New Books in Business, Management, and Marketing

In three short years, the Milwaukee Bucks went from merely an idea to NBA champions. What started as a quest by Marvin Fishman and eventually Wesley Pavalon to get Milwaukee back in the big leagues became something bigger than they could have imagined. They attracted a hard-working coach in Larry Costello, a pioneer in Wayne Embry and some of the biggest talents in the game of basketball with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson. The pieces fell into place for a franchise that asserted themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the NBA. Building the Milwaukee Bucks: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Oscar Robertson, and the Rapid Rise of an NBA Franchise, 1968-1975 (McFarland, 2025) covers the unique formation of the NBA franchise that helped restore the image of the city of Milwaukee amid civil unrest and the departure of Major League Baseball as well as why Abdul-Jabbar never found comfort being the face of the Bucks while living in Milwaukee.

Paul Knepper covered the New York Knicks for Bleacher Report. His first book was The Knicks of the Nineties: Ewing, Oakley, Starks and the Brawlers That Almost Won It All. His next book, Moses Malone: The Life of a Basketball Prophet, is now available. You can reach Paul at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @paulieknep.
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In this engaging conversation, Guy Pinsent shares his entrepreneurial journey from Cambridge economics student, being a banker in the City, to the Foreign Office and on to real estate and finally, on his own account, as a successful self storage business owner in Central Europe. Guy discusses the founding and growth of Less Mess Storage, which now operates 18 locations across Poland and Czech Republic with backing from Metric Capital Partners since 2015, and with 100,000 sqm of rentable space and 40,000 more in the pipeline.

Key Topics Covered:

The Self Storage Business Model: Guy explains his freehold property approach, inspired by companies like Big Yellow and the McDonald's model featured in "The Founder" film. Also attractive features of the self storage business: long lifetime value of clients, custom inertia, counter-cyclical demand so the business performs well across the business cycle.Cambridge University Value of a first-class education.

The Why question: How Guy never worried about social status, and simply doing what it takes to build a life, do something of value.

Entrepreneurial Philosophy: Discussion of motivation and work ethic, referencing Arnold Schwarzenegger's YouTube talks and Gary Vaynerchuk's "I will outwork you" mentality.

Economic Principles: Insights on loss aversion from Daniel Kahneman's research and lessons from Cambridge professor Michael Kuczynski.

Life as a British Expat: Guy shares his experience living abroad and his documentary project "Should Brits Come Home?" made with Patrick Ney, exploring whether British expats should return to the UK.

Documentary Filmmaking: Behind-the-scenes stories from filming at the Notting Hill Carnival, agricultural shows, and conducting street interviews.

Political Commentary: Reflections on Britain's direction, post-nationalism, and concerns about current UK leadership.

About Guy Pinsent

Guy is a British real estate entrepreneur and the Founder & CEO of Less Mess Storage, a leading self‑storage company operating across Central Europe.

Born in London and raised in the English countryside, he studied at Eton College and Cambridge University before starting his career in investment banking at Citibank. He later served at the British Embassy in Poland to strengthen UK–Poland business relations, then moved into commercial real estate with Colliers, and in 2014 founded Less Mess Storage, which he has since built into a benchmark player in the Central European self storage sector.

Guy’s Linkedin

Links

Arnold Schwarzenegger - Guy referenced a 4-minute motivational talk on YouTube about entrepreneurship principles YouTube: Arnold Schwarzenegger 6 Rules of Success

Gary Vaynerchuk - Richard mentioned him as an American entrepreneur from Belarus known for saying "I will outwork you" as part of his pathway to success example here

Daniel Kahneman - Guy referenced his work on loss aversion (people feel $100 loss twice as painfully as the good feeling of a $100 gain) Wikipedia: Loss Aversion

Michael Kuczynski - Economics professor at Pembroke College, Cambridge who taught both Richard and Guy; passed away in 2025 at age 84 Pembroke College: Michael Kuczynski (1941–2025)

Pedro Pablo Kuczynski - Michael's brother, became President of Peru Wikipedia: Pedro Pablo Kuczynski

Less Mess Storage - Guy's self-storage company operating in Poland and Czech Republic with 18 locations lessmess.storage

Pembroke College, Cambridge - Where both Richard and Guy studied economics pem.cam.ac.uk

Big Yellow - UK self-storage company mentioned as reference for freehold approach bigyellow.co.uk

"The Founder" - Film about Ray Kroc and McDonald's history, illustrating property-based business model Wikipedia: The Founder (film)

Richard’s TED-ED lesson based on The Founder link

"Should Brits Come Home?" - Documentary Guy made with Patrick Ney about whether British expats should return to the UK especially from a Polish perspective. Here


Patrick Ney was a guest on this NBN channel here, And gave one of the most popular TEDxKazimierz talks of all time with over 375,000 downloads here

Center for Policy Studies - UK centre-right think tank Guy mentioned link

Extra Space - Major US self-storage operator link

Metric Capital Partners - Private equity investor in Less Mess since 2015 link1

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John is joined by the brilliant and affable Paul Kramer of Vanderbilt (The Blood of Government) to discuss Capitalism: A Global History (Penguin, 2025) by Sven Beckert, Laird Bell Professor of History at Harvard University. With Christine A. Desan (Recall This Book adores her) he is the co-director of the Program on the Study of Capitalism at Harvard University. This builds on his marvelous previous work about the global cotton trade.

John wants to know about the importance of the state as money-maker and underpinner of markets. Paul asks about the key historical ruptures; the conversation goes back a millennium to traders in Aden and in China. Together Paul and Sven speculate on the role violence plays inside the “free” market that capitalist exchange established and now somewhat remarkably sustains. The singular turning-point of the late 19th century (which Sven decided to present in three interwoven chapters) comes in for sustained attention.

Mentioned in the Episode

Christine Desan, Making Money: Coin, Currency, and the Coming of Capitalism (2014)

Ursula Le Guin “We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable — but then, so did the divine right of kings.” (National Book Foundation Medal speech 2014)

Ferdinand Braudel Afterthoughts on Material Civilization and Capitalism (1979)

Eric Williams, Capitalism and Slavery (1944)

Listen and Read here.

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NBN host Richard Lucas being interviewed by Alexander Goldman.

Normally on this channel, you hear Richard Lucas interviewing interesting guests. In this one, you'll hear Richard being interviewed on another podcast about community management and leadership, a topic close to his heart. Many thanks to Alexander Goldman for giving permission to share his podcast here on the NBN

Find his podcast, Connecting Beyond the Apps and AI and Substack newsletter here.

Connecting Beyond Apps & AI is a research-backed, optimistic podcast about social thriving in our age of digital communication. Through interviews with experts we explore the art, science, and best practices of bringing people together to promote lives of purpose and contentment.

Links from the original podcast show notes are below.

Open Coffee Lisbon

Open Coffee Krakow

Open Coffee Warsaw

Open Coffee Tirana

Lisbon Community Connections Group


Open Coffee Sydney.

Krakow Newcomers Welcome Club

Open Coffee Cambridge

Lisbon Community Newsletter

CAMentrepreneurs

Sunday Assembly

How to organise a TEDx

How to make your event “buzz” - TEDx Training video.

Why do pre-events: events before events

Derek Sivers on how to start a movement

Priya Parker on transformative gatherings.

Richard Lucas links

TED.com profile

About Richard

Linkedin

Quora profile

TEDx Talk on Opportunity Readiness

TEDx talk on why you should show up early

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Eric Ries shares how financial 'gravity' pulls great companies away from their founders' purpose, and his solutions in his new book Incorruptible (Authors Equity, 2026)

Join us for a uniquely provocative conversation between our host, Richard Lucas, and renowned entrepreneur and "Lean Startup" author Eric Ries on his new book, Incorruptible. Moving beyond the surface-level summary, Richard intentionally focuses on the book's deep ethical and moral core, giving Ries the space to clarify and elaborate on his most challenging ideas.1

This is not your typical book tour stop. Richard dives into what he finds "particularly interesting," exploring why founders must prioritize building an enterprise "worth protecting" from the start—a business whose mission is protected by structural guardrails. Richard highlights memorable quotes from Eric's book, including:1

"Not every form of making money is equally good."1

"The more golden the goose, the stronger the temptation to butcher it."1

Ries explains that without these defenses, a universal, systemic force he calls "financial gravity" will inevitably pull the organization toward short-term profit maximization over "human flourishing". He argues that waiting until a business is successful to put in guardrails is "too late" because success attracts predators. Taking the principled path, though harder, Ries believes, unlocks "almost unbelievable superpowers". The discussion drills down into practical, yet philosophical questions: Can any system resist a corrupt leader? Richard challenges Ries on the possibility of an ethical defense military technology company (like those defending Ukraine), leading Ries to clarify that technology is neutral; the danger lies in who controls it. They also explore the failure of modern management practices, discussing how reliance on metrics like average hold time can create "false proxies" that actively make customer service worse. Finally, Ries advocates for a powerful solution for corporate governance: a universal director's oath, similar to the Hippocratic Oath, to bind corporate leadership to a commitment to the mission.1

Tune in to hear Ries’s candid reflections, including his personal belief that integrity is not merely ethical, but a competitive advantage—the true foundation for economic success, while emphasizing the first step for every founder and entrepreneur: "First, create something worth protecting

Links & References

Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad…and How Great Companies Stay Great

Book release date is May 26 in the US, May 28 worldwide Amazon listing

Website: here

Seth Godin on false metrics

Frankenstein, Incorporated by I Maurice Wormser

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