Before this book, Lucy introduced Martin Lukes thru her columns in the Financial Times that and continued for many years (sample: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6ca3db5e-989e-11dc-8ca7-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1) . Lucy’s name is never mentioned in the column to maintain authenticity!Martin Lukes is the Marketing Director of a-b global’s UK Operations (a-b Global is a fortune 100, US company). The story revolves around his struggle to move up the corporate ladder. He manages to climb with very little ability, but a lot of management jargon, super ego, kissing-up to the CEO and finally with some help from a personal life coach. He manages to get to the position of Special Projects Director (heading special projects, is the management’s way of saying that the exit door is nearby).
The book is a wonderful satire of the corporate world and all its Bull (a bit to the extreme at times). It has everything that is wrong it today’s corp world, right from life coach (the jargons used by the life coach (named Pandora Barry) are the best – “strive to thrive, better than your best, etc”), massive egos that are so self obsessed that make people oblivious of the situations they are in, usage of blackberry (or any other e-tool), rebranding, off shoring, downsizing, reorganizing, affairs, you name it. And it all culminates in a scandal (Insider trading).
A great moment in the book is the coining of the word "creovation" by Martin; this is the half creation and half innovation. These two words are the current buzz words in any self-respecting organization. And, Lucy has a good amount of fun by poking around this concept. The second best is the 'Phenomenal Performance - Permanently' by the CEO himself
This books explains how so many people with limited talent/intelligence are way up there – and what hits the nail is that we all know someone who closely resembles Martin Lukes –sometimes, it is a mirror that Lucy Kellaway is holding! And what you see there is frightening!
This is a well written book, considering the constraints of constructing the entire book with a series of blackberry messages. Some of the emails are laugh-out-loud types and many will bring a smile for sure. This is not a serious book, but a wonderful deviation if you are into serious stuff. An enjoyable parody into the world of corporate and its wretched culture. Does it carry a message? Probably.
Could have been more elaborate. Cut+Paste certain anecdotes so that we dont have to buy the book....we too will start quoting with lot of authenticity as if we read the book.
ReplyDeleteHope that sounds true like any corporate guy today. If you strip the designation and relieve the responsibilities of most of the senior managers, 99% will commit suicide....Job and designation has become the single most important identity for most of us.
In India, unlike west, you dont find many managers taking sabbatical for a few months. Reasons...
-when you comeback job wont be yours
-nobody can imagine being without an identity during their sabbaticals
-management will have doubts about your capability to deliver when comeback after
a break
Thats corporate india for you...
the review will pass the scrutiny of any editor as a seasoned critic's piece.the fact that the blog was constructed differently made me think this was a link to a publication's review, until i noticed your trademark wit.keep it up Krishna. most of us need to read something light to lossen up from the stress.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kathir, i did the cutting and pasting for the Outliers review, but the review became very long and in fact i could not finish it too.
ReplyDeleteYour point on titles and positions is very true, they are addictive. And we will have serious withdrawal symptoms without them.
The problem with going on a sabbatical; is the company can (esp. under the current scene) think -if we can run the operations without this guy for a month or so, then we probably don’t need him at all...
Thanks Rajan, as usual you are being very kind to me...
ReplyDelete