Rating: 
Summary: A book about management, not Packer history
Review: Depending upon what you wish to get from this book, you will be relatively pleased and equally displeased. Unfortunately, there's too much of Wolf's self-congratulation throughout. There are some interesting insights into the Packer's assembly of its late 90s' teams and some transferable recommendations about managing organizations. Too much repetition makes the book a bit diluted. I cannot really recommend it to any but the true Packer junkies, of which I am one.
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable as a Packer Fan, not as an Aspiring Manager
Review: I read The Packer Way in about a week, just a little each night before bed. It is a very quick read and frankly is a little light on the management insight. Now being the Packer Fan that I am, it was quite enjoyable to get a 'behind the scenes' view to decisions made within the football organization, and to hear Ron Wolf's rationale for his decision making. Some of his insights are very unique and he has no doubt culled his leadership skills from many years of experience. I was very impressed by his frankness regarding his mistakes and past failures. It is not by luck that he got to where he was and took a football organization with him. However, for all intents and purposes this really is more of a high level management philosophy that may or may not transfer to other domains or leadership personalities.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable as a Packer Fan, not as an Aspiring Manager
Review: I read The Packer Way in about a week, just a little each night before bed. It is a very quick read and frankly is a little light on the management insight. Now being the Packer Fan that I am, it was quite enjoyable to get a 'behind the scenes' view to decisions made within the football organization, and to hear Ron Wolf's rationale for his decision making. Some of his insights are very unique and he has no doubt culled his leadership skills from many years of experience. I was very impressed by his frankness regarding his mistakes and past failures. It is not by luck that he got to where he was and took a football organization with him. However, for all intents and purposes this really is more of a high level management philosophy that may or may not transfer to other domains or leadership personalities.
Rating:
Summary: A book about management, not Packer history
Review: I've read a number of complaints in previous reviews that Ron Wolf's exposition of his management philosophy in this book "gets in the way" of the history of the Packers of the past decade. Well, here's a clue: this is a book about management which uses the Packers as an example; it is not a history of the Packers. If you read this book, keep that in mind. That said, the fact that the making of the championship Packer team of 1996 is the example used to explain Wolf's management philosophy does make it more interesting that your run-of-the-mill mangement book. I've also read some comments from people who don't like the book because they don't like Wolf's style of leadership. Well, different strokes for different folks. Wolf is a tough, hard-nosed, no-nonsense leader, and that may bother some people, particularly those who don't want to pay the price to succeed. Wolf's legacy as GM of the Packers (he recently announced his retirement from the NFL) is one of success where there had been none for decades. Yet this success did not come easily. This may not appeal to readers who think that fame and fortune can be had without hard work. Such people will not like Wolf's management style and would not like to work for him. If, however, you have the desire to win and achieve, you will appreciate Wolf's description of the manner in which he ran his organization.
Rating:
Summary: Good book, but ...
Review: In no-nonsense fashion, and with plenty of real-life examples , Wolf lays out the beliefs and strategies that worked for him in Green Bay, and that can be used by anyone, whether going it alone , running a small start-up, or working in a division or team in a larger company. The discipline, the dedication to a cause, the vision, are valuable insights for personal growth, as well. Of course, for Packer fans, the inside scoop, naming names, and background on hiring high-prolile individuals, is great stuff, life lessons aside. I plan to give a copy to each of my sons, who are just starting their carreers. Teriffic book!
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent management handbook
Review: Ron puts everything straight forward for you to understand. It's a management philosophy that really has worked for him and can work for you. It also throws in a football flair that tells you how his ideas were incorporated into his position. I recommend this book to all football fans and to someone looking to add the real world to their management ideals.
Rating:
Summary: Great Packer History and Insights Into Football Management
Review: Ron Wolf helped pull off one of the greatest turnarounds in sports history in the 1990s in reviving a powerhouse in Green Bay. That is an accomplishment that will long be studied and admired. If this book were simply billed as a sports history of how the Green Bay Packers were turned around from being a weak franchise into Super Bowl Champions, it would be a five star book. Every football fan will find the book rewarding, and every Packer fan will find essential reading here. The details are there to cherish. The stories are fascinating. The mistakes are openly shared. You feel like you're in the offices of the Packers, agonizing over these same tough choices. The book unfortunately tries to do a bit more, and falls short -- trying to become of management book of principles that everyone should follow. In fact, putting in the 9 steps pretty much tends to muddy up the Packer history aspect rather than enhance it. There are certainly some good management lessons here: Hire the best; set performance standards and keep them; and be prepared to handle the unexpected. They simply don't add up to enough perspective to be a management guide. You also get very little help in applying the ideas to your own organization, just a summary of the key points in the chapter at the end of each one. I graded the book down one star for its attempt to position itself unsuccessfully as a general management book. If you read it as a football book, rate it five stars as I said above! Let me return to the football history aspect. I had never understood why Ray Rhodes was hired to replace Mike Holmgren. The chapter at the end explained Ron Wolf's logic very well. Time will tell how good a decision this was. I was especially impressed with the idea that Wolf has that teams should try to win in the short term while they are adding the personnel to win in the long term. The contrast with the Boston Celtics, where Rick Pitino is full of rebuilding excuses year after year as the team fails to perform, is more than enough to convince me of the wisdom of Wolf's approach. I also thought that Wolf does a good job of thinking through how you stay on top. I liked his concept of raising standards once you are a champion as a way to help overcome the tendency to rest on one's laurels as free agents scamper off to richer pastures and you have to live with a weak draft. Good luck in using this book to improve the sports teams in your area! We could have some really great championship games as a result!
Rating:
Summary: Great Packer History and Insights Into Football Management
Review: Ron Wolf helped pull off one of the greatest turnarounds in sports history in the 1990s in reviving a powerhouse in Green Bay. That is an accomplishment that will long be studied and admired.
If this book were simply billed as a sports history of how the Green Bay Packers were turned around from being a weak franchise into Super Bowl Champions, it would be a five star book. Every football fan will find the book rewarding, and every Packer fan will find essential reading here. The details are there to cherish. The stories are fascinating. The mistakes are openly shared. You feel like you're in the offices of the Packers, agonizing over these same tough choices. The book unfortunately tries to do a bit more, and falls short -- trying to become of management book of principles that everyone should follow. In fact, putting in the 9 steps pretty much tends to muddy up the Packer history aspect rather than enhance it. There are certainly some good management lessons here: Hire the best; set performance standards and keep them; and be prepared to handle the unexpected. They simply don't add up to enough perspective to be a management guide. You also get very little help in applying the ideas to your own organization, just a summary of the key points in the chapter at the end of each one. I graded the book down one star for its attempt to position itself unsuccessfully as a general management book. If you read it as a football book, rate it five stars as I said above! Let me return to the football history aspect. I had never understood why Ray Rhodes was hired to replace Mike Holmgren. The chapter at the end explained Ron Wolf's logic very well. Time will tell how good a decision this was. I was especially impressed with the idea that Wolf has that teams should try to win in the short term while they are adding the personnel to win in the long term. The contrast with the Boston Celtics, where Rick Pitino is full of rebuilding excuses year after year as the team fails to perform, is more than enough to convince me of the wisdom of Wolf's approach. I also thought that Wolf does a good job of thinking through how you stay on top. I liked his concept of raising standards once you are a champion as a way to help overcome the tendency to rest on one's laurels as free agents scamper off to richer pastures and you have to live with a weak draft. Good luck in using this book to improve the sports teams in your area! We could have some really great championship games as a result!
Rating:
Summary: Highly Recommended!
Review: Sport is an overused metaphor for business, but Ron Wolf, Executive Vice President and General Manager of the U.S. National Football League's Green Bay Packers, surpasses the majority of management experts with his common-sense organizational wisdom. Recounting his turnaround of a languishing football franchise into a Super Bowl winner, Wolf (along with co-author Paul Attner) shows how he used the very principals he illustrates with his compelling sports analogies. While your organization may not compete on a stage as public as the NFL, you can use the same strategies. If these tactics can help the small-market Packers compete with teams from Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, they can certainly help your firm compete as well. We [...] especially recommend Wolf's "stepping stone" strategy of incremental improvement, which seems to us the equivalent of building a solid running game while your opponents lob Hail Marys.
Rating: 
Summary: Not my style
Review: Though I am an avid Packer fan and actually a fan of Ron Wolf's, I was a bit disappointed in the book "The Packer Way". Not so much in that it was poorly written, (though the writing was sub par) but more in the "I'm the tough guy, you should be too" style that weaves through the book. The history offered on the making of the championship team was great, but the self agrandizement that came along with each nugget was more than I'd hoped for. This may be a decent biography of a man I want running my football team, but not as my boss. It is not, however, a worth while management book on how to run or improve one's own business. Unless you want to be the guy that no one wants to work for.
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