Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

How excruciating. This book would appeal only to HR-types with enough influence to make this required reading in a dysfunctional organization. A functional organization would send it back for a refund. With hundreds of really useful books out there, why waste time with this one?

I am a big fan of almost all the books Gallup and their people have put out. This book was a total miss. The humor was painful, and the management lessons were forced onto a weak story.

I read the reviews of this book, and thought - it can't be that bad - but, they were right - this was pretty weak. I do not give out many 1 star reviews, but this book actually deserves it. If anything this book is mildly entertaining, but could have been half as long. Better luck next time....

JVD

When I read this book ,Animals, Inc., firstly I though it was very funny. The authors used the same words that have differrent meanings. It is a good idea. It made me laugh loudly. Some jokes are very nonsense but I like it. ^J^

Later, I was serious about management, business, operation, etc. I didn't have knowledge about these. I though I studied about the process of running Goode Farm with other animals. I can apply to use it for managing in my life.

I will say about the plot of this story. I think it was a very good plot.
The authors brought many kinds of animals, which have their own styles and different charateristics, to present and run this story very well.
They can write the talking scene between animal and human smoothly, but some scenes didn't tell any ideas that wasn't important to know.

Finally, I will say the book is very interesting concept. It can draw me to follow. I 'd like to know the next thing that will be happen.

It is for people who want to learn about the basic of business with smile.

On the surface, the story emphasizes that people should be assigned to tasks that use their talents. But below the surface I found a dark theme biased against personal and professional development. Throughout the story, management tries to improve worker morale (360 reviews for all animals), does extensive employee training (computer training for a horse), makes adaptations for employee limitations (installs extensions so a mouse can operate a tractor), but the attempts only end up hurting the company. This is because the farm animals' strengths and weaknesses are obvious, easily categorized, and unchanging (e.g. chickens lay eggs and scarecrows do not). I defy anyone to make the same kinds of fatalistic judgements about human beings in a professional setting. On second thought, I would strongly caution you not to do so! (e.g. "Why do you want to train for *that* job? You're [a woman/blue collar/in a wheelchair/<insert other category>] -- you're just not suited for that type of work.")

I found this story an ugly, cynical message masquerading as light-hearted business advice. In order to like this one, you'll either need to refrain from analyzing the themes or you'll *really* need to enjoy animal puns.

I love this book and will recommend it to others. Not only is it hilarious, but it is totally on target about everything that is wrong with management today. But it doesn't just show what's wrong --- it points people in the right direction: The "animals" do their best work when they are using their natural talents. I was very inspired reading this book, and I am still laughing out loud as I remember some of the scenes and characters. Anyone who works in a company or any kind of organization should read this book.

The overall premise of this book is that much of management has to do with common sense, and that one should avoid being duped by the management fad of the day. The overarching message is that we should emphasize people's strengths by putting them in positions where they can utilize them best. Makes sense, right?

Unfortunately, this fable tries so very hard to be funny that it detracts from the simple message. In fact, the premise becomes so exaggerated in order to set up the animal puns and humor that its validity is actually called into question. Post parable, a small dose of balance is finally restored.

Nick McCormick - Author, Lead Well and Prosper: 15 Successful Strategies for Becoming a Good Manager

I found this book a lot of fun--reminded me of say Charlott's web. (Except with a weird business twist) It contains quite a bit of VERY basic information--explains a lot of buzzwords in a humorous way and by doing so is more honest about management by fad than most of the books I've read.

For someone just learning about business this wouldn't be a bad book just to pick up some of the vocab and develop a healthy cynicism of business fads. I personally didn't learn anything new. MBAs can feel free to skip this title unless you just want something entertaining.

I personally found it very entertaining--read the whole thing in one day. 4 stars for entertainment!