Bear Markets and Beyond: A Bestiary of Business Terms

Dhruti Shah is an award-winning journalist with more than a decade’s experience across the BBC. She is also an Ochberg Fellow at the Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma and a Rotary International Peace Fellow. She’s a member of the Clore Cultural Leaders network and the Women of the Future of Network, and is on the Board of the John Schofield Trust. Recognised as one of 40 Digital Women to Watch in 2021 at the Digital Women Awards, she has spent the last year working on coronavirus pandemic storytelling.

Dominic Bailey is a journalist with more than 20 years’ experience working for the BBC News website, where he is part of the specialist Visual Journalism department. Working with designers and developers, he helps create infographics, interactives and animations to explain, enhance and promote the day’s biggest news stories from around the world.
He likes to doodle and draw animals – having a few to choose from at home, from cats and guinea pigs to rescue hens.
Bear Markets and Beyond: A Bestiary of Business Terms (Published by Portico) is Dhruti and Dominic’s first book.

Why did you write the book?

We wanted to use our storytelling skills and our interest in nature and animals to help others who found the world of economics and finance intimidating and show them they didn’t have to be scared. It’s all been driven by a desire to educate. As journalists by trade, we love to play with words and visuals and so being able to combine our skills there in a whole new field – we’re debut authors after all – seemed like a challenge we couldn’t wait to get our teeth into. We’d find animal metaphors scattered everywhere – from elephants to cash cows to unicorns to ducks – so here was a chance to collect them all together and have some fun with it.

What value does the book offer?

Nature and animals are a way to make the inaccessible accessible. When we realised there was no such thing as a business bestiary in the way we envisioned – a humorous illustrated guide – we decided to fill that gap. Our idea is not complicated– we’ve created a reference guide to the animal metaphors in use in the world of business, economics and finance. It’s a book that taps into the issue of financial literacy and capability in an unusual way. We created a book that helps everyone. It ensures young people are exposed to business terms, while gives those who are old hands some beautiful illustrations to look at and learn more about the background of words they use on a regular basis. If you weren’t sure about what a gorilla company was or the reason why Zebras are important to be aware of in the diversity and inclusion space, then this is the book for you.

What’s happened since you published the book?

We’ve learned that the publishing industry is just as hard to navigate as journalism is when you start out without any connections at all. That’s why it’s so important to network and not be shy about the product you’ve created. Our book came out in a pandemic, when people were furloughed and bookshops were closed – so it’s certainly taught us the art of resilience. We were already known for being pretty tenacious as it took four years to get this book from concept to publication but publishing a book like ours when the odds were stacked against us, gave us a real confidence boost. It’s now in libraries and schools as well as workspace offices and for us it’s proof that you can find ways to make dreams come true.

Bear Markets and Beyond A Bestiary of Business Terms (Published by Portico) is available to buy on Amazon. 

Connect with Dhruti: LinkedIn – Twitter – Instagram

Connect with Dominic: LinkedIn – Twitter – Instagram

Winners of The Business Book Awards 2021 will be revealed online on Tuesday 25th May 2021.