Ayn Rand and Business

Rating:
Summary: Not perfect, but a decent introduction for businesspeople
Review: At first sight, _Ayn Rand and Business_ might make one think of all those other books that try to connect various historical figures to the world of modern business: the books on the supposed management secrets of Jesus, Ghengis Khan, etc. The comparison invites skepticism. Is this some hack imitation of those books, exploiting Rand's name to jump on the latest management book bandwagon? Certainly the bland title does not suggest creative originality, and the cover photo of Rand is not the most attractive one that they might have used.

After reading the book, one might recall that there is a good reason for the adage, "Don't judge a book by its cover." Although it has some flaws, this book is reasonably good introduction to Rand's ideas as they apply to the business world.

The authors, Donna Greiner and Theodore Kinni, are not philosophers or academics of any kind. They are business writers (as well as businesspeople in their own right, having founded their own company to sell books). It is precisely their down-to-earth, non-academic approach actually makes the book a refreshing read in comparison to some of the other material about Rand that has come out in the last few years. They consistently connect the theoretical to the concrete, using specific examples of companies run in accordance with (or in violation of) Objectivist principles. ("Objectivism" was the name Rand gave to her own philosophy.) They explain Rand's ideas in straightforward language that emphasizes the natural appeal that has always been evident in people's reaction to Rand's novels, but which sometimes is lost in more technical, academic presentations.

After some biographical background on Rand and a high-level overview of her philosophy as a whole, the bulk of the book focuses on ethical issues. Greiner and Kinni divide the book's second section (called "Randian Work") into chapters for each of Rand's major virtues: rationality, independence, integrity, etc. A brief third section looks at management techniques that use the Objectivist virtues, although in many ways this material is a recap of points that have already been made in the previous section.

The authors presumably do not consider themselves Objectivists. They talk about Objectivists in the third person, and occasionally criticize what they see as the Objectivist position on an issue. Their formulations of some ideas do not agree exactly with those of Objectivist authors, although the discrepancies are likely to be too subtle for this book's primary audience to worry about them. They are also quite critical of some aspects of Rand's personal life, especially her relationship with her protege Nathaniel Branden and their following in the 1950s and 60s. But they recognize that Rand has been dead for almost two decades, and what matters most to their readers is how they can use her ideas in their own lives, not the details of her personality or personal life.

It is questionable why the authors present Rand's personal life in the way they do. In introducing Rand to an audience not already familiar with her, it is entirely appropriate to begin with a biographical sketch. Moreover, a biography that failed to mention her well-known relationship with Branden or some of the other material they discuss, would tend to create questions about the authors' credibility. A non-biased account of Rand's adult life is going to mention this material. However, Greiner and Kinni do appear rather quick to accept the accounts of Rand's detractors as being wholly true. Still, the flaws in this material are not enough to ruin value of the way they handle applying Rand's ideas to business issues in the rest of the book.

Reader's who want an authoritative or detailed introduction to Rand's ideas should look elsewhere, preferably to Rand's own works, such as _Atlas Shrugged_. However, for businesspeople who react to Objectivist books with complaints like "It's too long -- my time for reading is so limited," or "I don't care about philosophy -- I need ideas to help my business," _Ayn Rand and Business_ might be just the thing to get their attention.

Rating:
Summary: Great Insight, Advice, Stimulation
Review: Ayn Rand made a mark for herself as a philosopher, as an author, and as leader of a philosophical movement called Objectivism. Her books still sell well today, twenty years after her death. Best known are "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged," required reading for many high school and college students.

I enjoyed reading those two masterpieces by Ayn Rand. Good stories, well-told, with some interesting points. But, truth be told, I didn't really get the whole message. Perhaps I was too young, too inexperienced, too sheltered, or too something. Part of my has always been curious about who Ayn Rand was, where she was coming from, and what lessons she was trying to teach. What was this Objectivism concept, anyway?

Now, I understand. No, I won't claim to be a philosophical scholar of Objectivism and comparative schools of thought. But, from reading this book I have a much greater appreciation of the Objectivism approach. I enjoyed reading "Atlas Shrugged" and have recommended the book many times over the years. As a result of reading "Ayn Rand and Business" I have a much better idea of the motivations behind the characters and the theme.

I really like the way Greiner and Kinni put this book together. They teach us quite a bit about Rand, her life, and the personal side of this controversial acclaimed author and her followers. Fascinating! (Did you know that Allan Greenspan was one of Ayn Rand's disciples? Reading this volume was an enjoyable journey; I hated to put the book down and was always eager to return to its pages. The authors reach into history and into Rand's writings to explain how her teachings relate to business, and they use modern (very recent) examples to illustrate how Objectivism concepts apply to business today.

The book is simple in its organization: three sections. The first section devotes three chapters to Ayn Rand and Objectivism to give us a platform for understanding. The second section, Randian Work, presents eight chapters on Rand's philosophical principles applied to business. Included are rationality, independence, integrity, honesty, justice, productiveness, and pride. All are linked to the reality of today. This book really connects for students-of all ages-of business philosophy.

The third section of the book, Randian Management, delivers leadership-focused chapters on Winning through Innovation, Managing People to Their Ultimate Potential, and Leading with Purpose. The value of the book is enhanced with a comprehensive bibliography of Rand's writings and an index. The smaller size of the book, 5 inches by I inches, gives a feeling of reading something from a long time ago, like the book should be leather-bound. There is "long ago" in the book, wonderfully linked to right now.

If you enjoyed any of Ayn Rand's writings, you'll get a lot from this book. If you are in business-as an owner or a leader or a manager, you will also benefit from "Ayn Rand and Business." And if you like to read though-provoking writing, spend some time with this book.

Rating:
Summary: Insightful!
Review: Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism celebrates the underlying principles of capitalism: reason, independence and just plain selfishness. Donna Greiner and Theodore Kinni lay out the fundamentals of Objectivism and attempt to describe how you can integrate its beliefs into your life and your business. The book is written in the spirit of Rand's own outlook: It is anchored in practicality, well organized and goal-oriented. Even so, some executives might lose patience with the philosophic nature of the work. We advise such readers to move on. However, we from getAbstract recommend this book to intellectually curious readers in search of a moral, ethical, or even philosophic foundation for their business life.

Rating:
Summary: Freedom Book of the Month review of _Ayn Rand and Business_
Review: Free-Market.Net's Freedom Book of the Month
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Edited by Thomas L. Knapp. (....)

November 2001

Ayn Rand and Business
by Donna Greiner and Theodore Kinni
Texere 2001, hardcover, 209 pp.

One thing that separated Ayn Rand from many other philosophers was her insistence on that morality and practicality are not mutually excusive. Where other schools of thought dismiss commercial enterprise as either a necessary evil to be tolerated, or an unnecessary evil to be dispensed with, Objectivism celebrates trade as one of man's highest virtues.

_Ayn Rand and Business_ turns its sights to this unique aspect of Objectivism, and in so doing functions as an excellent guide for those interested both in the root principles of business ethics and of Objectivism.

Donna Greiner and Theodore Kinni begin with a short discussion of Ayn Rand and her work, including the movement that she began and which has experienced such tumult and schism. They don't pull any punches, but the view is positive overall.

From there, the book moves into its main body with sections on "Randian Work" and "Randian Management."

The section on work is a tour de force in the application of individualist principles to our everyday endeavors. Subdivided into chapters on key virtues and values including rationality, independence, integrity, honesty, justice, productiveness and pride, the book zooms in on how each of these values fits into our work and lives. It draws examples from real individuals and their real experiences and shows the application of Objectivist ideas to real situations.

By contrast, the section on management is more general, concentrating on three topic areas: "Winning Through Innovation," "Managing People to Their Ultimate Potential," and "Leading With Purpose."

"If there is one book that we'd like to see on the packed shelves of bookstores," the authors write, " it is _The Objectivist Manager_ by Ayn Rand. Unfortunately, Rand never wrote that book."

While it might go a bit far to proclaim that _Ayn Rand and Business_ is such an animal, the book will be of immense value to businesspeople interested in the principles of Objectivism, and to Objectivists or those interested in Ayn Rand's philosophy who have long sought to understand the real application of Rand's ideas to the world of enterprise.

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Please forward and copy freely, and include the following:

The Freedom Book of the Month is a feature of Free-Market.Net
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Rating:
Summary: Want to learn about Ayn Rand and Business? Go elsewhere.
Review: The best part about this book is the title. The rest is a rehashing of Ayn Rand's ideas. It reads more like a badly written sales brochure at times: it is hard to tell whether the authors love Ayn Rand or hate her.

The book is divided into three sections: one on Ayn Rand's life which quotes dubious material (i.e., material that cannot be validated independently from the authors), and a second part on her ideas which more or less repeats the ideas of Leonard Peikoff's *Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand* with some distortions and imprecise formulations. (Incidentally the authors do speak well of Dr. Peikoff, and it is clear that much of their understanding of Ayn Rand was garnered (lifted?) from his commentary on her philosophy). The third section of the book--a mere 30 pages--covers some issues concerning management.

Throughout the book the authors make points without providing examples or evidence to support their claims, i.e., "Rand was not, however, a literary genius in the critical sense." Thus, the reader has no way of testing the validity of their statements based on the information they provide. As it reads, it appears that the authors simply took a sentence from some other book, uncritically accepted it, and then put it into their book. Much of the "critical" stuff in this book, sadly, reads this way.

...

Rating:
Summary: Useful but slanted
Review: This book does a decent job of showing how application of Ayn Rand's philosophy can improve your performance at work and your company's performance, but the authors have some incorrect notions of the scope of Ayn Rand's philosophy and it's proponents. The book can best be enjoyed by skipping the first section of the book which doesn't really pertain to the subject of the book. For the essence of her philosophy, I'd recommend Ayn Rand's "For the New Intellectual".

Rating:
Summary: Distorted Portrait on Cover + Abundance of Sarcasm
Review: This book is a fine example of how a "no-set" can be created in a reader by using:

An abundance of sarcasm from cover to cover, a pseudo-balanced account to attack without having to use any logical arguments, and scaring potential prospects away by utilizing discrepancies within the Objectivist movement that are non-essential for beginners.

Presenting itself to the unsuspecting prospect as the much needed introductory book to the application of Objectivism to business, the only thing it achieves, is making look the founder of Objectivism a somewhat weird and eccentric person. If it was the goal of the authors to convince productive businesspeople that applying Objectivist principles to their problems of work is impractical, they were without doubt successful in completing their job.

If you are a businessperson honestly interested in learning about Objectivism in the context of management, you should look into one of these books instead: Nathaniel Branden's Self-Esteem At Work, Edwin Locke's The Prime Movers, and Ayn Rand Institute's Why Businessman Need Philosophy. While all of these books are not perfect, they are by far better then the Greiner/Kinni text. I gave it nonetheless two stars, because it provides -- for those who are interested in such a sinister task -- an easy to understand pattern that can be modified for one's own propaganda purposes.

Ayn Rand's portrait on the cover seems to be deliberately distorted with a software program. A black cloud was added to the skyline on the upper right. It's November 2001.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Intro to Rand
Review: This book is an excellent introduction to Rand's philosophy examined from the point of view of its applications in business. Not a how-to, really, but a good launching point for further study and consideration. Well-written and very readable.

Rating:
Summary: APPLIED OBJECTIVISM
Review: When I first scanned "Ayn Rand and Business," I was a little skeptical about where this book was going and where its authors were coming from. But after reading it, I say it is stupendous.

I'd subtitle it "Applied Objectivism," in the same sense that one would speak of applied electronics where principles are applied to create all kinds of devices and equipment run by electricity. "Ayn Rand and Business" applies the principles of Objectivism to the business of marketing, capitalization, management, customer service, etc.

The book presents a brief biography of Ayn Rand covering her years in Russia, her coming to America, her struggles, her triumphs, the Objectivist "movement," that started with NBI (Nathaniel Branden Institute), the 1968 "break" between Branden and Rand and the ensuing excommunications, schisms and rifts that led to the sad decline in the "movement" and the quantity of her writings.?

But, more importantly, the focus of the book is on the application of Objectivist principles to business life. (And to personal life, which comes before but also runs parallel with business life.) The authors take the Objectivist values and virtues, explain them so very clearly and illustrate them with concrete examples how they apply in the business world. They use characters from Ayn Rand's novels as models, but they also use real-life business people who practice these virtues and values.

Their presentation of Objectivist principles is clear and concise. This is not a treatise, but outside of the business focus, the book could be considered an excellent introduction to Objectivism. They deal with all of the heavy philosophical subjects and issues in what we used to refer to as "layman's terms."
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You don't have to be a philosopher to understand Ayn Rand. Her writing is crystal clear. Nonetheless, jumping into metaphysics and epistemology cold turkey may not be the best way to get an introduction to Objectivism or any other philosophy. When, as a kid, I started to read about relativity and physics, many books that put those ideas in "layman's terms" were invaluable. "Ayn Rand and Business" does this superbly.?

Fans of Ayn Rand and long time readers will find nothing new, philosophically, in the book though they should be impressed by its clarity and thoroughness in explaining Objectivism. I would particularly recommend it to people who show an interest in ideas and who might be prime candidates to become Objectivists. And because it is focused on Objectivism in business, I would highly recommend it for such prime candidates in the business world.?

It's not clear where the authors discovered Ayn Rand. The biographical information is silent on this subject. But it is obvious from the sources they cite and the bibliography that they know their subject. They quote from virtually every book, article and newsletter Ayn Rand ever wrote. They appear to have read every book by or about her and Objectivism.

The only flaws I see in the book are in editing. In several instances, needed words are missing or the wrong words are used. Additionally, there are a couple of instances where the wording of a sentence initially gives the opposite impression than that intended. And it is incorrectly stated that "The Objectivist" preceded "The Objectivist Newsletter." But the errors, except for the last one, are obvious to any reader and do nothing to detract from the content.

Overall, the book gets my highest rating. For a book written so clearly and favorably about Objectivism, by two people apparently unknown in the Ayn Rand "movement," to suddenly appear on the scene is remarkable. It's something to be celebrated and is an indication that, more than anything else I've seen, Objectivism is breaking through to and is reaching the common man who Ayn Rand correctly remarked is not so "common."