- Hardcover: 192 pages
- Publisher: Prentice Hall; 2 edition (9 Nov 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0273694456
- ISBN-13: 978-0273694458
- Product Dimensions: 22.8 x 15.4 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 243,040 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
You need Fergus O'Connell's Simply Brilliant. Are you needlessly complicating your business decisions by paying too much attention to skill, management knowledge, experience or philosophies? None of these things, argues O'Connell, can hold a match to good old common sense.
You may have come across the expression 'it's not rocket science'. Launching, flying and returning the space shuttle is rocket science, and requires the application of complex scientific thought. But most of us aren't flight directors at NASA and the things we do aren't rocket science. Too often, we look for complex solutions when simpler ones would be more appropriate, easier to find and simpler to implement.
This gem of a book is the perfect antidote to the endless tomes about how to leverage your core competencies and think "outside the box". Instead, it advises you to look for simple problems, simple solutions and direct approaches. If there's a philosophy here, it's this: be nice to people you work with, and try to see problems from their point of view. O'Connell, who also wrote the classic business guide The Silver Bullet, has a wonderfully dry sense of humour, and pokes fun at any reader who dares to take themselves too seriously. A series of questionnaires are designed to reveal how able you are to see simple solutions to business scenarios, from a drop in customer satisfaction to overdue projects.
This is a manual of sorts: covering how to plan, how to prioritise, how to see projects through, how to remember the customer's needs. This is simple stuff, simply written. But don't underestimate Simply Brilliant's value--much of this stuff is forgotten in the rush of everyday business. As O'Connell says--the thing about common sense is that it isn't all that common in reality. --Sally Whittle --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
Reviews of first edition
Shortlisted in the business book category of WHSmith’s Book Awards 2002.
"For a change this guide tears down management as a complex science, reducing it to life saving basics. This book does a good job - it may just help to simplify your working life." Evening Standard, London
"Simply Brilliant is brilliantly simple... offers salvation"
Financial Times
"This gem of a book is the perfect antidote to the endless tomes about how to leverage your core competencies and think "outside the box"...This is simple stuff, simply written. But don't underestimate Simply Brilliant's value"
Amazon.co.uk official review
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful, simple.,
By
This review is from: Simply Brilliant: The Competitive Advantage of Common Sense (Paperback)
I'm often criticised by my partners for the amount of business books I read, which I inevitably present to them with the exhortation:"You have to read this - it'll change your life." But this time I'm right. Mr. O'Connell's book is project / time / life management summarised in a series of seven principles. It could have saved me ten years of management development and six years of business management. It's also the first business book I've ever put down and immediately started reading again from the beginning. Sorry for gushing, but the book does work. You have to read this - it'll change your life.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Short, snappy, not so simple,
By
This review is from: Simply Brilliant: The Competitive Advantage of Common Sense (Paperback)
I usually think that if I can learn just two applicable things from a business book, then it's been a worthwhile read. I liked the idea presented here, keep things as simple as they can be, so I guess that's one thing to remember. The other is not to attend meetings unless you're sure why you're going and what you expect to get out of them. Given that attending meetings has become an everyday occurrance (passtime?) for managers, turning down a few might be a good idea!The style is somewhat disjointed, however, and I don't think the layout is all that simple in itself. One of the concepts, the dancecard, which suggests you almost itemize and prioritise your whole day ahead may be a simple enough concept, but how simple will it be to apply on a day-to-day basis? You may also feel that you've read many of the principles in this book before, and you probably have, but this book has the saving grace of being rather short and snappy where many similar texts are not. This latter fact meant that I finished Simply Brilliant, and I don't finish many such books! I also came away with my two applicable ideas, so I can't complain really.
19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
simple....but it works,
By marcuspparker@aol.com (London) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Simply Brilliant: The Competitive Advantage of Common Sense (Paperback)
I waited until I had taken the chance to put into practice some of Fergus O'Connell's suggestions before I came back to post this review, and yes they work. Simply Brilliant is witty, inuitive (yes, it's not rocket science, but too many management books dress simple ideas up as rocket science)and very easy to read and apply. I've actually read Simplicty and 80/20 Principle too, and they're both one-trick ponies; taking a whole book to explain one idea (80/20 even helpful graphs showing you what 80% and 20% look like!). Simply Brilliant is full of useful, implementable techniques and it does what it says on the tin.
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