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Alpha Dogs: How Your Small Business can become a Leader of the Pack
Take an ordinary business. A bike shop. An auction company. An ice cream parlor. A sock manufacturer. In thoroughly mundane businesses like these, an entrepreneur must outsmart the multitudes of competitors, leap to the head of the pack, and become a dominant Alpha Dog. Exactly how does an everyday company distinguish itself in the marketplace, generate much higher sales than its competitors, and earn the lasting loyalty of customers and employees? Is it cutting-edge products? Brilliant service? Ingenious branding? Donna Fenn, a twenty-year veteran of Inc. magazine, has discovered the people who have the answers. In a personal and probing style, she introduces you to eight Alpha Dogs. These men and women share their solutions and insights on how to rise to the top, despite multiple competitors, from Chinese manufacturers to Wal-Mart. Readers will In accessible, conversational style, Donna Fenn tells each entrepreneur's personal story, shares their winning formulas, and offers nuts-and-bolts advice and practical tips. Alpha Dogs is a lively handbook for every current and aspiring entrepreneur.
- GenresBusiness
240 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 21, 2012
A pointless read--or I'm a genius. I know that the latter's untrue, but save yourself money and don't purchase the book. I'm trying to decide if there was anything I learned from it...but I keep coming up "no."
I like the cover.
I like the cover.
August 30, 2023
This book was very insightful about running a successful small business. I appreciate that this wasn't just your typical business book about hard skills but focused more on soft skills. Fenn emphasizes the importance of these soft skills to not only drive business now but sustain a SB through time. My only criticism is the same as every other business book I've read- I appreciate the examples to support a point but holy shit it does not have to be 30 pages long. State the point, give the example and move on.
December 28, 2016
As a small business owner, you're probably going through lots of trial and error and dragging your business through your hard-won successes. You probably don't have an MBA and you probably just fell into a small business because you had a great idea or found a niche or an opportunity came that you couldn't pass up. Books like Alpha Dogs (and E-Myth Revisited and Built to Last and so on) should be a high priority, because through other people's successes and failures you might bring some new ideas to managing your business.
Alpha Dogs is a result of Inc. editor Donna Fenn's quest to find small businesses who have survived at least 10 years and have developed a strong reputation in their communities. Word of mouth recommendations took her to a bike retailer, a sock manufacturer, a bakery, a public relations consortium, an ice cream store, among other places. In each of them she found special qualities that helped differentiate these small businesses from their competitors, whether competition was a new Wal-Mart or the mom-and-pop shop across town. Each of them made strategic choices that you will enjoy reading about.
Each chapter introduces an Alpha Dog company and their obstacles to success and the choices along the way. Each chapter focuses on a tactic for that success, whether it was Amy's Ice Creams deciding to concentrate in Austin and resist expansion into other cities despite the inroads of national chains into their "turf", or Chris Zane of Zane's Cycles deciding not to compete with lower prices but develop long-term customers with exceptional customer service (and better warranties). Each company found a niche and filled it. They listened to their customers and because they were small companies they quickly adapted to customer requests. They changed the focus of their company when a different direction beckoned. They tried and failed and tried again. They made expensive mistakes and learned. By reading this book you might benefit from their ideas, errors and optimism.
The stories are all anecdotal tales of small business success, and it's more than likely that none of these "Eight Strategies for Success" will work for you to the same degree that they did for Dancing Deer Baking Company or Mike's Famous Harley-Davidson. This is not as thorough an examination of business as Built to Last (which was about larger corporations at least 50 years old), but the example companies will probably feel more familiar than trying to apply to your business what worked at GE or Sony.
originally reviewed 2006 and posted at moteinteractive.com
Alpha Dogs is a result of Inc. editor Donna Fenn's quest to find small businesses who have survived at least 10 years and have developed a strong reputation in their communities. Word of mouth recommendations took her to a bike retailer, a sock manufacturer, a bakery, a public relations consortium, an ice cream store, among other places. In each of them she found special qualities that helped differentiate these small businesses from their competitors, whether competition was a new Wal-Mart or the mom-and-pop shop across town. Each of them made strategic choices that you will enjoy reading about.
Each chapter introduces an Alpha Dog company and their obstacles to success and the choices along the way. Each chapter focuses on a tactic for that success, whether it was Amy's Ice Creams deciding to concentrate in Austin and resist expansion into other cities despite the inroads of national chains into their "turf", or Chris Zane of Zane's Cycles deciding not to compete with lower prices but develop long-term customers with exceptional customer service (and better warranties). Each company found a niche and filled it. They listened to their customers and because they were small companies they quickly adapted to customer requests. They changed the focus of their company when a different direction beckoned. They tried and failed and tried again. They made expensive mistakes and learned. By reading this book you might benefit from their ideas, errors and optimism.
The stories are all anecdotal tales of small business success, and it's more than likely that none of these "Eight Strategies for Success" will work for you to the same degree that they did for Dancing Deer Baking Company or Mike's Famous Harley-Davidson. This is not as thorough an examination of business as Built to Last (which was about larger corporations at least 50 years old), but the example companies will probably feel more familiar than trying to apply to your business what worked at GE or Sony.
originally reviewed 2006 and posted at moteinteractive.com
June 23, 2008
An excellent book for any person that has that entrepreneurial spirit! It presents profiles on specific small businesses that climbed to the top of their respective industries even when competing with multiple competitors including Wal-Mart and Chinese manufactures.
June 24, 2012
Nice to hear small biz's creating their dreams in any economy. True income is made this way. 9-5 has an income ceiling that can't keep up. Great motivator
January 14, 2015
Inspirational book about how to run your business the right way. Lots of great insights.
January 26, 2016
A few interesting ideas, but mostly some great stories about how a few great small businesses became successful.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews