Customer Reviews

Corporate Aikido: Unleash the Potential Within Your Company to Neutralize Competition and Seize Growth

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Robert Pino uses the model of success in the martial art of aikido to show how corporations today can succeed. Aikido believes in winning without fighting and in gaining a victory over yourself. In business, that means concentrating on building your own strengths, rather than trying to launch an aggressive attack. You deflect attacks against you by neutralizing your competitor and taking over his power and energy. Pino discusses ways aikido's philosophy applies to the business world and gives examples of how major companies have used this approach. This interesting, original book suffers from two writing faults: occasional long, difficult-to-read sentences and repetition of the same ideas. Nonetheless, we at getAbstract recommend this book to those seeking new strategies for strengthening their organizations in a competitive marketplace.

As an expert on business strategy and Japanese and Chinese culture I have had a hard time reading this book. It is not original, it is not thought-provoking, it is not exciting or new. It is old wine in new bottles. Mr Pino clearly doesn't master the art of Aikido yet. If he did, he would not have written a book which breathes self-importance every page along the way. This book was recommended by a friend of mine who watched a CBC documentary apparently. He liked it, I didn't. Mr Pino still has a long way to go. He may be successful in business, he may even be able to sell his mambo jambo to 90 percent of the world, but he can't fool the shrewd and keen. If I were him I'd sell my business before anyone found out I was fooling them.

I am a manager of a large packaged consumer goods company and received this book as a gift for Christmas. I must say that I found this book very interesting. I am not a martial art guy but found the principles very interesting and applicable to my business. As a fanatic golfer I would like to learn more about the Ki exercises and as a senior executive I already introduced Pino's thoughts to my team. It triggered us to review our strategy. This book can be a treasure for the people who see the deeper meaning of the Corporate Aikido's concepts when they apply the concepts to business. When you read certain chapters twice, you are able to even think farther. A distinctive book.

As a fanatic practitioner of Aikido I found this book a perfect fit with business strategy. Pino's has been able to draw a perfect parallel between this Defense Art and competitive strategy. By using his concepts we redefined our marketing strategy for the North American packaging market. It worked very well.

As a student of aikido and 3rd dan, I am always eager to see new material on the application of aiki principles. If Mr. Pino had more years in his training it would be interesting to see what his insights might be. As it is the book is full of references from Ratti and Westerbrooks great Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere and well used management concepts. In essence nothing new or thought provoking. Aikido is not about what you read about it, it is a practice, and its affirmations are not acquired simply through verbal acceptance. As it is the book is yet another example of a management trend du joir instead of the great book that it could be. That so many who have reviewed it so far think it profound is more a testament to Mr. Pino's understanding of marketing than his practice and understanding of aikido. My suggestion to Mr. Pino is to wait until he is a true beginner before he attempts to write such a book. I heartily recommend passing on this book. Spend your time on the mat!

This book is one of these books that I could not put away. As a business woman and an aikido-ka I found it the perfect blend between Universal truths and management. Pino did a great job! It is not an aikido book, but a book about neutralizing competitor's strength. A complete new way of thinking that will make your business plans sharper and more creative!

Corporate Aikido is a new way of looking at traditional strategies. As a MBA student I liked it very much and it gave me new insights into new ways of formulating competitive strategy and tactics.

Not only has Mr. Pino little understanding of Aikido, he almost seems to have even less understanding of marketing. Otherwise he wouldn't have borrowed so many concepts that have been written down a long time ago by many authors on marketing. I am quite surprised that some people have rated this book with 5 stars. Is it a coincidence that some of these guys live in Chicago and Rotterdam, two of the places where Mr. Pino has offices? I'm afraid to write it down, but it might be that Mr. Pino has asked all his friends to rate his book with 5 stars. It certainly is the most obvious explanation: The contents of the book does not justify a higher score than 1 star.

Overall I felt disappointed about this book.

The reason I bought this book is because I felt the topic is interesting - to link martial art philosophy to business strategy. Within the book, I saw a lot of martial art philosophy and lots of quotes on this, and I saw a few business examples(just a few). However, the author didn't explain clearly on the relationship between those martial art philosophy and those business examples. For instance, the author talked about Aikido-based strategy should be "Reflexive and defensive", and there is no attack in Aikido-based strategy. However, he went on and said "to attack the opponent on his or her strong points and make these redundant", which is pretty confusing to me. While it is not wrong to "attack the strong points", I do think it has been said by someone else before, and I couldn't understand why "reflexive and defensive" equals "attack the strong points". Moreover, the author quoted "Dell computer" as support on this argument, but I didn't see why Dell computer's direct marekting strategy is to "attack the strong point" of IBM/Compaq, and why it is "reflexive and defensive".

In addition, I think the author quoted too much martial art philosophy and didn't provide enough business cases to explain the business application of those philosophy. Maybe I'm Chinese and those so-called martial art philosophy seems so natural to me and nothing new. By reading lots of those "same old thing" without new findings (i.e. business application), it really bores me. I quitted reading the book after finishing introduction and part I.

Net, I dind't think this book provides useful business learning to me. Recommend not to buy.

A book that I coincidentally found when I was searching for new stuff in corporate strategy. Great book with topics and philosophies that triggered my mind. There should be more of these new insights! the concept of 'softness controls force' is deep. Some business examples are old, but the essence of Pino's concept lasts. A book when you're ready for it.