No comments about Henry Ford.

No comments about Who's Who in Finance & Industry, 1994-1995.

No comments about Maridée: The Memoirs of María Haydée Corbalán.

No comments about Success By Default: The Depersonalization of Corporate America.

No comments about John Wanamaker: Honesty, The Foundation Of A Great Merchant's Career.

No comments about A Celebration of Work.

No comments about Going Up: A Working Life.

3 comments about Saigo Takamori - The Man Behind.

1. As the first biography in English of Saigo Takamori and the first work to use original source material to examine his near-mythic status in Japanese history, this book does have value. However, it is not for the general reader. Though prodigious research was obviously behind this work, little accommodation is made to narrative thrust. The book appears to have been expanded from the author's masters thesis with passages which vary, often jarringly, in tone from the academic material. For those seeking a complete and more readable but still reputable history of the real man behind the character in "The Last Samurai" a better choice by far is the book by that name written by Mark Ravina.



2. This is a worthwhile read, mainly because it is the only book in English on a fascinating subject: the life of Saigo Takamori. Much credit is to be given to Yates for exposing the true Saigo, which is quite different from the Saigo myth that has grown up in Japan over the last 130 years. Many pages are devoted to what Saigo's true motivations and skills were. My biggest disappointment was the lack of any detail about the military operations that Saigo conducted. The worst example of this is that the entire 7-month Seinan War is covered in about 2 pages.



3. I had the great privelege and pleasure to have Charles Yates as my professor as an undergraduate. His keen insights and methodical decontruction, or "unpacking" of issues were seminal in my thinking about not only Japan, but the wider world. This book displays the same kind of attention to detail and thoroughgoing scholarship, combined with finely-honed skepticism, in dealing with one of the less understood figures in Meiji Japan. Through his ability to see through to the "why" in conventional scholarship, Chuck was able to write a convincing and human account of Saigo Takamori which successfully challenges the established ideas about the oligarch.

3 comments about Stop Paddling & Start Rocking the Boat: Business Lessons from the School of Hard Knocks.

1. How do you criticize someone who developed partnering between two large corporations. Lou developed a good relationship between Proctor and Gamble and Wal Mart. He made a stormy relationship into one which benefited both these large corporations. Lou also managed in an economy dominated by dictator Marcos in the Philippines. Both of these relationships helped develop Lou into a successful manager. These stories and Lou's early business life selling soap constitute much of the book.
   I think this book has some common sense ideas on how to approach customers. Some of those listed include treating everybody fairly and equally, developing partnerships, treating employees as you would want to be treated and being a change agent. For the last item, this will involve rocking the boat, and might get people upset with you. But being a change agent is never easy.
   This is an easy book to read. There are no radical solutions here, just a common sense approach to business. This is why I rated it only as an average read.



2. Today, everyone in business throws around the term "partnering" when discussing business relationships. Lou Pritchett was one of the first to break the traditional, often adversarial approach of selling to the customer...This book is filled with insight and anecdotes that will help any business person seeking to drive costs out of the business and work more closely with customers and suppliers. Any student of modern supply chain management knows that building trust between all parties in the chain is the key element to success and the one that many companies find the most difficult implement. Lou will tell you that this is not rocket science. However it does take courage and hard work to keep rocking the boat and change the old way of doing business.



3. Lou offers great insight and wisdom in the art of "human engineering" - training managers to become true leaders. Being part of the greatest generation, Lou captures a slice of American salesmanship that makes this country great today. While some of the stories may seem dated, anyone that has customers or business associates can learn from the pages of this book regardless of industry, timeframe or position. I have ordered copies of this book for employees from entry-level to CEO. All have come back to say thanks and have forwarded it on for someone else to read!

2 comments about Working for Wages: On the Road in the Fifties.

1. Peter Browning was 75 when he finished up this gutsy memoir, and it ranks among the best blue-collar stories of American life. The prose is positively alive with the spirit of the Fifties - the tough-minded Fifties that didn't make it into sitcoms. As a truck driver hauling cars across the Great West, he encountered plenty of memorable characters, and his story of a peripatetic life fifty years ago is hard to put down.



2. Working For Wages: On The Road In The Fifties by Peter Browning is a memoir of nearly ten years on a job driving new cars and trucks from Detroit to Los Angeles between 1949 and 1958 makes for a memoir which is hard to easily peg, charting changing social, economic and business issues of the times. Vanishing lifestyles and jobs, changing 1950s sentiments, and both humor and high drama are imparted in this lively, revealing guide.