Managing from A to Z

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V is for voodoo
Back when Internet companies were pulling sky-high valuations out of zero-profit hats, the new economy seemed magical. Even now that many of those businesses have vanished back up their conjurers' sleeves, we yearn for mystery, insist RenÉ Carayol and David Firth, authors of Corporate Voodoo: Principles for Business Mavericks and Magicians. Specifically, say the authors, we need voodoo. Originally, voodoo flourished among slaves, who drew strength in captivity from their Afro-Caribbean religion. The book's whimsy is that voodoo, in its corporate incarnation, "releases people from the slavery of old ways of being, thinking about and leading organizations" and "connects people with what is important, meaningful and instinctual." In practice, voodoo seems interchangeable with new economy. Voodoo's followers may march to the beat of a different tribal drummer, but we've heard the song before.

W is for Wizard of Oz
Business gurus promise magical transformation. But most are just ordinary folks pulling strings behind a curtain. In The Oz Principle: Getting Results Through Individual and Organizational Accountability, Roger Connors, Tom Smith, and Craig Hickman disdain business thinkers who -- like Oz -- promise a "solution" that doesn't exist. Fortunately, managers and employees -- much like a certain fictional quartet -- hold within themselves the power to achieve the desired results. First, though, they need the courage to see reality, the heart to "own" their circumstances, and the brain -- er, wisdom -- to overcome obstacles. They find those things on the road -- picture one with an ocher cast -- of change. "People relate to the theme of a journey from ignorance to knowledge, from fear to courage, from insensitivity to caring, from paralysis to powerfulness, from victimization to accountability," the book points out. That goes for Toto, too.

X is for x-presidents
The great thing about U.S. presidents is that, as chief executives of the most complex organization on earth, their wisdom is invaluable to business leaders. The great thing about dead ex-presidents is that you don't have to shell out $10 million to publish that wisdom. Past prezes with business tomes include Theodore Roosevelt (youthful, dynamic, progressive) and Ulysses S. Grant (hard-drinking, indecisive, and inconsistent -- but his "lessons" come chiefly from the battlefield, so it's OK). James M. Strock's Theodore Roosevelt on Leadership renders its subject as an aggressive, risk-taking master of PowerPoint-friendly advice. John Barnes's Ulysses S. Grant on Leadership: Executive Lessons From the Front Lines praises the general as an innovator, communicator, and delegator. Of course, Grant's chief claim to sage status is that he won a war. But winning isn't everything: Robert E. Lee has at least two leadership books to his name.

Y is for yacht racing
Is there anything so heartwarming as a business mogul and his sailboat? Ted Turner and Courageous. Larry Ellison and Sayonara. Roy Disney and Pyewacket. And wouldn't you know it, while those titans of industry are battling churning seas and screaming winds, they are also exercising valuable management insight, according to Peter Isler and Peter Economy, authors of At the Helm: Business Lessons for Navigating Rough Waters. The book compares the early days of an America's Cup campaign to an entrepreneurial start-up, but bootstrappers, beware: it costs, on average, $25 million to compete in sailing's most prestigious event. In addition, "it's often said that the perfect racing sailboat is one that has pushed the limits of what is humanly and technologically possible so far that it falls apart and sinks just after it wins the regatta," write the authors. So much for built to last.

Z is for Zeus
Just what company leaders need: another reason to think of themselves as gods. But that's what Charles Handy gives them in Gods of Management: The Changing Work of Organizations. The Greek gods personify traits that characterize people and, Handy argues, corporate cultures. Do you run a small entrepreneurial company where decisions are quickly made and intuitively based on powerful empathy? Then yours is a Zeus culture, making you the top dog among top gods. The new economy, clearly, was a hotbed of Zeusian enterprises, most of which fell from Olympus. In the Internet age, even immortality won't save you from early death.

Leigh Buchanan is a senior editor at Inc.

Please e-mail your comments to editors@inc.com.

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Leigh Buchanan

Leigh Buchanan is an editor at large for Inc. Magazine. A former editor at Harvard Business Review and founding editor of WebMaster magazine, she writes regular columns on leadership and workplace culture, and she contributes Inc.'s capsule book reviews, "A Skimmer's Guide to the Latest Business Books."

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