Search This Blog

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Introduction by Bob Andelman

"When I got into family therapy, this isn't the family I had in mind."
Dr. Ben Sobel (Billy Crystal) in "Analyze This"

Looking for inspiration from a tough guy? Forget Attila the Hun. What did he know about wiretaps?

Patton? Sure, he was tough, but he had a license to kill. How long would he last running an operation outside of the law?

Don Corleone, now that's tough. And he understood business. What did Ulysses Grant know about income tax evasion?

Organized crime-real and imagined-is the last great untapped bastion of professional management and leadership advice in America. And in an era when a whole genre of books has emerged collecting the advice of pseudo-business leaders, why not get the real thing from the men who run some of the most successful and enduring businesses on Earth?

You don't have to be a gangster to appreciate the wit and wisdom of Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano, or John Gotti. And you don't even have to know who Tony Soprano is to know he understands how the world works a lot better than the average CEO.

What do I know about tough guys?

I'm no wiseguy. I've never killed a person or even pulled the trigger of a gun. But I did write a book called "Mean Business" for the corporate equivalent of John Gotti-"Chainsaw" Al Dunlap.

Including the words of pretend Mafioso such as Tony Soprano and Don Corleone is appropriate because so many of today's gangsters take their cues from The Godfather movies. Even mob turncoat Sammy "The Bull" Gravano couldn't believe Mario Puzo made the whole Godfather saga up. "He knew too much," Gravano says.

Here is blunt and sometimes lighthearted wisdom from the most recognized mobsters of the modern age. Each is followed by a brief and breezy interpretation of inspirations you can't refuse.

(A version of this material appeared under the title "Wiseguy Wisdom" in Context magazine, February 2001. It was also referenced in the January 2002 issue of Inc. magazine in the story "Managing From A to Z," under the letter "O is for Organized Crime.")

(c) 2001 by Bob Andelman. All Rights Reserved. No portion may be reproduced without the express written permission of the author.

Read a
Sample Chapter:
Introduction
Analyze This
What Color is Your Parachute?
Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will
Collaborating to Compete
It Ain't As Easy
As It Looks
Dress for Success
The Profit Zone
How to Win Friends
and Influence
Enemies
The 7 Habits of
Highly Effective
People
The Art of
The Deal
Keep Hope
Alive
The Rules
The Peter Principle
In Search of
Excellence
The Art of
Letting Go
Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
Hard Road
to the
Softer Side
Straight From
the Gut
From Worst
to First
Built to Last
Getting to Yes
War in a Time
of Peace
Lessons From
the Future
The Price is Right
Smart Alliances
Who Moved
My Cheese?
Reengineering the Corporation
Life Tastes
Better Than Steak
The Death of
Competition
The One Minute
Manager
Discovering the
Soul of Service
The Greatest
Generation
Mean
Business
BIO
ANDELMAN.COM