The Rise and Fall...and Rise Again (eBook)

Gerald Ratner (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2010 | 1. Auflage
385 Seiten
John Wiley & Sons (Verlag)
978-1-907293-76-4 (ISBN)

Infos

In 1991, Gerald Ratner made a landmark speech to the Institute
of Directors

After over 25 years in the jewellery trade, Gerald Ratner was
one of the most well-known and successful retailers of his
generation. He had built up a highly profitable, multi-million
pound international business, including household names like
Ratners, H Samuel, Ernest Jones, Watches of Switzerland, as well as
over one thousand stores in the US. Being asked to give the keynote
address at the Institute of Directors' annual conference at The
Royal Albert Hall was a great honour and should have been the
crowning glory on two decades of empire building.

Gerald's speech was seized upon by the media after he included
jokes about the quality of some of the shops' products. But the
far-reaching impact that these jokes would have no one could have
predicted.

"Even though I had once had my name above hundreds of shops up
and down the country, it had become more famous as a byword for
crap. It took several years to realise just what an impact the
speech had had on every aspect of my life."

Press coverage of hardback version:

"... a rollicking good read"

--Michael Skapinker, The FT

"Most business autobiographies are so overlaid with
ghost-writerly blandness that the character of the subject is lost.
Mr Ratner had help with this one, but fortunately he is still
there: obsessive, funny and a bit of a scoundrel - the last
mitigated by how well he knows it."

--The FT

"self-effacing, revealing and human"

--Luke Johnson, FT Business Life

"A few ill-chosen words to a well-heeled audience 16 years ago
reduced Britain's biggest jeweller to poverty. Now he reveals how
he bounced back"

--Jewish Chronicle

"...contains lessons for us all"

--Management Today

"...worth its weight in gold"

--The Independent

Amazon reviews

"Everyone knows the story of Gerald's rise and fall - what an
amazing story and well worth reading.... I couldn't put it down,
totally gripping and inspiring stuff, you really couldn't see this
coming from such an energetic, passionate man"

"I have read many bio's from business leaders and most are
boring 'how to get rich' or 'let me tell you a long list of not
very interesting stories with all the good bits missed out'.
Gerald's book is very different it is a great read, I could not put
it down"

"Sobering and enlightening at the same time. A great read and a
morality tale of our time."

Autor

Gerald Ratner joined the family business in 1966, and built up an extremely successful chain of jewellers during the '80s, of which he was chief exec. In 1991 he made an infamous speech to a private audience at the IoD which was instantly seized upon by the media. He was sacked 18 months later, and in 1994 the Ratner name was expunged from the company, renamed The Signet Group. He went home, cycled to get his head together, then for four years he worked as a general business consultant, before setting up a health club in Henley. He sold it for £3.9m in 2001, when one of the club's members, Goldsmiths the Jewellers head, Jurek Piasecki, encouraged him to go back into the jewellery trade. Subsequently Ratner set up a new, much smaller on-line jewellery business called GeraldOnline. In August 2006, press speculation has noted that Ratner is interested in acquiring the UK business of Signet Group plc -- the re-named Ratner's group. He is a married father of four and a fitness fanatic, cycling around 20 miles per day.

Inhalt

Introduction 1

Act I - The Rise 5

Chapter 1 Family Life 7

Chapter 2 Growing Up 17

Chapter 3 Toughening Up 25

Chapter 4 The Family Business 37

Chapter 5 Growing the Business 47

Chapter 6 Going Public 57

Chapter 7 The Home Front 75

Chapter 8 Downturn 87

Chapter 9 Taking Over 105

Chapter 10 Turnaround 115

Chapter 11 The Big Time 125

Chapter 12 Trauma 133

Chapter 13 Thatcher's Decade 149

Chapter 14 The Incredible Eighties 173

Chapter 15 Going Global 181

Chapter 16 Riding the Acquisitions Express 191

Act II - The Fall 203

Chapter 17 Welcome to the Nineties 205

Chapter 18 An Invitation 211

Chapter 19 That Speech 221

Chapter 20 As Bad as it Gets 243

Chapter 21 The End 257

Chapter 22 The Wilderness 263

Chapter 23 Out of the Frying Pan 273

Act III - The Rise Again 287

Chapter 24 Starting All Over Again 289

Chapter 25 The Launch 305

Chapter 26 Dotcom Millionaire 321

Chapter 27 Thinking Big 333

Chapter 28 What Goes Around 345

The Speech 351

Index 365

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 5.2.2010
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Beruf / Finanzen / Recht / Wirtschaft ► Wirtschaft
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte
• Schlagworte: Autobiographie • Biographien / Großbritannien • Geschichte • History • UK Biography
• ISBN-10: 1-907293-76-0 / 1907293760
• ISBN-13: 978-1-907293-76-4 / 9781907293764