Throwing the Elephant/What Would Machiavelli Do?

by Stanley Bing, Simon Jones (Narrator), Philip Bosco (Narrator)

Two business classics, or one business classic and his new book, or two business books - however you want to describe it - here is Stanley Bing at his best - giving you the ying and the yang of the business world.If What Would Machiavelli Do? was the meanest business book in recent history - Throwing the Elephant provides the yang to that yin.The focus of What Would Machiavelli Do? is on what works and how to get it done. Machiavellians may not get to heaven, but on earth they have a significant edge over the competition. The goal is to learn how to approach problems in a manner that is at once creative, geared toward achieving financial success, and refreshingly amoral.Throwing the Elephant: Zen and the Art of Managing Up artfully, clearly, and concisely provides a thorough grounding in the Zen Buddhist attitude you will need in order to move forward and control the people you work for. This book guarantees personal enlightenment while providing literally dozens of helpful, specific exercises and solutions to the most common problems of professional life.

Audio CD

First published March 15, 2002

About the author

Gil Schwartz, known by his pen name Stanley Bing, was an American business humorist and novelist. He wrote a column for Fortune magazine for more than twenty years after a decade at Esquire magazine. He was the author of thirteen books, including What Would Machiavelli Do? and The Curriculum, a satirical textbook for a business school that also offers lessons on the web. Schwartz was senior executive vice president of corporate communications and Chief Communications Officer for CBS.

Reviews

[Lychee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hilarious at first, but I was expecting to learn something and instead it seems to be more of a satire. I'm unlikely to finish listening to it but might borrow it again to quote some of the passages that cracked me up.

[Elisha Chan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't be fooled by the title, elephants are the bosses, that you may or may not like. None the less the book teaches you how to handle these elephants and give you some tricks on how you can actual learn to love them.