Rating: 
Summary: Downward Spiral of Traditions
Review: One Minute Manager was a good book for new managers who just didn't have any style. The authors missed with Who Moved My Cheese, in my opinion. Who Moved My Cheese is rhetoric of almost infantile style aimed at deteriorating the thought process of respect amongst those that are human. Stop moving my cheese! Just because I'm a nonconformist doesn't mean I don't think. Just because I don't happen to agree, doesn't mean I'm not correct. Sure, we create these little microcosms in our places of employment. Yes, we need to change . . . keeping pace with our competitors. Yes, this overly simplified philosophy would probably be useful for someplace such as McDonalds, Burger King, and the like. The world in general, though, is not this simple. Our (America's) education system is dwindling because of this very logic. Soon we will all be followers reading books like this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Mediocrity at its finest
Review: Overhyped by management gurus as the next best thing since the sliced pan, supposed to open up ones eyes to the world of change, give me a break, take any management principles book summary and give it large fonts and say it will change the way you look at the world and presto who moved my cheese. If this is they new way of looking at the world then get me a mouse trap.However,well done to the authors for selling it so well.
Rating:
Summary: Reading the book is the easy part.
Review: "Who Moved My Cheese?" is a simple parable that illustrates the natural tendency to resist change. The uncertainty that generally accompanies change in the workplace provides a level of discomfort that some try to escape. Rather than take the necessary steps for change, some employees cling to old notions and actions that produce little or no results. Of course, it has been known for decades that people tend to avoid tasks that cause physical, mental, or emotional discomfort. Why it takes a simple little story about mice and cheese for some people to understand this is beyond me. Perhaps it provides a non-threatening, feel-good reminder of what we already know about ourselves? The problem I see with "Who Moved My Cheese?" is not the message, but the difficulty in reducing such a simple little concept into practice. Knowing that we need to "search around the maze for new cheese" is equivalent to the stock market wizards telling us to buy low and sell high, or business experts telling us that we need to possess organizational savvy to be successful. These are things we all nod our heads in agreement with . . . but then what? We are left without any guidelines for determining when we are "moving around the maze" or simply "sitting at the cheese station." Reading "Who Moved My Cheese?" is like signing up for the membership at the health club. It sure feels good, and it can be the start to something better, but the real work is yet to come. Read the book. Ponder its contents. But expect some discomfort if you really want to make progress.
Rating:
Summary: Please Move the Cheese, It Reeks
Review: This book was introduced to me as "highly recommended." It was an extreme disappointment. Simple can be charming, and less can be more, but not in this case. The writer seems to think that his audience is about, oh, say, seven years old. (I won't go as high as eight, since even the South Park gang would find it too puerile.) Hem, Haw and Co. are less dynamic than Dick and Jane, and less intelligent as well, if that is possible. No one enjoys being spoken down to, and this has to be one of the most extreme examples of supercilious writing I have ever encountered. It is not only boring, but insulting to the reader. The only reason I finished this literary work was because I was incredulous that it was considered a "best seller" and a motivator for employees. If the supervisors in a company really think the employees are such dolts that "literature" (or should I say litter-ature?) such as this is the answer, we are indeed in peril. Corny, home-spun humor as a teaching tool has its place, (far, far away, one hopes) and this is where "Who Moved the Cheese" should be laid to rest.
Rating:
Summary: weakly developed metaphor
Review: I agree with reviewers who said beware if your company starts handing out this book. In fact, the only reason I read a copy is because a friend got one after her company went through layoffs. Admittedly, the advice on this level is sound: don't get too comfortable; we ain't running a charity here. There is nothing profound about the tale unless people really are astounded to hear that their job (small business, romantic relationship, etc.) is not an entitlement but something they have to work at, take responsibility for, and be prepared to replace if they have to. On the other hand, people do make a lot of plans--buying a house, raising kids--that are contingent on their "cheese" staying in one place for a while. So it's insensitive for this kind of message to be sent out from upper management. I also agree that this book says nothing about business process. It appears to be a guide to self-preservation under anarchic conditions. This is a useful skill, surely, but not one that a functioning business should rely on as the path to success. It's also insulting on the level that all success is reduced to "cheese" given by some mysterious benevolence. Haw doesn't consider leaving the maze, getting some cows and making his own cheese. The post-discussion is insulting as well. Can't the reader draw his or her own conclusions? Just how insulting is this little book? Let me count the ways... no enough has been said about this already. Without even criticizing the message, I just think that the story is weakly developed. There are the mice, who respond to change well because they don't really plan on things staying the same. There are the humans who get comfortable and resist change. Hem refuses to respond to change. Haw reluctantly responds to change and becomes self-empowered, finding something better than he lost. The story is almost entirely about Haw. The point of the mice is not very clear. Presumably, the mice also represent human responses to change, just less sophisticated ones. But very little is said about the mice apart from their specific strategies. Sniff senses cheese, Scurry just moves around a lot (I guess) till he finds some. Are there other strategies that could be identified? What is special about these two? It is unclear whether the mouse characters serve any purpose other than to establish the maze setting for the story. The reader is mostly invited to identify with Haw. But why not the mice? It is stated that Haw is smarter than the mice. Other than his ability to express himself in trite platitudes, there is little to support that contention. Hem is a non entity, just a thinly developed example of who not to be like. Nobody will identify with such a shallow complaining character, so his role is not very effective. From a purely utilitarian standpoint, the mice seem to have the right idea (don't get too comfortable; nobody's running a charity; get ready to move on when you have to). There is no way in which Haw is at any advantage over the mice. He doesn't think his way to the cheese; he uses the same search techniques as the mice, but he delays until it gets dangerous. His mind only serves as emotional accompanyment. This appears to be the author's understanding of the human experience. It does not take you to any higher levels than animal instincts; it merely annoys and amuses you in uniquely human ways. It appears that the best strategy would be to emulate the mice, but we just don't because we would rather complain a bit first. If I had to summarize the allegory in one word, I'd say "lazy." There's nothing especially challenging here, nothing that a moderately realistic person would disagree with. But many elements of the tale are just filler, or if there is some specific purpose to them, it is not made clear. There are no compelling take-aways that could not be stated much more simply.
Rating:
Summary: Beware if this book is given to you at work!!
Review: I worked for a large food company that was (is) always in turmoil. When things were really looking bleak a couple of years ago the Vice President of Sales/Marketing gave everyone this book for Christmas. Six months later just about everyone in sales and marketing was gone - me included. My boss the Director of Marketing read it the night it was given to him and said it was insightful but he wondered about the message and his job. Yep he got canned too! I admit I never read it. I knew my cheese was about to get moved already. My wife read it and said it was "interesting" and then suggested I start looking for a job. I guess the only saving grace of my story and this book is that somebody moved the cheese on the Vice President of Sales/Marketing as well. I hope he kept a copy for himself as he had plenty of time on his hands to read it!
Rating:
Summary: Ridiculous and Insulting!
Review: I can't believe this ridiculous little booklet, written for a kindergarten mentality! The cheesey concepts are insulting to all hardworking employees, but are typical of the bias in many management advice books that foster counterproductive, arrogant management behavior at the root of all the corporate scandals. Surely, it is such rotten management's excessive "compensation cheese" that should be moved, not that of the other employees on whose many labors an organization's success depends! My advice is that you don't even bother with this dim-witted, badly produced booklet. Have a well-deserved, good laugh instead at real-life management shennanigans. Altogether, it's high time we employees had our laugh at the kind of insensitive management, which supports offensive booklets like, "Who Moved My Cheese?". We deserve to take a wicked, satirical poke at the management bubble of self-importance --- and without doubt, "Management By Vice" is my choice and recommendation for an honest, fun-filled expose of the "vices" of "cheesey management" practices!
Rating:
Summary: simple story, insulting presentation
Review: When I first read this book in June 2001 I checked out readers' reviews on Amazon to see what other people thought about this book. Reactions were totally polarized between those who loved the simple story and those who found it to be management's attempt to ram a message down their employees' throats. There were even instances where the book had been handed out in the office only to be followed by handing out pink slips a few days later. Now I find all but these 3 reviews are gone. Hmmm... If you just read the story you might be reminded of a few things in your own life to work on, such as looking for indications of changes and what you might do to avoid unpleasant surprises when change occurs. Hence the second star. There are 2 aspects of the total presentation that are insulting, however: 1. The "discussions" before and after the story, where you're supposed to associate yourself with one of the people about to read or just having read the story. It's as if you're not allowed to have your own reaction or opinion to the story; you're supposed to think like one of the readers. 2. Calling the story "funny" or "cute". This is an attempt to deflect criticism in a self-help "take what you like and leave the rest" kind of way. Yeah, right, and I guess you could call a tetanus shot a light-hearted jab in the arm. Actually, you could say that, but I don't think many people laugh out loud when they get a shot, and I suspect that few people laugh at any of the passages of this book. The whole Change Management industry is a sham, in my opinion. The reality is this: Change Is. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad, so all you can really say is that Change Is. From an employee perspective (25 years work experience, both as an employee and a manager), you really just want management to get it over with. This business of prolonging the agony by getting everyone to read silly books and sharing their feelings is not productive at all, except it gives the ones who want to leave time to update their resumes. So, if you're reading this review trying to decide whether to buy the book or not, don't waste your [money]. If, like me, you read the thing in the 20 or so minutes it takes and wonder how someone could like this stuff, take the time to write an opinion and let's see if the big "A" posts the review.
Rating: 
Summary: Cheezus, this book is good
Review: A lovely fairy tale that if you read between the lines you will gain much insight and wisdom from. What a pleasant surprise this book was to me. Another book that teaches us to succeed, but on the inside, is called "The Little Guide To Happiness". I recommend that as well.
Rating:
Summary: simplistic beyond belief
Review: The ideas in this book could have been expressed in a paragraph and even then they would not have been worth the time to read them. He creates a simplistic "mouse and cheese" analogy, fails to explain it and then pretends it has profound implications for how we live our lives. How does stuff like this even get published?
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