Corporate Books

There is so much in this book that I can relate to, having started my own company around the same time in Silicon Valley (although in software). John and Kyle made the same mistakes that many entrepreneurs thankfully make - they followed their passion instead of their senses, and didn't buckle under the pressure and the unknown. One other valuable lesson from this book -- document your process. This is a great way to share your successes and your mistakes with others. I wish we had more stories like this when I was working on my MBA - something more than the dry, non-applicable case studies stuck in front of us. And John and Kyle also provided one other important gem: how to save a few bucks a month at the neighborhood gym. Thanks guys.

I was in a book store and I was attracted to the title and the cover color. I picked up the book and read the jacket and I was hooked. I hardly ever buy non-technical books -especially non-fiction. But I was hooked after reading the jacket so I bought the book and assiduously read and enjoyed it. Also I am a Wharton alumnus. I also took classes with Len Lodish.

Eric Ericsson

The book spells out tips for starting a business (use credit cards instead of banks) and the mistakes the authors made along the way (when do you enter the market). You can even contact them after reading and talk to them about your ideas. The encouraging aspect of the book is that while they are starting their business, they spoke to their classmates who were making $200,000 on wall street and working for the dot-coms, but John and Kyle were not discouraged. I am happy that they were able to take an idea like a computer mouse shaped like a gold club and turn it into THEIR company. Congrats guys!

The Mousedriver Chronicles is the story of 2 Wharton MBA's who take a business plan developed on their entrepreneurship course at Wharton and decide to make a go of it. In 1999 they turn away high paying jobs at investment banks and over funded dot.com startups to go it alone.

Their idea: to make and sell a computer mouse that looks like the head of a golf driver.

They fund the venture themselves, find a manufacturer in Hong Kong, move to San Francisco (to be part of all the start up vibe in The Bay area) and run the business from the kitchen of their rented flat.

Their story is brilliantly relayed as they grapple with manufacturing, marketing and distribution hassles. The single product focus of their new company, named Platinum Concepts Inc., makes for a wonderful entrepreneurial story with excellent lessons about what it takes to succeed as a self funded start up. The two founders quickly learn that they need more than the theoretical knowledge acquired on their MBA at Wharton; they need to be street wise. They experiment with different mechanisms to make things happen and end up categorizing their execution strategies as follows:
Plan A: Make use of their business school network and contacts
Plan B: Hit the streets and the shops to find a creative solution
Plan C: Work the Yellow Pages

More often than not, plan B and C worked far better than plan A.

One of the founders, John Lusk, began sharing their entrepreneurial adventure with friends and family via a monthly email called "The Insider". The Insider was a real, often humorous, sometimes highly insightful newsletter about their adventure. The insider subscriber list grew and grew. MBA lecturers began distributing The Insider as prescribed reading. In 2001 Inc. Magazine featured a cover story on the company and its two founders. The Inc. cover story entitled "An American Start-up" focuses on the impact of The Insider e-mail newsletter. The email newsletters were used as the foundation for the book published in 2001 entitled The "Mousedriver Chronicles".
The company has since been shut down but the Mousedriver website still serves as a portal for entrepreneurs and copies of The Insider newsletter can be found in PDF format on the website: www.mousedriver.com

MouseDriver is about two guys who graduate from Wharton with MBAs in 1999 (the heart of the internet boom) and start a business manufacturing and selling a computer mouse that looks like the head of a driver golf club, turning down high paying jobs at dotcoms, investment banks, consulting firms etc.

As a small business consultant (Transcendence Consulting, LLC tcllc.net) I can tell you right now that if you are looking to start a busines, buy this book TODAY. It is an amazing look at the entire process of starting a business, from the ability to jump head first, manage yourself during
the highs and lows, deal with self doubt and solve an endless supply of problems. It is an easy read that will take you no time at all to complete.

Enjoyable story. The chapters always ended with a cliff hanger and therefore hard to put the book down. I read it in a couple of days; I had to call in sick just to finished the book. Nice cover, I love the blue against black.

I'm really impressed by this book and can't wait to read the next one from Ms. Wilcox. The first chapter will get you hooked and it will not let you up for a minute. The last 100 pages were great! The pacing was great and there was little dragging in this book. I also love that there were no unnecessary profanities, no unnecessary sex, and no bloody description of violence. I thought I figure it out several times only to be wrong. It's one of the cleverest mysteries I have ever read and highly recommended to anybody! Two big thumbs up!

This book provided me with hours of enjoyment. Great character development and plot. I enjoyed it through the last page. I'm looking forward to Ms. Wilcox's next book.

I was absorbed by this thriller. Working in a corporate industry, I can relate to the characters, the events, the corporate environment and places. Not only that it will keep you guessing, it is informative, entertaining, and it has a moral value. In the end you're sorry to say goodbye to the characters. Romina Wilcox is as good as today's suspense writers. I hope she is busy writing the next one.

From the very first chapter Romina will have you guessing what's around the next corner. Lots of action, lots of technology, what more could you ask for. Oh a plot, its a good one.

This was a pretty decent read -- we practice a lot of these at my workplace but I think what this book really shows is the attitude of an entrepreneur.

Ricardo Semler calls himself a maverick, but he's actually a visionary. Semler, now 49, was way ahead of the curve 25 years ago when he radically altered the structure and philosophy of his father's company, Semco. Long before most businesses acknowledged that employees were thinking, feeling human beings and not timecard-punching robots, Semler rebuilt the infrastructure at Semco, eliminating layers of bureaucracy and allowing employees to decide their own fates. They determined their own schedules, pay scales and dress codes. Semler drastically reduced paperwork; he restricted memos, for example, to a single page. He believed that empowered employees, freed of their corporate shackles, would be motivated, creative and productive. You may find some aspects of that approach unrealistic or totally impractical for your organization. You may even think Semler is crazy. At the very least though, getAbstract believes executives should give careful consideration to his approach. His innovations are still relevant, even a quarter of a century later.

Great book. Amazing story.
Lot's of good lessons to be learned here. I read it all the way through and enjoyed the writing style a great deal. A quick read with fascinating stories and good information.

I think this book gives In Search of Excellence a run for its money as the all time great. This book really promotes a different way of thinking about the workplace in a much more collaborative way. I can't wait to start his other book the Seven-Day Weekend.

I have been strugling about how to have an organization or a corporation that are at the same time efficient and humanistic/democratic. Although people normally receives these types of ideas with reserve, the feeling is that it is almost impossible (take out the "almost" if you wish).

After reading Maverick everything changes. We have heard histories before, for example, ancient Athenas, Robert Owen cooperative success in 19th Century England, Mahatmas Ghandi, and so forth. However, rarely a 20th Century corporation has gone so far as Semco, at least to the best of my knowledge.

If you are interested in "real" humanistic-democratic management, you must have this book in your reading list.

Right from the gitgo Ben Hamper's Rivethead grabs you with gritty gusto of passages such as the above; Hamper is an extraordinary writer about life for the ordinary guy... at least the ordinary guy who winds up as an automotive assembly-line worker for General Motors in Flint, Michigan--once considered the Automobile Capital of the World. The author is a natural shop rat, growing up in Flint, with an alcoholic mostly absentee father and a long-suffering, working-three-jobs mother trying to raise the family as practicing Catholics.

...

For my complete review of this book and for other book and movie
reviews, please visit my site [...]

Brian Wright
Copyright 2008

The endless monotony and idiot bosses drive anybody with an IQ above their shoe size to do something to kill the thought that, if they're lucky, they only have 30 more years of mind numbing drudgery to go before they can retire. I'm not saying alcohol abuse is the proper outlet, but it does seem to be the most common and most convenient. Good book, excellent portrayal of what exactly "blue collar America" does for a living.

Ben Hamper shares his life as a worker on the GM assembly line in Flint, MI. Bold, frank, honest and often hilarious. This book was recommended to me years ago and for some reason I never read it until now. Hamper chronicles a part of American history (manufacturing jobs) that seem to be going stateside or as Ross Perot once described in a quip about NAFTA, what's that whoosing noise? manufacturing jobs headed to Mexico. This is prose for the ages. Loved the book.

I didn't really like reading this book because I too work in a (once) major three Auto plant. I didn't feel that it properly portrayed some of the workers. It made it sound like all workers are like the author where they just really don't give a damn about anything except having a joking time on the job. It also made the workers sound like they were underachieving, undereducated, bottom of the barrel workers and I didn't care to have that stigma for all of us. I hold two bachelor degrees, like my job and take it serious!

I grew up with people like Ben Hamper in a place which was much like Flint. For the first couple years of my adult life, I did the kind of work he did. What he describes is the tail end of a lifestyle; the lifestyle of the shop rat. It's dirty, monotonous and smelly. Many of the people you work with are either below average in intelligence or in sanity. Drugs, booze and having no concept of "forethought" are fundamental parts of the culture. It's nihilism with a rivet gun. If you come from a place like that, chances are, your only way out is via a jail cell or a career in the military. Or, you could win a workmans comp suit. Which is presumably how Ben got out.

I miss rust-belt working class america. It's a hard life, and it doesn't have much in the way of rewards, but the people who make it up are genuine in ways that others are not: they have a lot of heart and spirit. Ben's book brought it all back in a great galloping rush of memories. If you've ever wondered what the factory working classes are, or at least were like (back when we had factories); read the book.

This book "flows" easily and it does a great job covering the meteoric rise of both Bill Gates and Microsoft. The narrative is never dull and both, the man and his company, are given a fair treatment. This book was published in 1993 and a lot of interesting stuff remains to be told. Wish the authors would team up for a sequel. This is a well written and authoritative account of Microsoft and its founder.

Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire

This book is a must-read for people who consider themselves ambitious and driven. It taught me the importance of single-minded drive and determination, coupled with a passion for the line of work one is in. IT is a tough line of work to be in - jobs could be outsourced anytime, skills become redundant quickly and there isn't the glamor or get-fabulously-rich possibility of finance or investment banking... but this book demonstrates that as long as you are passionate about what you do, there is always room at the top. Take heart from it!

This is the definitive Book about Bill Gates (and the history of Windows). It covers all the management aspects of how he drove Microsoft and how the work became his life. The man doesn't do business... He LIVES it. And this book describes it in very much detail.

The details includes how Bill "turned over" IBM... Promissing them the OS/2 under the "NT Technology" flag and how he realeased Windows 95 and killed IBM forever from the Desktop business. It also shows Gates apreciation for Older woman (and many that took him to bed). As part of this "private" package, it also explains the problems that He had with Steve Ballmer. How Ballmer was showing poor management and leadership under Gates perspective and how Ballmer got over it and made his loyalty to Gates forever.

I was more interested on the part that explains how Microsoft Windows 1.0 was developed. How disastrous the first Office was compared to the competition and how they managed to "work around" and fix it, by "coping" the competition and improving it "the Microsoft way".

Buy this if you want to know how business can be done... or be "copied".

Delightful book. Its one flaw is its addictiveness, I couldn't put it down which did cost me sleep (I'm an IT professional with an entrepreneur spirit- your results may vary).

The Microsoft/Gates biography is impeccable in its wealth of interesting details and engaging story-telling.

Bill Gates is a fantastic decision maker. He would be as successful selling water or space suits, he just happened to be at the right time in the right booming industry and pushed with his business-business mentality to the limit. Right decision after right decision, the Microsoft journey is a story that any entrepreneur should nitpick and absorb as much as possible.

Of course, his terrible capitalistic drive is a perfect subject for a discussion on morals, social responsibility and related matters, but without a doubt when it comes to maximizing outcome while playing by our economic rules, Hard Drive tells a tale of epic proportions featuring a superhero / villain that rivals the best of science fiction.

This is a decent book on how Bill Gates and his business team built the Microsoft empire. The good aspects of this book include the following:

* The emphasis on how Microsoft was not built in a day but with many, many long days and lots of innovative thinking. This book illustrates how hard Gates worked.

* The portrayal of how relentlessly competitive and ambitious Gates is, be it at efficient programming, dominating the various software markets, studying higher mathematics or playing poker with his buddies.

* The specific details of the growth of Microsoft, as a company, up until the time of the book's publication.

* The implicit theme of how Gates never stops thinking.

Unfortunately, there are several aspects of this book that I disliked. These include the following:

* The writing is repetitive and often very stream-of-conscious. This book reads like a 250-300 page book diluted into a 400 page book.

* There is a lot of negative commentary about Gates' personality. First, this negative illustration seems to be done without providing the proper context. Gates is often portrayed as very immature. In this book, Gates is described as frequently issuing direct attacks on the intelligence of his employees during meetings and in private communication. He is also portrayed as immature through negligence, such as when he, presumably inadvertently, left his dirty laundry thrown about on a hotel floor for a top executive of his company to collect.

Although these incidents may be true, the authors should have emphasized that Gates is an enormously successful executive who is *only* in his twenties. While this does not excuse the described behavior, it does provide context for it. Needless to say, these immature outbursts would be appalling if they were committed by a seasoned executive in his early sixties.

More generally, this image of Gates conflicts with the image I gathered of him through other means. A friend of mine who worked at Microsoft described Gates as routinely hosting interns in his mansion for dinner, magnanimously forgiving a new employee who accidentally dented his car and graciously answering a personal e-mail concerning the artwork in his home. The Gates I have heard of through my friend, and the one who runs the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, does not fit the mold of the Gates described in this book.

I am not challenging the veracity of the information contained within, I am just surmising that the negatives sound like a few bad habits that Gates may have grew out of.

This book saw it coming.It was well ahead of it's time. Hundreds of my fellow employess were able to avoid the recent corporate incompetence and mismanagement by implementing the cultural changes detailed in the book. A must read to adapt to the new business ethics for running a sucessful company.

Have fun reading this book while you learn where your sales organization can avoid the pitfalls of growth. The authors write in a style that is fun, yet makes very important points about how to make a business successful. I have used this book with my small business clients to show them how to anticipate problems that inevitably arise as their business grows. This book had a great deal of credibility with me, because I have seen clients go through exactly the successes and problems that are described.

It's a quick read, yet every chapter points out ways that we can either be successful or not successful, depending upon the decisions we make. The authors cover the functions at just about every management level, so no matter where you stand in the hieracrchy, you will benefit by reading the book.

I'd recommend this to both large and small busineses. For the small business, there is important information here whether you are just starting up, or are experiencing the inevitable pain of growth. Large organizations will recognize themselves also, and will benefit from the tips provided about how to manage your culture to be more effective.

Cancel the 12 year old review. My mistake in logging on. All businesses should read this book. follow it"s advice and message and you will be rewared if you have the desie and drive to suceed. Take it from one who was not only a Hunter and then a chief Hunter, but also became a Tribal Leader of four successful Finance Companies, (1) Commercial and (3) leasing companies. Dan Grow SR.

buy and read trak da prey or u r da prey carefully and then follow it's message ( if at first you din't suceed-try again abd you will be rewarded if you have the desire and drive. take it from one who was not onlt a hunter and then a chief hunter, but also became a tribal leader of four successful finance companies, (1) commerical finance and (3) leasing companies. dan grow sr.

At last I know what I am. It was fun to figure out my role and comforting to know it's OKAY to be something besides the Hunter. A village needs all kinds. If you want to know how YOU fit into the grand scheme of things in your village, I recommend this book.

I purchased the sandwich spreader and metal spatula. I paid twice what I would have paid anywhere else. They turned out to be junk. Both plastic handles separated from the metal parts within 9 months of the purchase.

I absolutely loved this book. Doris Christopher's ideas and humble beginnings are absolutely inspiring! She has built an amazing company and shares it for everyone to realize their own potential. Her basic no nonsense attitude towards life and her company are shared in this incredible story. I do not sell Pamperd Chef, but if I was not trying to build another direct sales business I know I would after reading this book!

I have been purchasing Pampered Chef products for over 16 years and my husband and I have always been huge fans. After many years of buying from someone else, I decided to give it a try and then so did my husband. . . yes, we are both consultants because we believe so much in the products.

I signed up as a consultant a few days after the book was released and read it in one night! After reading the book I was more of a fan than ever. The story is very inspiring to anyone who wants to take the leap of faith in themselves and try to start their own business.

Doris' vision of having a business to earn extra money and still have time to raise her family is very much alive today as it was 25 years ago. The book takes you through the 25 years of her dream from where she started the business in her basement with $3,000 to being the founder a of multi-million dollar company with thousands of women and men who work with The Pampered Chef as hobbyist, part- and full-time consultants.

A must read for anyone who wants to be inspired to start their own business.

An interview with the author and her daughter, who grew up in the culinary business, supplements The Pampered Chef, a story of Doris Christopher, a former teacher and home economist who returns to the work world with a vision of making cooking more convenient for families. Selling high-quality kitchen tools through demo groups and growing her business, The Pampered Chef, from a basement enterprise to a successful franchise. A story of personal success comes alive in audio.

In 1980 author Doris Christopher, former home economist and teacher, wanted to return to the workforce after raising her children: she began selling high-quality kitchen tools through cooking demonstrations and began her company, The Pampered Chef, from her basement. Twenty-five years later it's a corporation specializing in kitchen shows - and The Pampered Chef: The Story Of One Of America's Most Beloved Companies tells of how she became a culinary industry success. Insights on how the company expanded and handled its challenges provide entrepreneurs and cooks alike with much inspiration.

As the wife of a homebrewer, I often pretended to listen to my husband's dreams of one day starting his own brewery. After five years of pretending, I realized he was serious when he handed me Beer School and said, "If you're ever going to get on board, you've got to read this book." As a medical professional, the idea of reading a "business" book made me yawn. To my surprise, I couldn't put it down. I felt as if Tom and Steve were sitting across the table, telling me their story over dinner. Their honesty was both eye-opening and inspiring. I learned so much from Beer School and enjoyed every second of it. Reading this book gives you a good idea of how difficult it is to be successful in starting and running your own business, all the while making you feel like you can do it.
BTW-after reading Beer School, I finally got on board with my husband....founder of Tallgrass Brewing Company!

I've no great interest in the brewery business, but I do enjoy well-written, instructive tales of entrepreneurship. 'Beer School' definitely falls into that category. One-time journalist and co-founder Steve Hindry can really write. No surprise there. The pleasant surprise is that ex-banker and fellow co-founder Tom Potter's chapters are just as enjoyable. Like their beer, the chapters go down smooth. The arrangement of the book makes it clear who's written what parts - the chapters are given names that start with either "Steve Tells..." or "Tom Tells...". Where Steve has written a chapter, we get Tom's viewpoint with "Tom Weighs In," and vice-versa. Sounds sort of clunky, but it's well executed by the co-authors. They clearly worked very closely in shaping a final, cohesive product. As a result, the format works well.

What drew me to the book originally was the forward by Mike Bloomberg. His endorsement is good enough for me.

Great, inspirational reading. If you're thinking about starting a microbrewery or brewpub read this first. Their no-holds barred approach puts a candid entrepreneurial perspective on their endeavour.

By nature, I am not a "reader"... I have a large stack of books that I've picked up over the years to pacify me while traveling. Most still have their respective airline ticket stubs safely marking the spot where I left off reading. So yes, it's a tad ironic that I'm now leaving a book review here... However, I read this cover-to-cover in two (long) evenings (that alone will tell anyone that knows me that this was a really good book!) so I'm at least qualified to comment on THIS one.

I've homebrewed for a couple of years and am in the early stages of investigating the feasibility of trying to make a living out of brewing. The story in the book really struck close to home for me... My potential partner and I work in fields that really couldn't be further from the brewing industry, much like the authors. While I know that the odds are against us, it was refreshing to read a story of someone that took a swing at it and hit a home run.

The book is by no means a step-by-step business plan for starting a brewery. It is much more a story of the trials and tribulations that faced them as they progressed from a crazy dream to a crazy success. It's a story about partnership. It's a story about taking a leap of faith. So don't purchase it expecting a step-by-step recipe for you to go out and quit your day job, but do purchase it and expect a general high-level look at starting a brewery, some good general business ideas that you may not have thought of, and a good story to tie it all together.

I found it to be a very honest, open story... The authors take turns writing chapters, and there were at least a couple of times that they were so honest that I caught myself thinking "Jeez, I'm pretty sure that the other guy's going to read this... Are you sure you wanted to say that?!" As you progress through the book though, you learn that this is just the relationship that they've built over the years... Very honest and open with one another whether it is good news or bad. I think that reading about the partnership was really one of the biggest take-aways that I got out of the book, but it certainly has more to offer than that.

In summary, I really enjoyed this book and would have no issues whatsoever giving it a very high recommendation for anyone that is considering starting ANY new business, brewery or not.

I just finished Beer School and thoroughly enjoyed it. As a beer lover, and a fan of Brooklyn Brewery's products, I enjoyed learning about how the beer came to life, as well as the birth (rebirth?) of craft brewing in the United States. Mayor Bloomberg was right in the introduction, the book will make you thirsty.

As for the business aspect, I teach high school economics and intend to use some examples cited in Beer School to illustrate my lessons. If I taught on the college level, this book would be one of the required readings. It is a great example of entrepreneurship, economies of scale, marketing, start-ups, and business plans.

This book has a number of practical messages for anyone who is managing or learning how to run an organization. Unlike most books, the author explains how to implement the ideas. For my company it helped us build a foundation of principles by which everyone can live by not just talk about. The end result was a more enjoyable workplace and five star customer experience.

As a MBA student, I found this book a must-read. Unlike other books I have read, this book looks beyond classroom branding theory and teaches you how to successfully implement a brand strategy through the alignment of a company's employees with its vision. I look forward to executing the truths as I head into the "real world," now better prepared!

Finally a book that didnt leave me hanging. Achieve Brand Integrity goes the extra mile. Gregg didnt let the book fall into the business-book-trap of only telling us "what we need to do"...he actually gives us access to the tools on "how to get it done." Pretty selfless stuff. If this read doesn't get you off the dime towards competing globally in the 21st Century...then stop buying books on Brand. C-Level Mgmt should take notice from Mr. Lederman...change is coming with or without them!

I like this book because it starts with a simple yet powerful concept missed by the vast majority of business leaders. Brand Strategy is "The process of aligning what we say with what we do, to positively influence what customers think." Simple because it is what your customers expect. Powerful because in my experience most competitors don't get it. They're wrong. Great brands are fueled by strong cultures, cultures that strive to bring their brand's promise to life. Chapter 6 is worth the entire price of admission. In this chapter, you begin to understand the underlying psychology of your workers and how beliefs drive behavior. And what you must do to change them to become a "visible" brand. Not from a strategy standpoint, rather from a get your hands dirty point of view. When Gregg Lederman says process, he means that literally. He spells out in clear steps what you need to do to align what "we do" with what "we say." In fact the book refers you to [...] to access templates that allow you to progress this concept on your own. Achieve Brand Integrity is a small investment that can pay huge dividends if you embrace the power of a designed culture.

Gregg Lederman lives five years in the future, so if you want to know how to motivate your employees and have more profitable growth in your company, just ask him.

Lederman sets it all out so well. This is a huge contribution that if used will empower any business of any size to distill brand integrity in their employees. This book is easy to read and makes it all so easy to understand. I really wish I had this resource to refer to 15 years ago. I make it a common practice to give this book to every new employee that I hire.

In the midst of turmoil at work I happened across the Mobbing USA http://www.mobbing-usa.com/ website which has helped me immensely; there are so many people in the United States who are in the same shoes as mine and although that is sad, it tells me that what I'm experiencing is real for people like myself who are being mobbed; I'm looking forward to when all of the USA incorporates mobbing laws to support people like myself from going through this nightmare.

Although a little dry at times, MOBBING: EMOTIONAL ABUSE IN THE WORKPLACE is nonetheless an important book detailing a little-known phenomenon that has become rampant in companies and universities everywhere. The author explores the difference between mobbing and simply bullying, explaining that the former entails multiple coworkers ganging up on a single person in order to humiliate, discredit, and eventually dispel them from the workplace. Often the ringleader is a boss who finds the employee threatening. The author details the steps in the harassing process, and outlines the adverse effects on the workplace and the victim, explaining why the US needs to have legislation in place to prevent this common, but primarily unidentified, process. This is a very important book for HR professionals, as mobbing occurs in fifteen percent of all workplaces, yet is rarely recognized by the administrative employees called in to deal with the effects. Many times the situation is manipulated so that the victim appears emotionally unstable and paranoid. As someone who was herself the victim of a mobbing at a former job, I found this book a valuable tool in putting into perspective what had happened and why. If only I could get my ex HR director to read it!

This book is HIGHLY recommended.Management really should pay attention to who is MOBBING who.The MOBBER S are UP TO SOMETHING and I am sure it is not in your companies best interest.People just trying to DO THEIR JOB and at first DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY THIS TREATMENT GOES ON ?The Mobbers out to harm company. I think the companies have pretty much let them.You have let this go on for so many years.As a target I am telling you all TARGET"S WANT A SAFE WORKPLACE.People do not want to play games on the job.Go ruin your own reputation you gossiping liars.
NO TOXIC "OUT OF CONTROL "coworkers who mob.People just go to work to make a living, not a living hell.

One day soon workplace abuses like "mobbing" and "narcissistic abuse" will be as much within public awareness as sexual abuse/harassment/discrimination is today. I'm old enough to remember when sexual abuse in the workplace was "cutting edge." The questions during that time went something like this: is it really "abuse"? or is it just boys having fun and women just dressing too sexy? Why get all worked up about a little too much testosterone in the office? The problem is--it rarely had much to do with testosterone and more to do with abusing/using another human being.

I see that we are in a similar situation now with narcissistic abuse in the workplace. Not all organizational "mobbing" is caused by narcissism, but a whole lot of it is. In order to make a narcissistic organization "work" some people have to be designated as "second-rate." Ironically, the "second-rate" people most often have more on the ball than the "first-rate" people because they are too smart and emotionally healthy not to get involved in the narcissism of it all anyway. They just want to work.

One of these days, and I hope I live long enough to see it as much as Gloria Steinem ever wanted to live long enough to see laws against sexual abuse, I want to see laws against the emotional phenomenon of "mobbing" as other bellwether countries in the world have already done. What a great day that will be for the human race.

This is an excellent book. Well written. Well researched. As a recent victim of "mobbing" I can tell you that it does exist. Victims of sexual harassment/discrimination in the workplace years ago had to experience the phenomenon of either too few people believing them or too many people believing that it really wasn't that big of a deal. One great thing the authors do is to verify that "mobbing" is serious emotional abuse. That name it and call it for what it is: evil.

Why do we put up with "mobbing" today and why isn't it within the awareness of the average American yet? The author gives us some ideas why:
"One is that mobbing behaviors are ignored, tolerated, misinterpreted, or actually instigated by the company or the organizational management as a deliberate strategy." Been there, been a victim of that, got the T-shirt.
"The second reason is that this behavior has not yet been identified as workplace behavior clearly different from sexual harassment or discrimination"
"Thirdly, more often than not, the victims are worn down, feel destroyed and exhausted. They feel incapable of defending themselves, let alone initiating legal action." (page 20)

This is a super, comprehensive, competent book. I suppose that the only critique I would have of it is that the authors should have spent more than two modest pages on Narcissistic Personality Disorder. More often than not, this personality disorder is at work when "mobbing" is taking place. I really think a deeper discussion of this phenomenon could have added more psychological depth to the book. Furthermore, by doing so the authors could have helped "mobbing" victims by giving them definitive proof that the "mobbing" perpetrators, not the victim, are the ones who should be ashamed if anyone should be ashamed.

You know, now that I think about it, the authors should have focused more on "shame" as well. A huge part of the "mobbing" phenomenon is "shame dumping." The victim is supposed to be ashamed for not being "good enough" or whatever. The fact is that the "mobbing" perpetrators are probably highly motivated to avoid shame and thus dump their shame on a "not good enough" co-worker/employee. By spending more effort on unpacking the phenomenon of "shame", I believe the authors could have done a better job of helping "mobbing" victims put the shame that was dumped on them back on where it belongs--the perpetrators.

All in all, though, this is an excellent addition to the discussion of emotional abuse in the workplace. We're in denial as a country, in my opinion, to the severity of it in all areas of society. We need to follow the other European countries who call it for what it is and write laws against it.

But, one day...one day...we'll call it for what it is. I just pray I live that long and that my children won't have to fight that inevitable fight.

Let's win it soon.

Before my experience of becoming a victim of "mobbing", I had never heard of this word. I've had to deal with a bully or two in the past, and the usual work pressures caused by demanding bosses and strict deadlines. But nothing prepared me for the experience of being mobbed. It was passive aggressive style mobbing. This book was a great resource for myself, though it made me sad that some friends and relatives couldn't believe such a thing could occur, or didn't want to admit such a thing could occur in this country. This experience has really changed my view of people. Of course, I could tell some of the participants would have caused me grief whether or not the mobbing environment existed. And it was easy to see that others were less enthusiastic about the mobbing and just did it to "fit in". Since managers were involved in my situation, the only recourse I had was to quit for the sake of my health. This book is written very clearly and will help you understand your situation, and the best way to respond.

But immediately after quitting, I then became a victim of "gang stalking", which has many similarities to mobbing, but takes place in the "community". I first encountered the word "gang stalking" during my research on "mobbing", and it sounded quite preposterous to be honest. However, now that it is happening to me, I'm finding that it isn't such a new phenomenon either. An example is the FBI's COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program). I keep asking myself "Why Me?. Its not like I'm a radical trying to bring down the government.

Could this have happened if it weren't for the so called "Patriot Act", creating opportunity for abuse of power and high technology? See "Opening Pandora's Box: How Technologies of Communication & Cognition May Be Shifting Towards a Psycho-Civilized Society" by Kingsley Dennis of Lancaster University. Another good paper is "The Mind Has No Firewall" by Timothy Thomas of the US Army War College.

I'm sure the number of people that experience "mobbing" is going to far outnumber the number of people who ever experience "gang stalking", but please believe that this is a reality in modern day America. So much for the 8th amendment about "cruel & unusual" punishments, not to mention all the other laws against this type of activity. With mobbing, I was afraid of losing a source of income & diminished health. With gang stalking, I'm afraid for my safety. I've received threats of bodily harm, threats of being framed for crimes, persecuted by the government and its extra legal "vigilantes" leaves no hope for justice, and imprisonment. Most interactions don't involve a major threat, but are just acts of harassment to let the victim know they are under surveillance. Anything to maintain a climate of fear and uncertainty. Hearing "directed conversations" (which repeat certain threatening themes, or relate to something personal in your life) at a restaurant or while walking, street theater, being tailgated or crossing paths with vehicles of various companies or government units (for instance, they all happen to appear at the intersections you stop at to condition the victim to start interpreting that type of vehicle as a threatening symbol), ect... after a while leave the victim realizing there are too many occurrences for all of them to be isolated random events, but are being coordinated by a government agency. Why would the government go to all of this trouble with our tax dollars? To quell dissent? Unify people by finding scapegoats for the vigilantes to persecute? Persecution on behalf of corporations?

This has been going on for quite a few months and I feel mobbing victims would be the most likely to understand or at least listen since the goals and methods are similar in many way. To Discredit & Destroy people in a way that leaves little evidence of the crime, and to provoke and blame the victim. And both mobbing and gang stalking are repetitive types of abuse that occur over a long period of time, so that the victim is always worried about "what will happen next?".

Its depressing when so many people gang up on you, but I think the bright spot to remember is that these liars and cowards are forced to carry out their activities covertly, since most Americans would be outraged if the true facts were ever revealed. If you are in a mobbing situation, this book is well worth the money.

P.S. The following quote from the book "Stalking the Soul: Emotional Abuse & the Erosion of Identity" is interesting. Marie-France Hirigoyen's research helped establish the anti-mobbing laws in France.

by Marie-France Hirigoyen, Helen Marx (Afterword), Thomas Moore (Translator)
"Often, emotional abuse builds over a long period of time until it becomes so unbearable that victims lash out in frustration and anger, only to appear unstable and aggressive themselves. This, according to Hirigoyen, is the intent of many abusers: to systematically "destabilize" and confuse their victims (with irrational, threatening behavior that preys on the victim's fears and self-doubts), to isolate and control them and ultimately to destroy their identity."