The Elephant and the Flea - Hardcover
Charles Handy, an international business guru who’s seen it all, provides a first-hand account of the modern world of work: where we are, how we got here, and where we are headed in the 21st century. This book is both a poignant personal memoir and a deep reflection on the past and future of world capitalism.
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Review:
Charles Handy is always a delight to read, and The Elephant and the Flea--his autobiography-laced analysis of business over the past two decades--is no exception. In his 13th book, the United Kingdom's pre-eminent sage on commercial and industrial matters looks within and at education, marriage, religion and society in order to assess the changing nature of employment. His literate and knowledgeable tale begins in 1981, when Handy decided to exchange a safe but stifling life with a corporation (the "elephant" of his title) for the riskier but potentially more rewarding existence of an independent (or "flea"). Mixing diverse experiences with cogent observations on the evolving workplace, he sets the scene for plausible projections about where we might yet be headed. "Just as the signs were there 20 years ago for those who wished to see them, so I believe we can glimpse the shape of the new capitalist world even if it may take another 20 years to develop," he writes. "We may not like what is coming but we would be foolish to think that we can plan our lives, or our children's lives, without giving some thought to the shape of the stage on which we and they will be strutting". Intensely personal yet remarkably universal, the result is another provocative, illuminating and enjoyable book from the oil executive turned bestselling author.--Howard Rothman
Review:
Britain's only first class management guru. Hardy's readership is now much wider than the buyers of management books. -- Director
Charles Handy brings originality and lightness to everything he touches. -- Management Today
Handy excels at stirring controversy and thought. -- Business Week
Handy's jargon-free observations pack more power because of their clarity and prescriptive nature . -- Fortune
His appeal stretches beyond the business classes and he has a spiritual quality unlike other management writers. -- Sunday Times, 9th September, 2001
Charles Handy brings originality and lightness to everything he touches. -- Management Today
Handy excels at stirring controversy and thought. -- Business Week
Handy's jargon-free observations pack more power because of their clarity and prescriptive nature . -- Fortune
His appeal stretches beyond the business classes and he has a spiritual quality unlike other management writers. -- Sunday Times, 9th September, 2001
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- PublisherHarvard Business Review Press
- Publication date2002
- ISBN 10 1578518229
- ISBN 13 9781578518227
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages233
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The Elephant and the Flea: Reflections of A Reluctant Capitalist
Published by
Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA
(2002)
ISBN 10: 1578518229
ISBN 13: 9781578518227
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Brand New. Dust Jacket Condition: Brand New. Mike Fender (Jacket Design); Art Wolfe (Cover Photo); Elizabeth Handy (Author Photo) (illustrator). Copyright 2001, 2002 Charles Handy. 233 + pp. Copy and dust jacket in pristine state. Synopsis: From his childhood in an Irish vicarage, to Oxford University, to his first job as an oil executive with Royal Dutch/Shell in the Far East, to a professorship at the London Business School, to chairmanship of the Royal Society of Arts, and finally to his current status as an eminent social philosopher and international business guru, Charles Handy has viewed the business and economic workings of the twentieth century inside and out. Now, in the twenty-first century, Handy provides a firsthand account of how we got here and where we are headed. The Elephant and the Flea is a fitting capstone to Handy's brilliant career and colorful life. In a tone that is at once learned, genial, witty, and wise, Handy takes us on his life's journey, looking back to such topics as his childhood and education and how they prepared (or, rather, did not prepare) him for a career in business; the changing nature of organizational life within the context of the old economy and the new; the great variety of capitalism around the world; and, through it all, his struggle to find meaning and fulfillment in work. Handy uses the quirky, powerful metaphor of the elephant and the flea to describe and critique the great shift from the prevalence of behemoth, slow-moving, bureaucratic organizations that provided a lifetime of security and not much freedom or room for creativity, to a world in which we are much more independent and flea-like, flitting from job to job, latching onto elephants when we need to, but mostly flying solo and without safe havens. This book is both a poignant personal memoir and a deep reflection on the past and future of world capitalism, with all its possibilities and pitfalls (From: Amazon). Seller Inventory # 4ivDd0035
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The Elephant and the Flea: Reflections of a Reluctant Capitalist
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The Elephant and the Flea
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(2002)
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THE ELEPHANT AND THE FLEA
Published by
Harvard Business Review Press
(2002)
ISBN 10: 1578518229
ISBN 13: 9781578518227
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