POWER CST

Rating:
Summary: Dangerous and potentially disasterous advice
Review: Since when does discourtesy equate with power? Korda's popular 80's "Power" book is filled with anecdotes and advice, seemingly nested in the premise that if people will allow you to abuse them, then you are powerful. Take for example Korda's advice to arrange for a telephone call during a lunch meeting, talk during the entirety of the meeting, then leave after the call is ended, since this proves to them how important and powerful you are. First of all, no serious executive has TIME to hold such frivolous meetings simply to prove a point. Second, while such discourtesy may make you feel empowered once, it's unlikely that you will ever be able to get those at your lunch to meet you again. Finally, as such behaviour is essentially burning bridges, one should hope that you will never require the assistance of anyone at the table in the future, since, assuming they are ever inclined to help, such abuse will ensure that they will rub whatever assistance they provide in your face. I am Southern, and was raised to believe that courtesy was a demonstration of respect to those around you. As "Power" seems to advocate discourtesy, and therefore disrespect, to those you are dealing with, I find the advice tremendously amusing, and it is very unlikely that anyone would seriously achieve results with such tactics. I also spent 2 1/2 years working on Wall Street for an LBO outfit, and 2 1/2 years in Silcon Valley with a VC firm, and can assure all readers of this review that anyone demonstrating the shallow behaviour advocated by this book would soon find himself unemployed and without a network to rely upon. Basically, this book is about seeming powerful in only the most superficial and petty ways, and less about getting power, and certainly not about keeping it. In fact, the effete, almost drag-queen-esque performances this book advocates are likely to make one a laughingstock ("I AM a DIVA!"). "Secrets of a Corporate Headhunter", by John Wareham, has an excellent chapter on "charisma", and the little chapter is worth more in informational content than the entirety of this book.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely embarrassing
Review: This book is grossly mis-titled. In a nutshell, it is a collection of office strong-arm tactics (all pretty bad). This book has absolutely nothing to do with power. Power, the kind that readers of such books strive for, is the ability to get people to do what you need them to do willingly. The tricks described in this book are totally apparent to the victim. Resorting to juvenile games like these will ensure that the reader will never be in a position of real power. The power Korda talks about is the power of a lowly clerk in a huge bureaucracy who thinks that misplacing your file or application or such gives him/her leverage over you. Luckily, I borrowed this book from a library, so at least this "advice" didn't cost me anything. Take your money elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: not good
Review: This wasn't well, written, nor very insightful. Korda in his own memoir dismisses it as kind of a joke of a book that mistakenly got taken seriously.