Proven and Practical Tools to Help Run Your Business
Proven and Practical Tools to Help Run Your Business
A review of ‘Driving Great Results: Master the Tools You Need to Run a Great Business’ by Luke Sheppard
Reviewed by Jenna Collignon, Editor at Matrix Group Publishing
First impressions
Are you searching for a quick, intelligent, and packed-with-information tool to help you run a great business? ‘Driving Great Results: Master the Tools You Need to Run a Great Business’ by Luke Sheppard is definitely for you. With a simple and straightforward cover to compliment the sharp and concise writing inside, this book is perfect for those of us who covet our precious time in a world that seems to never stop moving.
“Entrepreneurs and managers have it tough. You are constantly strapped for time, balancing pressure from all sides, and challenge to deliver value to your business, employees, and customers, all while learning how to do your job most effectively.” (Introduction, VII)
This book is split into an introduction, four chapters, two fun little extra sections, acknowledgement, and extra readings. Amidst the four chapters, there are further divisions, keeping all the information neatly organized in small bite-sized pieces. These further divisions include Tools, which Sheppard describes as “practical and proven tools […] that you can quickly wrap your arms around and then apply to run a great business.” (Introduction, VII)
The Chapters and the Tools
The four main parts of this book discuss the BIG topics in running a business: making good and efficient decisions, communicating with your staff and your customers, managing your people, and executing your goals and needs consistently. Each of these chapters is incredibly well crafted and gets right to the point.
Sheppard discusses foundational points within each of these four umbrellas. For example, in the second chapter: Communicating with Purpose, the foundational topics discuss body language, cross-cultural communication, communicating with your customers, and the varying types of communication. Then Sheppard offers up tools that he has learned through experience, travel, and meeting countless people who have their own experience in running their own business.
“In my experience, all business decisions (and, interestingly, all types of communication) have three characteristics: the number of people involved in the decision; the impact the decision will have on your business; and the complexity of the decision or issue to be solved.” (4)
The tools themselves are laid out to be simple and clear action plans to try, use, and implement into your daily life running your business. Whether that is prioritizing your decision-making and learning how to make it quick when it matters, or whether that is effectively guiding your employees to execute the goals you want for your company, this book has it all.
How to Use This Book
One of the interesting aspects of the book is evident the second you open it up to the index page. Alongside the chapters and the usual inclusions in a manual of any kind, Sheppard also includes two sections that detail how to use this book. Part one is before the chapters, and part two is after the chapters, bookmarking the content and tools that Sheppard details in between.
The first “How to” details the simple, straightforward way to use this book.
“At the end of each tool explanation is a summary of the key takeaways, questions to consider when implementing the tool, and recommended readings to nurture your curiosity should you want to know more.” (IX)
“Most of the nineteen tools in this book can be learned and used independently. You need not read the whole book if there are only one or two tools that appeal to you. I recognize the preciousness of your time and want to provide material in a way that gets straight to the point.” (X)
The second “How to” is a conclusion, of sorts. The author himself closes it out better than I could: “I wanted to wrap up this book not with a conclusion or another inspirational quote to lead you down the path of business excellence, but with a reaffirmation of how this book may best be used.” (177) He closes with three final thoughts to push readers forward into action to go off and run their business efficiently.
Overall, this book is a fantastic tool that you should consider including on your shelf. Short, snappy, and packed with incredibly helpful tools to get you running your business efficiently and successfully, ‘Driving Great Results’ by Luke Sheppard gets you up on your feet, and running toward the goals and dreams you have for creating and maintaining a successful business.
About Luke Sheppard
Luke Sheppard is on a mission to simplify and share the fundamental tools needed to successfully run a business and drive great results.
Luke has spent 20 years in the construction and forestry equipment industry, starting as an adventurous machine test engineer in the pine forests of Alabama and most recently as the Vice President of Customer Support with Nortrax, a John Deere company.
During his career, Luke had the opportunity to meet with thousands of entrepreneurs and managers around the world and became obsessed with what separates good businesses from those that truly drive great results. In 2019, Luke decided to leave the corporate world and blaze his own trail by applying engineering principles to business management tools to help entrepreneurs and managers drive great results with the use of simple, yet highly effective, tools.
About the Author
Jenna Collignon joined the Matrix team in 2019, fresh out of the University of Manitoba with a Bachelor of Honours English Degree. When asked what she most likes about her position as an editor at Matrix, she has trouble answering. “That’s because,” she says, “what ISN’T there to like? There is something new on my plate every day, with new challenges and lessons to be learned along with that. It also doesn’t hurt to be part of such a great team.”