Book Review - Executive Warfare

I requested a review copy of Executive Warfare: 10 Rules of Engagement for Winning your War for Success by David F. D'Alessandro because I recalled finding his earlier book, Brand Warfare, insightful. Also, in a former life as VP of marketing for a commercial real estate company, I spent a whole lot of time constantly trying to "save" the John Hancock account, so D'Alessandro was a name with which I had become quite familiar.

Despite the fact that the focus of the book is about working within a large company, I found it relevant to entrepreneurs as well. Why? First, D'Alessandro is more of an "intrapreneur" than a corporate, by-the-book guy, and for those of us who have ever tried to be entrepreneurial in large, decades-old institutions, there's no good handbook. This one is perhaps the closest I've seen. Second, human relations is human relations. Whether you are competing for the top spot in an established company, managing employees in your own company, merging with a larger company or trying to forge partnerships with other entrepreneurs, the human drama and motivations are basically the same when it comes to office politics.

One caveat--if you are happy in your position at your company and are not looking to make it to the top or if you are satisfied running a small business, then this book is not for you. Executive Warfare lives up to its name. So those of you who didn't like my review or the concept behind What Men Don't Tell Women About Business: Opening Up the Heavily Guarded Alpha Male Playbook by Christopher Flett, you're probably not going to like this one either. I agree that it can be a turnoff to read about all the high-stakes politicking and gameplaying (aka "warfare") going on at the office when you really just want to do your work and be rewarded for it. However, even for those who don't want to play the game, I strongly believe it will help your career in the long run if you at least know the rules the others are playing by.

A note about style

When it comes to style, I have to admit that I wish D'Alessandro had taken the Jack Welch Straight from the Gut approach and made it more biographical. Since he's weaving in stories of his own experience, I would have learned just as much from a book like that and probably found it even more interesting. Instead, this reads like a bunch of blog posts put together. However, they are well-organized, which makes the book easier to read than most compendiums of essays or blog posts.

My only other stylistic comments have to do with visuals. Word of warning, masculine metaphors run amuck on almost every page. First we're legion commanders; next we're courting consiglieres and hunting carcasses. I suppose one should expect this based on the title, and I admit that I found the metaphors both amusing and helpful in illustrating his points.

The last stylistic note I’ll make had to do with his using pop references throughout the book. I'm a huge fan of that in any business book. Why? Because of all the things throughout the book, those references gave me the most insight into D'Alessandro the individual. He watches what I watch, he reads what I read . . . Admittedly, I am "pop culture" kind of gal, but it meant to me that this guy is not out of touch with what's happening in the real world.

So "Where’s the beef?" Sorry, the masculine metaphors are contagious. This is one of those books where I had way too many Post-its marking thought-provoking ideas, so here are just a few that I particularly liked because they turn traditional career advice on its head and made me consider how they fit in a bigger picture.

Command and Control /Gen Y clash

Ideas from the book:

• Conformity is not a prerequisite for power. This goes against most career advice. Yet his point is that you risk things by going along just as much as you do by being yourself.
• Problem bosses are not rare. "Anybody who assumes that the King knows what he's doing just because he's the king really needs to go buy the movie 'The Madness of King George.' "
• Don’t hitch yourself just to your own boss. Bosses can have surprisingly short life spans. He has a good section about why your boss should not be your mentor (something I learned early on).
• It's not important to be the solitary genius who dreamed up, financed and implemented a great plan all by yourself. What's really valuable is showing that you are the kind of person other powerful people want to work with.

While this is a book clearly written for those who want to thrive in a traditional command-and-control hierarchy, as I put this review together I began noticing that these tips (and others) had some very Gen Y/Millennial traits: Be yourself, participate as a team, be loyal to self vs. company. This got me thinking that perhaps there is some middle ground between "command and control" and "free form" (for lack of a better term). Just as we're seeing the need for a middle ground in politics as well as our economy--somewhere between overregulation and deregulation--this may not have to be an all-or-nothing question. Hmmmm. Now that’s a business book I’d like to read.

Office politics exist, now deal with it ...

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