The Mafia Manager : A Guide to the Corporate Machiavelli | 
 enlarge | Author: V.
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Category: Book
List Price: $9.95
Buy New: $4.75
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Avg. Customer Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 124474
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 96
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 5 x 0.5
ISBN: 0312155743
Dewey Decimal Number: 658
EAN: 9780312155742
ASIN: 0312155743
Publication Date: May 15, 1997
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Product Description
The world's oldest and best-organized conglomerate now reveals management techniques everyone can use. Unlike other guides to business, The Mafia Manager shuns theoretical verbiage to present the philosophy of leadership that founded and captained "The Silent Empire" through centuries of expansion and success. Some sample pearls of wisdom:
-"Be sure you understand what your boss has ordered before you act on his command. What if you whack the wrong guy, or bomb the wrong joint...Learn the art of asking questions."
-"Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer."
-"Don't become involved in any office political battle without first asking yourself, 'What's in it for me?' and then 'What's in it for them?'"
-"If you must lie, be brief."
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| Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...
What would Tony Soprano do? April 5, 2007
Tony Soprano as a CEO? Fugedabodit! This book is the real deal - a tough, direct, no-nonsense guide to management. Use the practical advice in this book, and you'll either be bumped up or bumped off! Mafia references aside, this is really a fun and useful read.
 Don't quite know what to say September 5, 2006
3 out of 8 found this review helpful
Rarely do I give book rating of one star. Mainly because I don't know what that kind of rating exactly means. Does it mean that I didn't like the book? If so, what is the difference between one star and two stars. I guess it is hard to give argumentative explanation of ones own rating. So I won't. :)
What do I have in front of me?
This is something that advertises itself as a modern time macchiavelism. But, to say that this book has any kind of resemblance to "Il principe" is highly overstated. We are all aware (and if we are not, we should be) of methods described in this book. Methods that concern being promoted in any kind of job that you do. Method here being ruthlessnes, and most of all efficiency, wihtout feel for compassion and human realtions in any other kind than exploitment. It may sound as something that Macchiavlei said, it may even resemble Nietzschean philospohy, but precisely in that lies the point.
I fail to picture the reader of this book. I fail to see big corporate director who alreday doesen't know all that is written here and more, and quite frankly, I fail to see him reading at all, but that is another story. To average joe out there, who thinks that there are marvellous wonders and secrets written here this book will seem quite drab. After all, rutlessnes is not employment strategy, it is just a state of character. One who is not able to do such a thing won't be any different upon reading this book.
If you are looking for philosophy of modern times, there are tons of authors out there, of ages past that are presenting better work of modern times than any of the contemporary autors. Machiavelli being one of the better known.
Maybe I just don't want to accept the existance of the universe (which paradoxically I can tell for sure that is real) presented in this book, and maybe therein lies my angst, but that is for you to judge if you, by some twist of chance happen to stumble upon this book.
 A Kind Word---and a Gun... November 27, 2005
1 out of 6 found this review helpful
Let me tell you what the pseudonymous "V"'s "The Mafia Manager is better than:
*It's better than waking up with a bloody horse head in your bed!
*It's better than going to the bottom of the River with a pair of concrete galoshes---erm, cement overshoes!
*It's better than disappointing your Mama!
*It's better than getting a firsthand look at where Jimmy Hoffa *really* is!
*It's way better than taking a Drive!
Actually, "V" has put together a sage, sulphurous little tome chock-full of practical strategic and tactical advice for corporate warfare with zero BS content.
And very much like the Original Gangsta Julius Caesar's Gaul (we're talking old school now, homey...way old school), V's treatise is divided into three parts: Managing Yourself, Managing Others, and the Rest of It (negotiations, memos, meetings, dumping a body and getting away with it---heh, just kidding).
Simply put: the goal of the Cosa Nostra---the Mob, the Mafia, the Racket, Our Thing, the Outfit---has been, from time immemorial, back to the very first Capos di tutti Capo---to Make Money.
To paraphrase Malcolm X: To Make Money by Any Means Necessary.
The good news for you: whether you're into rolling casino operators in Atlantic City for "security insurance" or something a little more tame, the First Commandment remains the same: you're in this game to win.
To win, according to V, you gotta: 1) Get in a position where you Manage People; 2) Be brutal, crafty, efficient, clean, and ruthless.
Why so glum, little camper? At least in your line of work, unlike the business activity of the Mob, your competitor probably won't wind up in a dumpster.
Unless you work that way, naturally.
"Mafia Manager", then, distills more than a thousands years of gimlet-eyed Sicilian advice (along with a few choice axioms) into just a whisper over 100 pages, ships it across from Palermo, and puts it into your hands.
The only thing that doesn't ring true is "V" supposed mobster antecedents: he talks a good game, but the copyright reveals the author as "Curtis Johnson"---not exactly the name you'd ascribe to a good old Paisano. But hey, maybe that's the alias he uses up in his Federal Witness Protection Program dacha in some gated-burbclave in Idaho.
Some Offers you can't Refuse. "The Mafia Manager" is one you won't want to.
JSG
a must have in a corporate environment September 30, 2005
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Had I had this book a few years back, maybe I would have spotted, understood and survived office politics I found myself in the middle of in my last job. Still, I am learning from it for my current job. Would recommend it to any person in a managerial position who was raised to believe you should not do upon others what you do not wish to have done to you. That sort of upbringing does not go well with corporate environment. If that is your case (too), you NEED this book, and a number of others, to learn what your parents failed to teach you.
Low-end June 2, 2005
3 out of 11 found this review helpful
I study leadership, politics in business organisations and emotional transactions. I bought this book thinking it would be factual, conclusive and real. On the other hand I found it's written with a mocking tone, has no relation to real cases and is as shallow as it gets.
It could be good for some peasant who believes he can get ahead at work easily. But in reality, there's far more than this book wastes time about.
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