The Packer Way : Nine Stepping Stones to Building a Winning Organization

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.


Highly Recommended!   April 13, 2001
 0 out of 2 found this review helpful

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.



A book about management, not Packer history   March 14, 2001
 2 out of 3 found this review helpful

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.