As a contractor/developer in the Baltimore area who shares the same last name and German heritage, but is no relation, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and could not put it down. It was as much an education of the New York contracting industry as it was a history of one family's trials and tribulations.
I enjoyed this book so much that I bought 15 copies and gave them to family and friends as Christmas presents. Each review from the recipients mirrored my enjoyment. I would highly recommend this book to anyone even if they have no conception of the contracting industry.

This book brings the reader into the world of an aspiring family, the Koch family. It begins with a beautiful story of an immigrant family trying to fulfill the American dream by creating a great empire of steel. But with their greatest task of all you witness the family's division and the fall of a great enterprise. This book is allows you to see what went on behind the scenes of the World Trade Center, the problems it had and the problems it caused. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a better understanding of how much one building meant to one man, Karl Koch III. Not because of it's beauty but because of how it changed him forever.

This is THE book to search out regarding the World Trade Center!It reads like a great mystery, and though we all know the ending, I could not put this book down.Anyone who has ever made the statement that "engineers can't write" needs to rid themselves of that notion. Mr. Koch's style is fantastic. I truly felt at times that I was at the job site along with him. The technical details were explained so that anyone could understand. The section regarding the"kangaroo" cranes was amazing.I truly enjoyed this book from start to finish, and I hope Mr. Koch will provide more for us to read. The only problem I have with this book is that I believe it probably got lost in the maze of post 9-11 books! That is a shame, because this is great writing that should have a wide audience.

After reading Koch's "80/20 Principle", I was convinced that he's a mind of his own. His non-conform thinking and writing is extraordinary. Had I only read this book on Strategy before entering my MBA, business school life would have been much easier. Koch's book on strategy is a foundation book, covering the crucial basics for "understanding" business strategy (roughly 80%). It helps espcially the student of strategy not to get (too) confused by providing basic understanding what business stratetgy is all about. The chapters:

INTRODUCTION Koch states wonderfully the use and abuse of strategy and the swings in strategic thinking.

BUSINESS UNIT STRATEGY A do-it-yourself guide with excellent examples.

CORPORATE STRATEGY Very critical Mr Koch argues about the value creation of corporate strategy.

STRATEGIC THINKERS A guide to some of the most useful and important 40 strategic thinkers and their ideas.

STRATEGIC CONCEPTS, TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES An A-Z glossary. The key words (or rather Consulting & MBA buzzwords)used in the world of strategy.

STRATEGIC SHIFTS IN THE 21 CENTURY Forward lookin Koch claims that the tools of strategy are particular valuable for understanding and exploiting shifts of increasing returns, networks, and the net in our new century.

Are you a MBA student? Management scholar? If yes, then this book is definitely for you. The book is not meant for everyday management decision makers because it lacks practical insight. But the theory side is excellent. The author of renown "80/20 principles" has written a good outline of strategic management theories through decades as well as about the latest developments in this area. In the introductory part he gives an overview about overall theoretical background of the subject starting from the teachings of Igor Ansoff. In the first part of the analysis goes mainly around book business unit strategy drawing parallels to BCS-s and Porter's positioning methodology. In the second part the attention is given to various possibilities of corporate strategy. The third part gives an alphabetic overview of all the main strategic thinkers. The fourth part speaks about main concepts, methodologies and techniques used in strategic planning process. The final fifth chapter tries to predict the future of the strategic planning by analysing the latest developments in this area.

This book is a must read for progressive managers. It provides indisputable evidence of the trend to anti-conglomeration and sets out in detail the U.S. companies within the top 100 that are prime candidates for such splits. For general business readers, it provides a critical review of a previously unchallenged business thesis- that bigger is better. This book is bound to be the talk of the business commentator circuit and the handbook for the Wall St. rainmakers.

I don't know whether this book should be called Witch Doctors Part 2 (see Micklethwait's and Wooldridge's book) or vice versa theirs should be called Managing Without 2. Anyway, this book goes further than fingering management consultants as witches, and questions whether boards of directors in command and control organisations are to blame. Perhaps, they buy complex management consultancy to keep themselves occupied, intellectually or worse to make themselves an indispensable fixture as all else changes. How many top people rush into downsize everyone else than themselves? I think that the UK House of Parliament makes an excellent example of an organisation which will protest that it's willing to change anything apart from its top members' privileges. Why on earth does a country the size of the UK need to be governed by 650 + politicians in an era of interactive information? You don't need to be a modern day Guy Fawkes to join our witch doctors club which questions which management consultants and company boards are passionately, relentlessly, creatively worth their meal ticket? Join us to try to sort out the good, the bad and the ugly in the games that turn of the century company leaders - and their court jesters - play with their people and their consistent, boundaryless right to learn... ............................................................................... Chris Macrae, editor of Brand Chartering Handbook & MELNET www.brad.ac.uk/branding/ E-mail me at wcbn007@easynet.co.uk

I have decided to buy this book after finished reading it from library. I want to keep this book on my book shelf because it is a very useful reference for experienced bosses and new bosses. I hope one day my kids can be benefited from it at the early stage of their career.

The book is being written in simple English and a step-to-step guideline to bosses to be successful in their new job by taking neccessary planning, actions and strategies at the early days of the job. Not only the guidance is practical, it has checklist test at the back of each section to help the reader to measure how they fare at all milestones that lead to the final success in a new job as a boss.

I should have benefited greatly if I have read through this book before I have taken my first job as a boss. I recommend this to anyone aspired to build a career in management.

Richard Koch follows up his best-selling The 80/20 Principle with this engrossing look at science's universal principles (biological, physical and non-linear) at work in the business world. Richly detailed and splendidly written, this page-turner will change the way you look at every aspect of business. Koch shows you how innovation and success happen when you work with Mother Nature, and not against her. Don't worry if you slept through high school and college science classes, the author guides you smoothly through scientific theories as he applies them to business. We from getAbstract highly recommend this soon-to-be-classic to everyone in the business world, even if you are a former physics flunkie.

Richard Koch's premise that the knowledge of how pure science works can provide us with the underlying rationale of how business works in fundamental ways is insightful and important. My grad students found The Natural Laws to be challenging and exciting to read and discuss. It is possible to take Koch's discussion on natural selection and combine it with quantum physics to understand the complex movements of markets and competition. The Natural Laws of Business is written with a clarity that belies the complexity of the many scientific theories discussed. Because business is a part of the universe that we are attempting to describe via science, then business ought to behave according to the fundamental laws of science that we have discovered. Koch opens the door to understanding such behavior.

For the well educated (ie from a quantitative discipline) that have studied physics, chemistry and mathematics at some time, this book is a gold mine of insights into the way that reality drives outcomes, not wishful thinking.

The Laws of the natural world exist and cannot be discounted no matter how inconvenient they are to our assumptions. Knowing how things come together allows us to better see solutions.

The best section is the Pareto Optimum - nature is not democratic and 50/50 outcomes are the exception so never expect the law of averages to help you - it does not work that way.

A very good read - those with a science background will get the most out of it but that is not critical.

In The 80/20 Principle, Koch proffers that 20 percent of what companies and individuals do generates over 80 percent of their positive results (a theory that he attributes to Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist around the turn of the 20th century). Koch proposes that by identifying the 20 percent of the activities that generate 80 percent of the results and increasing the effort put into those 20-percent activities you can dramatically improve results. To this end he provides an astute evaluation of the economic and social realities of business.

Koch goes further, though, and tries to extrapolate the 80/20 theory to success, happiness and life in general. While some of what he suggests makes sense, his examples seem to get progressively weaker as he moves away from the world of business.

The book's other main flaw results from its severe organizational problems. Koch seems to have a very limited number of examples - and because of their repeated re-use (and in many cases their limited pertinence to the topic at hand) the book seems to weave in and out of topics, making it somewhat difficult to follow for anything else than a linear read.

The principal, itself, is almost a truism, which as Koch points out, is not thought about nearly enough. The books main strength is that he explains the concept quite well. Unfortunately, the extrapolation to life in general and the organizational difficulties make 80 percent of the book just not worth reading. Read the first two chapters - they explain the principal - and the last chapter (which basically explains all of the extrapolation theories) then put the book down - you will have read the 20% of the book that contains over 80% of the value!

The 80/20 principle is one of those books where the idea keeps turning over in your head for days after you read it.

The 80/20 rule is one that I use quite often in assessing business situations. The book consists of three parts, an introduction to the rule, its application to business and its application to one's life. Koch does a good job in showing how to apply the 80/20 rule in business.

The real kick from the book is how Koch applies the 80/20 rule to living one's life. If 20% of our efforts yield 80% of the results we can increase our productivity 100% by doubling our 20% activities and eliminating the 80% activities. This would leave you with 60% of your time to do other things, more time with family and friends, hobbies, talking a walk.

Richard Koch masterfully amplifies and focuses Vilfredo Pareto's familiar Principle of Imbalance for 21st century readers. Whether you run a household or work within a giant corporation, you will find useful insights into how to apply your time for the greatest improvements in your life and your organization's bottom line. At The Stanton Group we continuously apply 80/20 logic to our manufacturing management consulting services, and the bottom-line results have been exciting. This approach helps us to build on already existing client strengths and apply them to business areas where they will yield the most benefit. This book is a real gem, a must-read for all managers who want to keep organizations lean without cutting muscle.