Management Mole

by John Mole

A revealing picture of what it is like to be managed... a chuckle on almost every page... many uproarious scenes... something for everyone involved in an office culture...Financial TimesMole's words, and those of the people he met, are far more valuable than fashionable theorists. Anyone who has ever worked in an office will find the book hilariously funny. PunchWhy do people work? What makes them happy? What makes them productive?John Mole was the general manager of an international bank – with an MBA from INSEAD, Europe's most prestigious business school, an MA from Oxford University and considerable knowledge of the textbooks of management theoryThen he took a series of temporary jobs to see for himself how the grass roots reality of business culture matched up to the theories about it. On his first day he was fired for incompetence from a job he had frequently hired people to do himself when he was a manager.Sometimes poignant, constantly surprising, often hilariously funny, it gives a mole's eye view of a slice of life that occupies most of the waking hours of millions of people. Anyone who needs to know about the management of people will find much to learn and to laugh at in this unique book

208 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 3, 2012

About the author

After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in French and German and with an MBA from the INSEAD business school in France, John Mole spent fifteen years criss-crossing Europe and the Middle East for an American bank. He was based in the USA, London and Greece. He restored an old stone house on the island of Evia, which the family goes back to every year.

His fortieth birthday present to himself was to quit salaried employment. The main reason was to write full time. He reviewed the modern French novel and science fiction for the TLS. Published works include three comic novels - Sail or Return, The Monogamist, Thanks, Eddie! - and the best-selling guide to European cultures Mind Your Manners, currently available in twenty languages. Management Mole was about going back as a temp in the back offices of the kind of organisation he used to manage.

Meanwhile he tried his hand at various entrepreneurial ventures. An attempt to establish a franchised chain of baked potato restaurants in Moscow came to an end when the Russian Mafia became interested. He had more success with INBIO Ltd, which imported Russian biotechnology for environmental protection and with a project to control the spread of water weed on Tanzania's Lake Victoria. These ventures resulted in books such as It's All Greek To Me! and I was a Potato Oligarch.

He loves to travel, especially around the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Journeys have inspired The Sultan's Organ and The Hero of Negropont.

When not at the laptop he sings and plays the baglama, a miniature bouzouki, with a Greek band in London.