Shakespeare as management authors like it

By SELWYN PARKER

America's love affair with management books knows no bounds.

The teachings of real-life gurus aren't apparently enough for executives who are being told to find management wisdom in the sometimes distant past and in the work of people who were blissfully innocent of the subject.

You probably thought that Shakespeare was writing plays. Not at all, according to the authors of Shakespeare in Charge: The Bard's Guide to Leading and Succeeding on the Business Stage.

He was implicitly providing advice for executives. In The Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio makes some shrewd executive moves, say the authors. For example, he develops a "core competency," which consists of "wooing Italian women with wealthy fathers." Will lechery soon be on an MBA course near you?

As Fortune magazine observes: "We've seen some interpretations of Shakespeare that stretch the text beyond recognition ... but this one takes the cake."

Moses would also be startled to find that he is the provider of "50 leadership lessons from the Greatest Manager of All Time."

He probably thought of his shepherd's staff as helpful for climbing but it's much more meaningful than that, according to the authors of Moses on Management.

God apparently gave Moses the staff "as a tangible symbol of authority," an action which could be replicated now by giving something equally tangible and authoritative such as "an office with a view" or "a preferred parking space."

Similarly, the works of Ernest Hemingway, who never managed anything more than a marlin-fishing boat, have been plundered in The Classic Touch: Lessons in Leadership from Homer to Hemingway.

W.C. Fields is surely the least likely purveyor of management wisdom. His only comment that could possibly be construed as having any connection with business was: "If at first you don't succeed, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it."

Yet here is Never Give a Sucker an Even Break: W.C. Fields on Business by Ronald Fields and Shaun O'L.Higgins, a compendium of the gin-sozzling comedian's commercial wisdom.

I wonder whether they found a place for the following comment in a chapter on sexual equality in the workplace: "I was in love with a beautiful blonde once, dear. She drove me to drink. That's the one thing I'm indebted to her for."

* Selwyn Parker is available at wordz@xtra.co.nz