Reviews
From Kirkus Reports, February 10, 2005 Volume 2, Issue 1 Built for Growth: Expanding Your Business Around the Corner or Across the Globe By:Arthur Rubinfeld and Collins Hemingway Publisher:Wharton School Publishing Pub Date:March 2005 With a first section titled "Make No Little Plans," Rubinfeld makes clear his philosophy of viable business expansion. As the man instrumental in taking Starbucks to the nearest corner, he knows from expansion. He also knows about the mainstays of any successful business: functional design, staying on budget, maximizing profits, and customized customer service (each of which is treated in its own section). From this strong foundation, the business person can begin to think big, or "Go Long," in Rubinfeld's parlance. The first step is to create a business plan, which the author explicates in detail. After assuring that the economic plan is rock-solid, then make sure that employees will remain motivated. Rubinfeld also has plenty of ideas on how to maximize revenue with a minimum investment: a pizza chain can market its sauce, a crafts store can offer lessons to shoppers for a premium, and so on. Although the sections on real estate and "locationing" are particularly valuable given the author's experience, nearly every page has a concrete idea, suggestion, or caution. Rubinfeld delivers serious value for money here, and small business owners and managers would do well to take advantage of it. Financial Times March 28 2005 Book review: Blend that brought the world Starbucks By Jonathan Birchall BooksBUILT FOR GROWTH Expanding your business around the corner or across the globe By Arthur Rubinfeld and Collins Hemmingway Wharton School Publishing $25.95 Ever wondered what happened to the glass and metal storage bins full of coffee beans that used to stand around in Starbucks' coffee shops? The design team, apparently, thought they would give customers a subliminal connection to old-world in-store coffee roasters, but without that old-world fire risk. But the company's operations people never liked the idea. The staff didn't use them. The storage bins became just a store decoration. And then they were slowly phased out. The hand-made pendant lampshades over the curved wooden platform used to present drinks to the customer, on the other hand, are still around - spotlighting each beverage as if it were something more than, well, just a coffee. After 10 years leading Starbucks' store development programme, during which time the company expanded from 150 stores to more than 4,000, Arthur Rubinfeld has an eye for that kind of detail. Trained as an architect, his early career included working as construction manager on a hotel building in Manhattan; he moved on to directing workers on the building site of one of the most successful retail brands in recent business history. So, appropriately for a man whose made his name in bricks and mortar, or at least in terracotta tile and modular countertops, he has written a very hands-on manual for the would-be entrepreneurial retail brand builder. Strangely, for a book that celebrates original thinking, Wharton Publishing (an imprint of Pearson, owner of the Financial Times) opted for a title that echoes Jim Collins' best selling Built to Last. But this is a far more wildly discursive production, ranging from tips on signing a good lease, to the importance of a unified concept of design, to plain old-fashioned business street smarts. Trying to get a grip on the economic