The Rise and Fall...and Rise Again

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."

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