Synopses & Reviews
The issues fueling the intricate plots of Shakespeare's four-hundred-year-old plays are the same common, yet complex issues that business leaders contend with today. And, as John Whitney and Tina Packer so convincingly demonstrate, no one but the Bard himself can penetrate the secrets of leadership with such piercing brilliance. Let him instruct you on the issues that managers face every day:
- Power: Richard II's fall from power can enlighten us.
- Trust: Draw on the experiences of King Lear and Othello.
- Decision: Hamlet illustrates the dos and don'ts of decision making.
- Action: See why Henry IV was effective and Henry VI was not.
Whitney and Packer do not simply compare Shakespeare's plays with management techniques, instead they draw on their own wealth of business experience to show us how these essential Shakespearean lessons can be applied to modern-day challenges. Power Plays infuses the world of business with new life -- and plenty of drama.
Review
Fred Andrews
The New York Times
A pleasurable and instructive book. They give us an engaging testament on practicality and morality in business, richly illuminated by instances from Shakespeare, all expertly dissected.
Review
Cecil Johnson
The San Diego Union-Tribune
Power Plays should be on the reading list of every corporate leader, every person who aspires to be one, and everyone who wants to find his or her niche within a corporate pyramid and be an effective member of the team.
Synopsis
What can Shakespeare teach us about effective leadership? Everything, according to John Whitney, former president of Pathmark Supermarkets. Whether readers are dealing with an indecisive Hamlet or a corporate Lear, this innovative approach to management helps tap the timeless wisdom and profitable genius of the Bard. Illustrations.
About the Author
John O. Whitney, director of the W. Edwards Deming Center for Quality Management and a professor at Columbia Business School, has served as the CEO, COO, and director of several companies, and conducts popular executive seminars. He lives in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
Table of Contents
ContentsPrologue
Part I Power
For Good and for Evil
1 Power Is a Freighted Idea
Understand It Before You Use It
2 Uneasy Lies the Head That Wears a Crown
Promoted? Transferred? New Hire? Tips from the Master
3 The Trusted Lieutenant
A Delicate Balance
4 The Skipping King
Uses and Abuses of Perks, Pay, and Privilege
5 Women and Power
Shakespeare's Education and Transformation
Part II All the World's a Stage
Business as Theater
6 All the World's a Stage
Playing the Part
7 Lend Me Your Ears
The Art of Persuasion
Part III The Search Within
Integrating Values, Vision, Mission, and Strategy
8 Polonius's Paradox
Choices and Consequences for Man Alone and Man in Society
9 The Choice and Master Deceivers of Their Age
What's Fair in Love, War, and Business
10 Banish Not Your Jack Falstaff
The Value of Mavericks in Our Midst
11 To Be or Not to Be: It's Up to You
Hamlet's Fatal Flaws
Epilogue: A Woman
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index