. Start with the introduction: The Art of Enterprise: Thinking Differently. Hoover explains that he has been on a mission to discover the reasons for success of enterprises of all kinds, what separates winners from losers. This book presents the findings of his 38 years of research. He suggests that the book is meant for people who own their own business or dream of creating one, for executives or leaders of departments or divisions of large organizations, for people charged with thinking strategically or who serve on boards of for-profit or not-for-profit enterprises, for those looking for enterprises to invest time or money in, and for those passionately devoted to goals achieve through the combined efforts of a group of people. A nugget I gleaned from this section was "Great businesses succeed because of their leaders' ability to see things that others do not see. To ask questions that others do not ask. And then to chart their own course, combining insights and strategies into the blueprint for a uniquely focused enterprise."Hoover postulates that the secrets of success are 1. observing and understanding other people and how their needs, desires, interest, values and tastes change over time; 2. serving other people by making their lives better; and 3. developing a business style that expresses your own dreams and passions even as it serves the needs of others. He stresses the importance of learning new ways of thinking. Readers are now set-up to honor curiosity . . . right where Hoover wants us to be.The first section of the book, Exploration, is organized into three sections: Curiosity: The Foundation of Creativity, History: The Study of Change Through Time, and Geography: The Study of the World Around Us. While I'm tempted to share some of the wealth of Hoover's nuggets of wisdom, I will restrain myself so you can enjoy this book uns

How to identify trends and create ventures to capitalize

Copying success is a waste of time, is the provocative observation of entrepreneur Gary Hoover. Instead, entrepreneurs and business managers need to develop our own, original views of the world. This mind-set requires curiosity, the study of history and geography, and the formation of their own unique vision. Hoover's Vision: Original Thinking For Business Success aptly describes how to employ those elements to identify trends and create commercial ventures to capitalize on them.

Gary's got the vision!

Gary Hoover's book is just the thing for managers, executives and entrepreneurs who want to learn Hoover's unique methods for seeing and seizing opportunities for new business in markets of all types. If you've every had a chance to hear Hoover speak during one of his many lecture engagements, then you know just how dynamic his ideas can be. Pick up this book as soon as you can and you'll be dreaming up new business ideas of your own starting with page one!