Books like Men and Women of the Corporation — picked by fans

The book presents business leaders as characters who are complex, complicated, and far from as rational as the public often holds them to. 

I loved reading it as much as I enjoy good fiction. It is a gripping tale of protagonists who are very human, inventive, sensitive, and sometimes a bit of drama queens. I enjoyed the compelling tales of vulnerability and ambition, as well as reciprocity. To lead is not one-sided, and the leaders are often influenced, even manipulated, by the followers. 

I loved how the book spins its tale with quite a few twists. Leadership is by no means something that concerns only leaders, and what is most important about it cannot be reduced to skills, procedures, or, indeed, algorithms. 

I love reading fiction, and so do many of my students. This book is a gift for us fiction lovers who are also interested in leadership. 

From ancient to modern, literature teaches about quite contemporary issues regarding leadership. In fact, I was astounded to realize how much real-life insight fiction is able to offer in this respect–much more than many management textbooks that often present a simplified and rationalized image of what management means. This book teaches how to approach difficult and very human aspects of leadership: everything that is linked to human experience. 

I found accounts of Herman Melville, Thomas Pynchon, Maurice Blanchot, and other writers captivating and enlightening.

I loved this collection of stories about leadership; what a page-turner! I was thrilled by the depth and imaginativeness of possible connections between fairy tales, legends, and traditional stories and management learning. I loved how the tales of Prometheus, Dædalus and Icarus, Merlin, and others are interwoven with issues important for contemporary managers.

Stories of conceit and hubris, as well as of adventurous quests for integration are spun in a way that made me feel compassion for the plight of many employees as well as of leaders, but, at the same time, they spoke to my rebellious streak. With so many glorious tales to learn from, we deserve better leaders: inspired, spirited, humane, or at the very least–human. 

I loved how this book literally links the surface of modern organizations with the depths of the human art of storytelling. Stories have been reservoirs of knowledge since times immemorial. Even now, although superficially supplanted by rational procedures and even computer code, it is in the stories collected and told about organizations that the richness of meaning can be found, which can help to understand and change them for the better.

I enjoyed how this book presents ideas that are both profound and serious in a way that is exceptionally readable and, in a way, liberating. I thought: wow! What an eye-opener! The superficial reductionism of the contemporary organization is just a shell and within lies hidden so much wisdom. It germinates. 

The framework presented in Corporate Lifecycles deals with the same core issue of Stages and Challenges of Organizational Growth as dealt with in my own book, but from a different perspective. The author is a former academic who has developed his own framework of corporate lifecycles and his methodology of organizations working through them. The book presents a different framework of corporate life cycles and emphasizes the managerial styles that are appropriate to reach stage of the corporate lifecycle. The author has seen and worked with a large number of companies that have employed his methods. He presents his perspective and insights for this role as a participant-observer. 

I worked at Arthur Andersen, and I was selected to be among the few teams that started to understand, learn, and apply risk assessments or business risk management methodology. In this book, I came across these concepts again, which are vital to identifying where the risk of money laundering and any other crime may occur. In addition, this book also includes useful information to be considered in the compliance program and how fraud and corruption are related to money laundering. It's a book that provides solid knowledge.

Many people know that American democracy and capitalism have been on a downward spiral for decades. The system is rigged, former Secretary of Labor Robert B. Reich sounds the alarm throughout his excellent book The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It. He goes deep into these questions as he supports the provocative thesis that despite acrimonious partisan polarization, the real contest is not between the right and left but between democracy and oligarchy; and that the vast majority of citizens (Republicans, Democrats, and Independents) are getting poorer and wield “near-zero” political power. Oligarchs—JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon is their embodiment—have amassed enormous sums of capital and political power, which allows them to further rig the system through campaign contributions, successful lobbying, and even criminal actions for which, if caught, they only pay nominal fines.

We like this book because it has a “reader-friendly” style, which is particularly important for anyone unfamiliar with the subject. This also makes it practical for students of all levels and those interested in exploring a new area of interest.

The main topics of corporate finance are covered, giving detailed explanations of key principles while considering real-life situations by utilising practical examples to illustrate the issues explored. It provides an effective bridge between theory and practical application of techniques used by professional managers to achieve corporate objectives. The inclusion of questions for review and discussion allows the reader to self-test and reflect on their understanding and encourage critical thinking.

Our advice, brew a big mug of tea and make a start.

One of the risks that the Compliance Officers oversee is the risk of money laundering; depending on how it is managed, it is possible to minimize reputational risk. This book helped me pinpoint precisely the necessary elements that must be included in a compliance plan to achieve strong corporate responsibility and compliance culture. By having those controls in place, money laundering and even any other white-crime risk are minimized and, incidentally, reputational risk. If you apply this, the company you work for it's going to be protected, and your boss is going to be happy, a win-win for everyone!

This book addresses the highly topical discussion on the potential conflict between profit and purpose, fueled in particular by the 2019 Business Roundtable guidelines. In this sense, it is not a pure profit book but seeks to balance the social and financial goals of a company. Anyone who wants to have a qualified say in the current discussion about profit and purpose should read this book.