Come Together: The Business Wisdom of the Beatles

In their debut work, business writer Cassidy and columnist Courtney, dedicated Beatles fans, assert that the Beatles' success was attributable to their talent and business savvy. The authors mine the Fab Four's financial decisions to make generalizations about financial planning and management. In short, pithy chapters, we see how the Beatles succeeded and failed as entrepreneurs, how they managed their debt and expenses, including equipment and instruments, independently; when manager Brian Epstein came on board, he created an accounting plan, managed the expenses collectively, paid the Beatles' salaries, and managed the overhead carefully. The authors use John and Paul's openness to engineer Geoff Emrick's ideas and contributions to sound innovation as an example of how any business can benefit from hiring, training, and motivating folks with complementary skills. This work illustrates fundamental business concepts in a straightforward, entertaining fashion—but experienced businesspeople (or those lacking a strong emotional connection to the Beatles) may find the offerings too basic. (Mar.)