Rating: 
Summary: All Leaders Are Readers!
Review: Miss a meal if you have to, but don't miss this book. Axelrod weaves the inspirational life of Elizabeth I's, a 70yr period of time, born in 1533, a women of exception courage, management and wealth. "For those that want to grow their enterprise, grow their career, grow their company, and who can already dream and are ready to build what they dream" this is fuel for the mind. "Bread for the Head" 93 lessons refined into a half dozen critical fundamentals: A High regard for subordinates; An understanding of basic motivation as well as basic justice; A willingness to take responsibility; A willingness to demand responsibility from others; A willingness to correct a faulty situation; and A willingness to take positive, quick and aggressive action. Hope you like the book as much as I do. We can learn a lot from history, the great leaders. We might not be able to be mentored by them directly, but through the lessons presented here, it's the next best thing. The biggest challenge will be to apply the lessons learned to our own life, designing a life, translating wisdom and strong feelings into labour, that is the challenge. As Nike say's, "Just Do It" Timothy L Ross "Where Client Goals Become Our Goals"
Rating:
Summary: Take a lesson
Review: One of my dormmates gave me this book when she found out I was a business major and I loved it. While the world has changed since Elizabeth was on the throne, the basic rules of the game still apply. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to get a head at work.
Rating:
Summary: Another Historical Page Turner from Axelrod
Review: Patton on Leadership was one of the best books on being an effective leader that I have ever read. Now, Axelrod dazzles the reader with another fascinating historical character, Elizabeth I. It is an extremely well-written book that captures a very interesting historical figure and the way that she led her country. You can gain incredible insight from studying this woman and I thank Axelrod for providing such a compelling portrayal. I can't wait to see who he chooses for his next subject. Buy it!
Rating: 
Summary: Close but no Cigar
Review: The author was on to a good idea with drawing from a well known historical figure and applying it to todays business world. Unfortunately the delivery has to be improved. The book cover says "strategic", but I saw nothing strategic about it. It reads like a cook book. A pinch of this a dash of that and you are on your way to being an effective leader. He also repeatedly draws on the same tool chest of examples to illustrate his points. You would think that after rules for all 40+ years there would be more to draw upon. On the upside I gained some insight on the historical aspects of the Elizabethan era.
Rating:
Summary: Helpful
Review: The principles in this book helped us with our business. The historic tie-in was a novel and creative idea.
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Summary: Still more leadership lessons from history
Review: There has been such a glut of books teaching management and leadership lessons from historical figures and spiritual traditions (Attila, the Tao, Machiavelli, etc.) you'd think the market would be saturated by now. Apparently not, for they keep coming. As far as this kind of book goes, Elizabeth l CEO isn't bad. Of course, the theory's premise is basically contrived. While we can draw analogies between 16th Century politics and 21st Century business, the two environments are fundamentally different. For example, one subject Alan Axelrod often refers to in Elizabeth l (he has the unfortunate habit of repeating the same points many times) is Elizabeth's struggle to enforce religious conformity in England. Elizabeth was a devout Protestant in a nation where Catholics still had a strong influence. How exactly does this translate into a modern business context? The fact is, it doesn't. There is nothing in the business world that even remotely resembles Medieval/Renaissance religious orthodoxy. Only someone who takes management platitudes such as the "vision" of a business could fail to realize this. Visions aside, corporations all have the same goal --profit. They are essentially amoral. Any attempt to indoctrinate employees of a corporation with something akin to religious fervor would be absurd (this isn't to say that such efforts are not made by overzealous CEOs and managers). Despite these serious objections, I still enjoyed Elizabeth l CEO and found some worthwhile lessons in it (though not necessarily in the realm of business). Axelrod does a good job of presenting history in an informative and entertaining manner. He effectively portrays Elizabeth as a powerful and innovative leader who kept her many virtues --intelligence, courage, frugality, pragmatism-- in balance. I suspect, however, that the realms of politics and business are both far too complex to be mastered by any simple set of principles. The audiobook version is narrated by Nelson Runger, who does a fine job of presenting the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Gift for a Great Boss
Review: This book first came to my attention because of a very creative interview with the author on CNBC in which their female commentators-in Elizabethan costume-read passages from this book, the actual words of Queen Elizabeth I, according to the author, one of the greatest CEO's of all time. He makes a strong case for that view in his discussion of the financial disarray of England at the time of Elizabeth's ascencion contasted with the wealthy and glorious empire she created, surviving assasination attempts, plagues, and medieval male chauvinism along the way. What moved me most, however, were Elizabeth's own words revealing her philosophy of leadership: how she inspired, motivated and cared for her flock. My thought was to give this book to my own "Fearless Leader" (read:boss) so she might see that she's employing the techniques pioneered by the great Elizabeth I.
Rating: 
Summary: Just Plain Bad!!
Review: This book is a combo of business self-help and facile history. You won't learn much history, and the business lessons are just plain unconvincing. I'm one-fourth of the way through this book and just can't finish it!
Rating:
Summary: Poor rendition of history leads to not-so-useful conclusions
Review: This book is a follow-up to Axelrod's book on leadership lessons for executives drawn from the example of George S. Patton. Here, he's picked another historical figure, Queen Elizabeth I of England. This had the makings of a potentially valuable book, save for the slight problem that the history is so poorly rendered that little of value can be gleaned for anyone facing the unrelenting pressures of running an actual business. Axelrod portrays the Elizabethan period with such rose-coloured glasses that he fails to impart a useful or realistic message here. The book has numerous references to the queen's fiscal management of the country, to the Spanish Armada, to the outpouring of literature of Shakespeare and his fellow masters of the pen, with little bits of wisdom relayed in the process. All well and good. But in recognising and deriving lessons from the queen's many undoubted successes, he should have been balanced and also discussed where things went wrong. There is scant if any attention paid to Elizabeth's policy in Ireland, which had a particularly bloody legacy and in which England's undertakings gave rise to failure at every turn from the 1570s onward. The consequences of this policy failure are still with us today. Nor is there mention of England's military defeats against Spain after the Armada, which devastated English plans to settle the new world and gain control of trade routes. Nor does Axelrod note the cases of financial mismanagement and corruption that plagued Elizabeth's reign in the late 1500s. And where is this empire he talks about in the book's title, "the leader who built an empire"? Axelrod skips the specifics on this because there was no empire by the time King James I succeeded Elizabeth in the early 1600s. England would not have an empire to speak of for another 150 years. There is nothing wrong or unexpected about these setbacks in Elizabeth's reign-- she had many successes and, like any monarch, some missteps as well. If one wishes to use such a monarch as an example for a business, it is a disservice to readers to trumpet the successes while ignoring the failures. What business, after all, turns in profitable quarters with every fiscal year and pleases its investors and even competitors with its every move? You'd be hard-pressed to find any such firm gracing the pages of the Wall Street Journal. Real businesses learn from their failures as much as their successes, and Axelrod has denied his readers a valuable example by focussing too much on the latter and too little on the former. This book would be more valuable with a little more depth and a little more perspective in its treatment of its historical subject.
Rating:
Summary: Poor rendition of history leads to not-so-useful conclusions
Review: This book is a follow-up to Axelrod's book on leadership lessons for executives drawn from the example of George S. Patton. Here, he's picked another historical figure, Queen Elizabeth I of England. This had the makings of a potentially valuable book, save for the slight problem that the history is so poorly rendered that little of value can be gleaned for anyone facing the unrelenting pressures of running an actual business. Axelrod portrays the Elizabethan period with such rose-coloured glasses that he fails to impart a useful or realistic message here. The book has numerous references to the queen's fiscal management of the country, to the Spanish Armada, to the outpouring of literature of Shakespeare and his fellow masters of the pen, with little bits of wisdom relayed in the process. All well and good. But in recognising and deriving lessons from the queen's many undoubted successes, he should have been balanced and also discussed where things went wrong. There is scant if any attention paid to Elizabeth's policy in Ireland, which had a particularly bloody legacy and in which England's undertakings gave rise to failure at every turn from the 1570s onward. The consequences of this policy failure are still with us today. Nor is there mention of England's military defeats against Spain after the Armada, which devastated English plans to settle the new world and gain control of trade routes. Nor does Axelrod note the cases of financial mismanagement and corruption that plagued Elizabeth's reign in the late 1500s. And where is this empire he talks about in the book's title, "the leader who built an empire"? Axelrod skips the specifics on this because there was no empire by the time King James I succeeded Elizabeth in the early 1600s. England would not have an empire to speak of for another 150 years. There is nothing wrong or unexpected about these setbacks in Elizabeth's reign-- she had many successes and, like any monarch, some missteps as well. If one wishes to use such a monarch as an example for a business, it is a disservice to readers to trumpet the successes while ignoring the failures. What business, after all, turns in profitable quarters with every fiscal year and pleases its investors and even competitors with its every move? You'd be hard-pressed to find any such firm gracing the pages of the Wall Street Journal. Real businesses learn from their failures as much as their successes, and Axelrod has denied his readers a valuable example by focussing too much on the latter and too little on the former. This book would be more valuable with a little more depth and a little more perspective in its treatment of its historical subject.
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