Gerald Ratner

Produktdetails

Verlag

John Wiley & Sons

Erschienen

2008

Sprache

English

Seiten

268

Infos

268 Seiten

ISBN

978-1-84112-812-2

Hauptbeschreibung

In 1991 Gerald Ratner was booked to make what should have been an
everyday

speech at the Institute of Directors. Should have been. When the
words "total

crap" come out of his mouth in connection with a decanter and
glasses set sold by

his company, H. Samuel, it all turned out slightly different. The
Rise and Fall...And

Rise Again tells the full story, in Gerald Ratner's own words, of
what lead him to

that point at the IoD, the horror of what happened in the immediate
aftermath,

the fallout and the comeback. This is the fi rst time Gerald Ratner
has given his side

of the story. And what a story it is. You'll fi nd out:

* How he wiped £500m off the value of his own company
virtually overnight

* All the details about the initial gaffe and how he compounded it
by remarking

that some of the earrings were "cheaper than an M&S prawn
sandwich but

probably wouldn't last as long"

* How "doing a Ratner" has entered into the vocabulary of British
business

* The wilderness years sitting glued to the sofa in front of
Countdown

* How he has bounced back, rediscovering his entrepreneurial spark
by building

up a health club business and, more recently, the immensely
successful online

jewellery retailer Geraldonline.com

* The story's not over yet...

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction.

ACT I: THE RISE.

Chapter 1: Family Life.

Chapter 2: Growing Up.

Chapter 3: Toughening Up.

Chapter 4: The Family Business.

Chapter 5: Growing the Business.

Chapter 6: Going Public.

Chapter 7: The Home Front.

Chapter 8: Downturn.

Chapter 9: Taking Over.

Chapter 10: Turnaround.

Chapter 11: The Big Time.

Chapter 12: Trauma.

Chapter 13: Thatcher's Decade.

Chapter 14: The Incredible Eighties.

Chapter 15: Going Global.

Chapter 16: Riding the Acquisitions Express.

ACT II: THE FALL.

Chapter 17: Welcome to the Nineties.

Chapter 18: An Invitation.

Chapter 19: That Speech.

Chapter 20: As Bad as it Gets.

Chapter 21: The End.

Chapter 22: The Wilderness.

Chapter 23: Out of the Frying Pan.

ACT III: THE RISE AGAIN.

Chapter 24: Starting All Over Again.

Chapter 25: The Launch.

Chapter 26: Dotcom Millionaire.

Chapter 27: Thinking Big.

Chapter 28: What Goes Around.

The Speech.

Index.

Besprechung

"...[a] rollicking read" (Financial Times, Monday 29th
October 2007)

"contains lessons for us all" (Management Today, November
2007)

"self-effacing, revealing and human." (Financial
Times, Wednesday 26th November 2007)

"...it is a compelling insight into retail history and the
internal workings of a behemoth, international jewelry
company." (Idex Magazine - International Diamond
Exchange, January 2008)

"His jewellery might have been "crap" but his
book isn't. This slim volume of memoirs is extremely
readable..." (The Independent, Extra, Thu 13th
March)

"a case study of how retailing nous shaped a winning
formula on both sides of the Atlantic." (The Oldie,
April 2008)

Über den AutorIn

Gerald Ratner is a British household name. He joined the family business in 1966 at the age of 15 and went on to build up the UK's most successful chain of jewellers of which he was Chairman and Chief Executive. In 1992, 18 months after his infamous speech to the conference at the Institute of Directors, he was sacked and in 1994 the Ratner name was eliminated from the company. For four years he worked on and off as a consultant, before starting up a health club in Henley and eventually selling it. In 2004, Ratner set up an online jewellery business, GeraldOnline, after market research on brand recognition found that Ratners was still the most recognised name in jewellery retailing. Gerald Ratner has come full-circle and is enjoying success second time around. He is a married father of four and now a fitness fanatic, cycling around 30 miles per day. Gerald worked with the author and journalist, Jo Monroe, on this book.