The Star Principle: How It Can Make You Rich

310 Pages·2010·1.31 MB·English

by  Richard Koch

Table of Contents

About the author
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Epigraph
Introduction

part one - the idea

Chapter 1 - What will make you successful?
Chapter 2 - So what exactly is a star business?
Chapter 3 - The power of the star idea
Chapter 4 - Stars are for everyone

part two - find a star

Chapter 5 - The art of creating stars
Chapter 6 - Born stars
Chapter 7 - Stardom thrust upon them
Chapter 8 - Seven steps to heaven
Chapter 9 - How to create your Star I
Chapter 10 - How to create your Star II
Chapter 11 - Benefit from somebody else’s star
Fake stars - 12

part three - nurture a star

Chapter 13 - The star takes off
Chapter 14 - Evolve into a star
Chapter 15 - The importance of unreasonable expectations
Chapter 16 - The fading star

Summary
index
RICHISTAN
THE TOP 10 HABITS OF MILLIONAIRES
HOW COME THAT IDIOT’S RICH AND I’M NOT?
SECRETS OF THE MILLIONNAIRE MIND
BUYING AND SELLING A BUSINESS
About the author

Richard Koch has made a huge fortune, many times his original investment,
from the companies he has started, turned around or helped expand dramatically:
they include Filofax, Belgo Restaurants, Plymouth Gin and Betfair - Europe’s
largest and most profitable internet gambling business.

He is also the author of a number of acclaimed business books, including The
80/20 Principle, which has sold over 700,000 copies worldwide and been
translated into twenty-four languages.
The Star Principle

RICHARD KOCH

Hachette Digital

www.littlebrown.co.uk
Published by Hachette Digital 2010

Copyright © 2008 by Richard Koch

The moral right of the author has been asserted

All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by
any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form
of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this
condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
eISBN : 978 0 7481 1812 0

Edited by Andrew John

Hachette Digital
An imprint of
Little, Brown Book Group
100 Victoria Embankment
London EC4Y 0DY

An Hachette Livre UK Company
For Matthew and Tocker,
with special thanks to Rhona and Charles
acknowledgements

I have lived with the ideas for this book since I started working with the Boston
Consulting Group (BCG), what seems a lifetime ago. The work is a fusion of my
first life as a strategy consultant, my second as an entrepreneur and investor, and
my third as an author. In one sense, therefore, I should thank my thousands of
former colleagues and clients for their insights.Yet the idea of the star business,
in all its stark magnificence, can be attributed to one person, Bruce Henderson,
founder of BCG, and perhaps the most influential business thinker of all time. I
had the uncertain privilege of knowing and talking to Bruce when he was an
extremely Big Cheese and I was the most junior of colleagues; it was typical of
Bruce that he would talk to anyone who was interested in his ideas, and although
conversations with Bruce were always challenging he made you think very hard.

For helping me develop my ideas about star ventures I owe a great debt to my
former partners, Iain Evans, Jim Lawrence, and Peter Johnson in LEK, and
Robin Field, Anthony Rice, Nick Dodd, and Jamie Reeve in SVP.

The idea for the book came from discussions with Nicholas Brealey and Sally
Lansdell; all power to them. Fiona Lindsay did a terrific job as agent for this
book and its predecessor, assisted by the excellent Mary Bekhait. Thanks also to
my wonderful ‘editorial committee’ of friends - Mary saxe Falstein, Martin Nye,
Robin Field, Jamie Reeve, Peter Johnson, Rick Haller, Chris Outram, Anthony
Rice, Chris Eyles, Graham Ross Russell and Matthew Grimsdale. Douglas
Blowers created the illustrations with great skill and, as always, Aaron Calder
provided essential all-round help. At Piatkus, Alan Brooke and Denise Dwyer
have been a joy to work with.

Finally, thanks to all the entrepreneurs who made all this possible, in
particular David Collischon, Robin Field, André Plisnier, Denis Blais, John
Murphy, Charles Rolls, Andrew Black, Edward Wray, Iain Evans and Jim
Lawrence. Several of these commented on the text and André, David and
Charles went to extraordinary lengths to ensure that the pieces on their
companies were accurate. All inadequacies are, beyond doubt, entirely mine.
I must create a system or be enslaved
by another man’s.
I will not reason and compare;
my business is to create.
WILLIAM BLAKE

One cannot resist the invasion of ideas.
VICTOR HUGO