Introduction by Bob Andelman

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Andelman) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:42:15 PDT

"When I got into family therapy, this isn't the family I had in mind." Dr. Ben Sobel (Billy Crystal) in "Analyze This"

Looking for inspiration from a tough guy? Forget Attila the Hun. What did he know about wiretaps?

Patton? Sure, he was tough, but he had a license to kill. How long would he last running an operation outside of the law?

Don Corleone, now that's tough. And he understood business. What did Ulysses Grant know about income tax evasion?

Organized crime-real and imagined-is the last great untapped bastion of professional management and leadership advice in America. And in an era when a whole genre of books has emerged collecting the advice of pseudo-business leaders, why not get the real thing from the men who run some of the most successful and enduring businesses on Earth?

You don't have to be a gangster to appreciate the wit and wisdom of Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano, or John Gotti. And you don't even have to know who Tony Soprano is to know he understands how the world works a lot better than the average CEO.

What do I know about tough guys?

I'm no wiseguy. I've never killed a person or even pulled the trigger of a gun. But I did write a book called "Mean Business" for the corporate equivalent of John Gotti-"Chainsaw" Al Dunlap.

Including the words of pretend Mafioso such as Tony Soprano and Don Corleone is appropriate because so many of today's gangsters take their cues from The Godfather movies. Even mob turncoat Sammy "The Bull" Gravano couldn't believe Mario Puzo made the whole Godfather saga up. "He knew too much," Gravano says.

Here is blunt and sometimes lighthearted wisdom from the most recognized mobsters of the modern age. Each is followed by a brief and breezy interpretation of inspirations you can't refuse.

(A version of this material appeared under the title "Wiseguy Wisdom" in Context magazine, February 2001. It was also referenced in the January 2002 issue of Inc. magazine in the story "Managing From A to Z," under the letter "O is for Organized Crime.")

Read a
Sample Chapter:

Introduction	Analyze This
What Color is Your Parachute?	Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will
Collaborating to Compete	It Ain't As Easy As It Looks
Dress for Success	The Profit Zone
How to Win Friends and Influence Enemies	The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
The Art of The Deal	Keep Hope Alive
The Rules	The Peter Principle
In Search of Excellence	The Art of Letting Go
Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten	Hard Road to the Softer Side
Straight From the Gut	From Worst to First
Built to Last	Getting to Yes
War in a Time of Peace	Lessons From the Future
The Price is Right	Smart Alliances
Who Moved My Cheese?	Reengineering the Corporation
Life Tastes Better Than Steak	The Death of Competition
The One Minute Manager	Discovering the Soul of Service
The Greatest Generation	Mean Business
BIO	ANDELMAN.COM

Managed By the Mob

Introduction by Bob Andelman