Animals, Inc.: A Business Parable for the 21st Century [Hardcover]

Kenneth A. Tucker (Author), Vandana Allman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2004

With its previous bestsellers - First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths - The Gallup Organization rewrote the book on great management. Now Gallup finally makes its classic, hilarious parable, ANIMALS, INC., available to the general public. A story that has proven effective and popular with Gallup clients for over thirty years, this tale introduces you to a group of unforgettable barnyard animals trying to run a successful business. Deciding that education is the key, the members of Animals, Inc. conduct employee surveys, evaluate competencies, and set up training classes. Filled with the excitement and hope that accompany any new project, they work hard to overcome their natural shortcomings. The workhorse tries to operate the computer, the shy sheep makes sales calls, the scarecrow attempts to lay eggs. What results will seem uncannily familiar to the human reader. As revelatory as Who Moved My Cheese? and as funny as Fish!, ANIMALS, INC. will have you laughing and learning at the same time. Recharge your thinking with invaluable practical insights. Get an edge in the business world you won?t discover anywhere else. And discover the key to effective management, reenergized morale, and super-heightened performance. Just listen to the animals.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Managers and small business owners who are overwhelmed by the number of business books on the shelves today should turn to this humorous business parable, which is delightfully dramatized by Ward. When Farmer Good decides to retire, his animals take on the business themselves. This proves to be no easy task, however, even for a seasoned pig like Moe. Moe makes his biggest mistake early on-he values the knowledge he gleans from business books over common sense. Moe sets up training classes, believing that any animal can fill any role with suitable education. Thus, the Scarecrow is promoted to egg production, and Chucky the crow fills the Scarecrow's old security position, which proves to be disastrous. All the while, one power-hungry land developer watches and waits for the farm to fail. The authors' message-use your common sense-is simplistic, but their characterizations are as memorable as Ward's performance. Ward has the uncanny ability to make listeners feel right at home with the animals on the farm, and he does an exceptional job of drawing out the humor in the text (his rendition of Piggy Banks's rap number is especially side-splitting). Enhanced by animal sound effects and snippets of folk music, this spunky farm fable will charm both adults and children.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Kenneth A. Tucker is a seminar leader and managing consultant with The Gallup Organization. Drawing on vivid stories, real-life examples, and data-driven research, he consults with the world's leading organizations on how to develop strategies for improving individual performance. Vandana Allman is The Gallup Organization's global practice leader for talent-based hiring. She consults with Fortune 500 companies on how to build strengths-based organizations by improving their selection and retention strategies.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Business Plus (February 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446530492
• ISBN-13: 978-0446530491
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #846,290 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally! A book that talks about common sense!, February 24, 2004

By 

Joel R Carter (Canton, MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Animals, Inc.: A Business Parable for the 21st Century (Hardcover)

Tucker and Allman do a masterful job in highlighting what is wrong with corporate America today. We have all watched countless companies jump from fad to fad in search of the next great competitive advantage, only to get lost in a sea of buzzwords which eventually causes them to lose their identity. Animals, Inc. presents this scenario in a humorous way that kept me laughing and, ultimately, will keep me from blindly accepting the next "revolutionary" business idea that consultants try to sell to my business. It was a great book, and a very quick, easy read.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Missed opportunity - a waste of time., October 10, 2004

By 

Chief Exec - See all my reviews

This review is from: Animals, Inc.: A Business Parable for the 21st Century (Hardcover)

The title and description got my attention, and had me thinking that this could be a great illustration of the absurdity of various management techniques, and how common business problems might be overcome. But this book is nothing more than corny puns, silly cliches, and ridiculous animal jokes. When the animals take over the farm, they proceed to act like, well, animals, not demonstrating any real human behavior from which we might learn. I do not know what the point was of this book.

The book spends the first 98% of its content trying to be funny but illustrating nothing about mistakes that businesses make. The mistakes that this particular business makes have no correlation whatsoever with real businesses. The only thing that we can say for certain about this business is that it is run by inept managers and populated by inept workers. It just spends too much time trying to be cute, and never really incorporates real-life business issues or makes a point about what the business should be doing differently.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing and what really is the message?, June 29, 2004

By 

Mark F. Vincent (Brisbane Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Animals, Inc.: A Business Parable for the 21st Century (Hardcover)

Any blurb that says "humorous" has to be treated with caution. This book is mildly clever in places but one is left wondering what really is the 'takeaway'. Yes we all know that the right person is needed in the right job but how profound is that as a business lesson. Even "Who moved my cheese?" had more to offer than this somewhat trite attempt at a business parable. Give me books like "The obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive" and "Death by Meeting" any day.