Reviews

One of my favourite holiday-passtimes (come to think of it, it's one of my favourite passtimes full stop) is reading. So, one of the big things when going on holiday is the books I take with me. I'm not an expert reviewer, but below a few short impressions of the books I read.

* Charles Handy, The Elephant and the Flea. I picked up a copy of this book because it was cheap, I'll be honest about it. I didn't know that Charles Handy was at the birth of London Business School, that was a pleasant surprise. I liked the general gist of this book, although wasn't impressed with other parts. The general idea is this: more and more people will have what Handy calls 'portfolio careers'. A bit of this, a bit of that instead of starting work at a big corporation and getting your gold watch from it's CEO 40 years later. I like the idea of portfolio, not just doing one thing, but a variety of activities which might or might not be paid (Handy includes housework and voluntary activities in his definition of work).

* Mira Kirshenbaum, The gift of a year. Yes, I'll admit it. I'm a sucker for selfhelp books. I love 'em. And read lots of 'em. I loved the general idea of this book, although I didn't care much for what I felt was a lot of repetition in the book. Back to the general idea though: taking a year out for you. To take a year to take a bubblebath every night (as one woman did) to find the man of her life (read the book for more details) to taking every conceivable art course another woman did. While reading it, I kept on thinking 'my MBA is my gift of a year' (or technically two years). I have promised myself that I will be concious of the opportunities that will present themselves and create opportunities myself. This is going to be my gift of a year to myself.

* Faith Popcorn, Evelution. The eight truths of marketing to women. Picked this one up on a whim, it was remaindered and seemed like a way of dipping my toe in the pool that is called marketing. I wasn't impressed. This was a 200 page long advert for Popcorn's company. A lot of examples are clients of her company which sounded too much like selfpromotion to me. A few concepts I really liked, about specific tactics for marketing to women, like offer something before women have to ask for it, and if you get women to connect, then they will connect to your brand. On the whole though, I wasn't impressed.

* Jack Welch, Jack. Straight from the gut. I suppose this was the first real business autobiography I've ever read. And I was a bit underwhelmed all through the book until the penultimate chapter (more on that later). I hated the amount of detail, I do not care to know that he had a meeting with so-and-so in the business lounge of this-and-that motel. Too much information. The one chapter I really liked was the one in which he gives some advice about what he thinks a CEO should be or do. Characteristics such as informality, celebration and culture counts and Jack's perception of these made for an interesting read. But I just wish he written a 20 page article and not a 250 page book....