Mavericks At Work

In today's business climate, organizations with conventional hierarchies and staid business processes are giving way to maverick organizations that serve customers creatively by breaking the rules. Barrett Whitener sounds informed, but he reads with less energy than one expects of a book on revolutionary business practices. What saves the audio is authoritative writing that offers the perfect combination of abstract ideas and concrete (though impersonal) illustrations. The focus is business practices, philosophy, and culture rather than heroes or personalities. It's ultimately a lesson for chess players and bean counters, not artists or visionaries. But while the authors never escape the language of human resources technocrats, it's fascinating to hear how much they know about hiring and developing managerial talent. T.W. 2007 Audies Award Finalist (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

September 4, 2006
A collection of case studies featuring the same formulaic ebullience endemic to business books since blurber Tom Peters' seminal work In Search of Excellence, this reader from FastCompany magazine cofounder Taylor and influential business writer LaBarre profiles some of the more interesting companies doing business today: Cirque de Soleil, Commerce Bank, Pixar, Anthropologie, Southwest Airlines, Jones Soda, Apple Computer and Craigslist among them. Such companies may have disparate cultures, but what unites them is originality, self-knowledge and passion. Whether by remaining small, recruiting zealously, or functioning like a kind of cult, such businesses succeed by imbuing the corporate rank and file with an entrepreneur's vision, avoiding the twin vices of mediocrity and complacency. Conversational but rigorous, Taylor and Labarre's chipper exploration of imagination at work holds value for novice and journeyman business leaders.