Bingsop's Fables

May 23, 2011
It doesn't take much to spin Aesop's fables into business lessons. The Hare and the Turtle and any number of other tales, though written around the 5th century BCE, can be easily made relevant to today's business world, and Bing thoroughly, humorously modernizes the popular moral lessons into bite-sized anecdotes that are as easy to digest as they are to apply to the workplace. Instead of greedy monkeys, acquisitive crows, or sneaky foxes, Bing offers Publicity-Crazed Moguls, Blabbering Marketing Executives, and the Executive Vice Presidents of Whatever. The morals may not be as uplifting or plainspoken as they once were, but they still carry a zing: "The weak may inherit the earth, but they do very poorly in the workplace"; or "There's no such thing as âtoo paranoid' anymore." Bing (What Would Machiavelli Do?: The Ends Justify the Meanness), a columnist for Fortune magazine, succeeds less in representing women and minorities; there's a glass ceiling evidently even in parables about business. But his latest slim gimmick would make a fine companion to, say, a desktop Dilbert calendar. 35 line drawings.

April 15, 2011

Biting wisdom of the corporate world conveyed through a series of clever moral tales and anthropomorphic illustrations.

Borrowing from the style and structure of Aesop's Fables, Fortune magazine columnist and author Bing (Executricks: Or How to Retire While You're Still Working, 2008, etc.) focuses his keen observer's eye on the egos, misjudgments and general mayhem that sink or float the players in American Big Business. Offering a wealth of advice on navigating the tricky waters of corporate politics and interpersonal relationships, these parables are equally relevant for life outside the office. Bing's pithy, humorous guidance is dispensed through his alter ego, Bingsop. The short volume is loaded with scathingly funny, and recognizable, corporate archetypes: the CEO, the Media Mogul, the Benefits Manager, the Consultants, among others. The fun begins with the "Translator's Note," in which the author explains that he is writing from a time far in the future recounting the collected wisdom of a scribe from early-21st-century America. Brodner's illustrations of animals as human caricatures are clever and offbeat. Each tale ends with a moral that cuts to the chase—e.g., "Everybody wants to think outside the box unless it's their box," or "It's your ring people are kissing, not you."

Deceptively simple bedtime stories for adults.

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