Good Morning Beautiful Business - Book Report/Review Example

Good Morning Beautiful Business is a book that does not only take the role of economic dynamics in the proliferation of small businesses but it also provides an empowering message that could transform an entire community or even an entire country economically. For an introduction, Good Morning Beautiful Business is a memoir about the progress of a small entrepreneur who, because of her effort to value people, nature, and place, brought a tremendous and wide-spread transformation of her own neighbourhood by “helping communities far and wide create local living economies that value people, nature and place” (Judy Wicks, 2013). The book is remarkable in sense there is a degree of concentration on small business entrepreneurs as opposed to bend more on large-scale corporations and multinational companies. This book certainly offers an opportunity to renew worn out spirits, especially small business investors and restore trust on capitalism. One thing that Judy Wicks emphasized in the preceding accounts of his book is her significant discussion on how conscious capitalism is developing. She witnessed how her business – the White Dog Café in Sansom Street, Philadelphia – grew gradually and had become a leading name in its own industry. The expansion of her business was mainly derived from all sustainable fundamentals for success in the modern times, which is summarized as follows: (1) principled traditions towards stakeholders; (2) conservation of energy by using renewable and efficient materials in the construction of business establishments; (3) recycling materials; (4) putting up system of connection of suppliers, local farms supplying organic products and rebuilding her own neighborhood. Judy addresses her concerns on how she her business might be able to thrive in the current condition of the economy especially that her company is gradually becoming a global icon. In her book, Judy appreciates the role that her appreciation towards a more extensive consciousness of the influences of business and how it could be a drive force for change. Her standpoint in this regard has been manifested by his citing of Carl Jung, she writes: “the longest journey is from the head to the heart.” By including the phrase, the author rather attempts to emphasize the importance of planning and thinking about the nooks and crannies of business, especially in today’s economic platform. It is also substantial to note her reference to how traditional economics and business institutions only educated shrewd orientations and practices, simply overlooking the function that the “heart” or “emotion” plays in running a business. With no malevolence whatsoever, Wicks narrates her preceding business ventures with male partners and how it aided her to learn a very precious lesson: ensuring the contracts are tangible. As aforementioned, Judy puts emphasis on the importance of head before the heart, with her direct reference to the Psychologist Carl Jung. Nevertheless, she also recognizes that the heart is also a powerful ally in making effective decisions. In this book, the author makes some resounding remarks about business and how it should be carried out. These quotations, by and large, define almost the entire objective of the book, that is, to inspire and empower young and small business investors. It is a given that like most entrepreneurs do, she also started from small and then later grew up to become an international icon. She attributes this success many things. Wicks notes about the great weight of good relationship in building a sustainable business. She writes, “Business, I learned, is about relationships. Money is simply a tool.” Seen this way, there is a relatively strong claim that the real benchmark to doing business is relationship and money will simply follow. Looking at this contention, Wicks opens the possibility of growing financially without heavily relying on the accounts of money but on the accounts of the network you have developed at the end of the day. This is a good point in that at the end of the day profitability only comes after the loyalty of the customer. For instance, in an airline industry, if you fail to meet the needs and valid demands of the customer, chances are you are going to lose them. There is not much problem in this regard because customers, sometimes, come and go; but the main concern is that the advertisement through words and through the wide-ranging publicity of media may cause the same outcome. Hence, Judy’s recounts on the importance of relationship reflect how any business operations are indeed dependent on the business’s relationship to its customers. Another point that Wicks raises is this: “My business was the way I expressed my love life, and that’s what made it a thing of beauty.” Deducing the preceding passage, it can be inferred how passion is also a very critical factor in the success of a certain business operation. The author tried to imply that in order to succeed in a business investment, one must realize the fact that passion is the beginning of all achievement. Well, this may sound subjective in a sense that the success of a business operation is influenced by so many factors; but, on the hindsight, there is an obvious correlation between success and passion in that as a person becomes so driven by a particular thing, he or she does not stop until he or she gets the expected outcome. Seen this way, there is a certain degree of cynicism in that the author may sound quite melodramatic in her approach towards the topic of ethical principles and her behaviors throughout her entire busineness career. In Good Morning Beautiful Business, the author writes: “"I began to develop a management style I felt comfortable with, which I came to describe as a balance between freedom and structure, individuality and conformity, spontaneity and discipline.” What this passage implies is that while head and heart is important, the progress and direction of the business is also dependent on a good management plan. The good thing about having a good management plan is that it allows you to track the progress of the business operations while leaving it feasible for change or alteration as soon as the expected outcome is not met. The author mentions about “balance between freedom and structure”: this means that good management plan affords the owner with the ability to maneuver the organizational structure of the business by looking at the organization in a miniature view. In other words, good management plan enables the management to trace lapses and parts of the business plan that need some sort of adjustment or changes.   Another interesting point that the author raises in her book is described in the following line: “I wanted to create a workplace that provided employees the maximum amount of freedom to be themselves within a clear framework of policies and job responsibilities.” In the context of small business, freedom is very important to allow the employees to function in their real elements and become more creative, more effective in the workplace. Of course, Wicks also stresses the role of policies and job responsibilities: every employee is allowed to exercise freedom within the limits of the company’s policies and the employees’ job responsibilities. Now, how can this “maximum amount of freedom” be a catalyst towards business development and progress? Apparently, when employees’ feel that they belong to the organization and that their individual creativeness contributes to the overall success of the business, they would eventually become more efficient in their job, thereby promoting more business accomplishments. Furthermore, the author expresses the magnitude of treating your business like your own home. The author muses, “I came to see that physically separating home life from the workplace often leads to the compartmentalization of values”. By this, she probably implies that treating your business differently from the way you treat your own home creates a mutated duplicated of yourself: someone that is not normal of you; something contrived in terms of action, words, and thoughts. In other words, the compartmentalization of values, as what the author stresses out, is the results of how treating your business differently would only fake the intended outcome of the organization, thus, fake the intended outcome of the owner. The author adds, “When we live and do business in the same community, reconnecting home life and work life, we are more likely to run businesses in the best interest of the community we care about, using the very same values in business decisions that we teach our children – do unto others as you would have them do unto you." The author is certainly an epitome of ethical living. The book sounds not concentrated with heavy business terminologies and principles, but of ethical living and ethical business conducting. This is the beauty of this book in that the author takes a different approach towards introducing small business to the world: she makes business a relatively personal and principle endeavor. The book is different from many other business books in that the focus of the book starts from the individual characteristics of the one managing the business, not from the perspective of the economy or the complex system of marketing or business. Lastly, as mentioned above, Good Morning Beautiful Business is an account chronicling the development of a naïve entrepreneur who would not only change her own neighborhood but the entire world. The defining description of the book is when it recounts how the author “helps communities far and wide create local living economies that value people, nature, and place more than money (Judy Wicks, 2013). This is the backbone of the book: the author emphasizes the importance of valuing good relationships with people, good management plan, behavior, and principles in the workplace and treating your business as you treat your own home. I find this convincing in a sense that businesses are driven by people, and to draw people to your business, you must establish good relationship with them. Most of the social problems arise from lack of good relationship and egoistic causes: as soon as we learn to get rid of these things, we may find ourselves thriving socially, and eventually, economically. References Micks, J. (2013). Good morning beautiful business. Retrieved from: http://judywicks.com/book/ Micks, J. (2013). Good morning, beautiful business: The unexpected journey of an activist Entrepreneur and local-economy pioneer. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing. Read More