The Big Bing: Black Holes of Time Management, Gaseous Executive Bodies, Exploding Careers, and Other Theories on the Origins of the Business Universe (Hardcover)

by Stanley Bing (Author) "In the beginning, there was my turf..." (more)
Key Phrases: nonny nonny, woman boss, New York, Los Angeles, Town Car (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
With twenty years of experience as a self-described "mole in the heart of corporate capitalism," CBS executive Gil Schwartz a.k.a. columnist Stanley Bing, is a man of many words. The Big Bing, recycles two decades of artful and acid Fortune and Esquire columns into a coherent view of business as usual.

The pieces are sectioned into themes readers will recognize--office politics, technology, life on the road, men being men, job angst. A number of columns snap and sting. For example, in "You Da Man," Bing details six species of bad bosses including "Don King without the Hair" and "the last days of Dick Nixon." He spins tales from the political crypt, asking readers to join his amusement at "the range of goofy people who are thrown together in the pursuit of political advantage."

Bing is at his best in giving amusing advice (how to give good phone, win turf wars and get a room with a view) and in business travelogues about places like Las Vegas where he sees "several apparently dead people playing slots." The writing bristles with attitude. Only a moving essay on "the mourning after" September 11 interrupts the relentless cynicism of Bing's observations. Some readers will be able stay in on the jokes. Others may find his voice tiring or unkind and may note the difference between insight and wisdom. --Barbara Mackoff

From Publishers Weekly
Twenty years of columns by business humorist Bing (Throwing the Elephant; What Would Machiavelli Do?) from Fortune and Esquire add up to a very funny look at the contemporary executive. The media exec/writer organizes his collected works into a surprisingly coherent whole, containing 11 thematic sections that range from "The Tao of How" (tips on giving good phone and taking lunch with distinction) to "Up and Out" (advice on surviving career death and getting paid to go away). Often, related columns present complete story cycles; Y2K comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb while Bing fires away. "Chainsaw" Al Dunlap chops up companies and then falls on his own blade. Quizzes punctuate the columns: the worst scores on "The Bing Ethics Test" mean "you're a scumball and should do very well." Whenever the outward hostility gets tiring, Bing happily skewers himself. He suffers emotional collapse when he misplaces his BlackBerry and his cell phone: "Uncontrollable drooling made it difficult for me to keep both hands on the wheel. I was incapable of thinking straight or even in a circular fashion." He is "consumed by rage" when his limo does not appear in good time. And yet, the reader can almost always relate, perhaps because underneath the surface, Bing seems so genuinely entertained by the business world. "The good news is this: there is no fate but what you make," he concludes. "So you keep looking, and trying to get it, and to get over on it. And I'll be there with you, as long as there's still a little fun left in it."
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: HarperBusiness; 1 edition (October 21, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060529555
• ISBN-13: 978-0060529550
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #882,126 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Fragments of Brilliance, November 10, 2003

By	Clive Jones (Palmerston North, New Zealand) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I had high expectations for this book after reading "Throwing the Elephant: Zen and the Art of Managing Up" and "What would Machiavelli Do?". Bing's black humour brought some relief to the entirely too serious business of business. After all, we all need to be able to laugh at ourselves, right?

This book is a collection of snippets on a wide variety of business experiences written between the late eighties and the present day. Given that there is no explicit theme for this book (apart from the madness of business and the people within it), I struggled to finish it.

Although some of the material provides 'applied learning' that will be universally relevant and recognisable, frankly chunks of it just aren't that amusing. Weird - yes, ironic - yes, funny - sorry, no.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bing is the thinking man's Dilbert, December 2, 2003

By A Customer

This book was hysterical. Anyone who has ever worked in an office or a giant corporation will identify with the situations and the characters he so vividly brings to life. Plus, he has the best made up last names I've ever come across, but the funny thing is you know exactly who he's talking about. I may not fly with the chairman on the corporate jet, but I relate to most everything he writes about, and I laughed the entire time reading. Bing is the thinking man's Dilbert.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Bing collection, June 8, 2007

By	Eric J. Haines - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Big Bing: Black Holes of Time Management, Gaseous Executive Bodies, Exploding Careers, and Other Theories on the Origins of the Business Universe (Paperback)

A compilation of pieces from Esquire and Fortune over the past twenty years or so is what we have here. Kind of a mixed bag, at times very funny, others not so. I found myself wanting some of the articles to go on longer.