Book of the week: How to build a business

published 3 November 2017

Flying High

My Story from AirAsia to QPRby Tony FernandesPenguin, £18.99(Buy at Amazon)

Business books tend to be either educational or inspirational. Educational books focus on teaching business lessons, while inspirational books aim to motivate the reader to follow their dreams. Flying High is clearly in the latter group.

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After a few anecdotes about his time at boarding school and university, Tony Fernandes's memoir looks at his career in the music industry. It then goes on to explore how he set up AirAsia. The final few chapters cover his adventures in Formula One, the Premier League and as the host of The Apprentice Asia.

As well as some amazing stories, there is a lot of useful advice for entrepreneurs. The section on how Fernandes bought a tiny, debt-ridden private airline for $1 and then turned it into one of Asia's largest operators contains some valuable tips about running a start-up on a shoestring and negotiating legal and regulatory barriers. He is also candid about his mistakes. Those who use complex financial instruments to "manage" their risk should take heed of what happened to AirAsia, when it dipped its toes into the world of derivatives.

Fernandes may not be as well known in Britain as Richard Branson, who also made his name in airlines, but if you are interested in how someone goes about building up a successful company from scratch, you will definitely enjoy Flying High.

Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.

He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.

Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.

As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.

Follow Matthew on Twitter: @DrMatthewPartri