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Review by Jack Carpenter
Business knowledge cannot be codified like mathematics or grammar, but there are some basic principles it pays to mind. Peter Krass has assembled a great many of them in "The Book of Business Wisdom."
This anthology includes 54 short essays or excerpts from important business leaders, dating from colonial times until today. As simple and sensible as the idea is, I have never seen another business book like it.
The range is extensive. You can skip from Andrew Carnegie to Wal-Mart's Sam Walton without taking a breath.
P.T. Barnum, the 19th-century showman, advises us to treat others with kindness contrary to what I would have expected. Igor Sikorsky, the aircraft manufacturer, emphasizes the importance of intuition. Thomas Watson, who was the genius behind IBM decades ago, gives a lesson on the importance of persistence, and of listening to customers, when it comes to selling.
There are a couple of essays in the book that make me wonder if the editor might have a perverse sense of humor. Carl Icahn and T. Boone Pickens are associated by some with aggressive 1980s-style corporate takeovers rather than actually running businesses, so I wonder how universal their lessons are. Most readers will get more of a rise from the excellent essay by Julius Fleischmann on how he set up the distribution system for Fleischmann's Yeast. Or at least, it will help them make more dough.
©1997, ProMotion, inc.
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