BOOK REVIEW

 

    Strategy is a reflection of thought that gives a person a reference point to actions made explicit. For example on page 234 it states the following:

"Fancy what a game of chess would be if all the chessmen had passions and intellects, more or less small and cunning; if you were not only uncertain about your adversary's men, but a little uncertain also about your own; if your knight could shuffle himself on to a new square by the sly; if your bishop, in disgust at your castling, could wheedle your pawns out of their places; and if your pawns, hating you because they are pawns, could make away from their appointed posts that you might get checkmate on a sudden. You might be the longest-headed of deductive reasoners, and yet you might be beaten by your own pawns. You would be especially likely to be beaten, if you depended arrogantly on your mathematical imagination, and regarded your passionate pieces with contempt." (~ George Eliot, Felix Holt, The Radical)

Opportunity for an effective strategy doesn't emerge from sterile analysis and number crunching they come from cooked and eaten experiences, as each nibble can influence the taste leading onto a rather well defined set of recipes, so that it all ends up in one great big feast.

Strategy SafariStrategy Safari
by Henry Mintzberg, Bruce Ahlstrand and Joseph Lampel
Published by: Prentice Hall, Europe.

 

 

  This book gives a good account of the office life which isn't written in the Employment Contracts. Also importantly the exercises in Chapter forty-three for tummy tucks by getting under your desks and fiddling with the wiring of the computers, telephone and faxes etc., when they need adjusting.   But also its neglecting to meet your deadline that you'd spend most of time running away from your boss which does help in burning off those extra Mars bar chocolates that has helped you work, rest and play every day; which is a part of any employees working life.

As one of the character's says "...Everything you're doing at the moment is temporary, and the longer you do it the longer the state of temporariness becomes permanent. I look at you and I see you thinking about flunking out of this because it makes you uncomfortable, maybe presses a few buttons you don't want pressed, and you know what I think? I think you've stopped applying for jobs because it's safer than making yourself vulnerable to rejection. You're bright, you're pretty and you've got all the social skills, and your hampering yourself by not seeing the things you start through to the end. That's why you ought to finish it.   Sorry if I'm being a bit previous, but I've seen too much of this in people who got left behind from my generation...."

As the main character says: whichever way you turn out of the building to find the shops, you can guarantee one thing about leaving a building in an area you don't know, whatever way you need to go, it's the opposite of the one that looks most likely.

Much the same with careers and personal life choices.

The Temp
Written by: Serena Mackesy
Published by: The Random House Group Ltd, London

 

 

    Scribes have always inappropriately characterised businessmen as young Icarus who later comes crashing down to Earth..(watch the landing)...after some ephemeral success, or to be so-called Master of the Universe with the ability to descend from a corporate perch by way of a golden parachute.  However stated on page 12 in Lesson 3:

"...If you can't go through the Front Door Use a Side Entrance.  First, I thought the timing was right.   Secondly, I think the market was ready.  Thirdly, I think I was able to learn from mistakes.  I recognised that if you are going to travel a long distance, you can't burden yourself with a heavy load.  I went in for the long haul, and I went in with a determination that nothing and nobody would get in the way.  I think that if you believe in something, to have the commitment is really more important than having the money..."

"Leadership can only be demonstrated through example.
I never ask someone to do something that
I wouldn't do or haven't done"
~ Emma C. Chappell (the people's banker)

The B.E TitansThe B.E Titans
Written by: Derek T. Dingle
Published by: John Wiley & Sons

 

 

 

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