Empathy.
He also offers Journey to Cubeville, his latest book in a long line of enormously successful humor collections. In cartoons selected from his cartoon strip, which now appears in more than 1,700 newspapers, Adams lampoons everything in the business world that drives the sane worker into the land of the lunacy:
-- Network administrators who have the power to paralyze an entire business with a mere keystroke
-- Accountants who force you to battle ferociously to get reimbursed for a $2.59 ham sandwich you scarfed while traveling
-- Managers obsessed with perfect-attendance certificates, dead-end projects, and blocking employees from fun web sites and decent office supplies
-- Companies spending piles of dough on projects deeply rooted in stupidity, as well as a myriad of stupid consultants
The former occupant of cubicle 4S700R at Pacific Bell, Adams continues to produce dollar-drawing book after book by cutting through the corporatese that plagues us all. He shows no tolerance for inept business initiatives, brain-dead coworkers, and mission statements laced with double-talk.
Case in point: While recently posing as a top-notch business consultant, Adams led an unwitting audience in drafting a new mission statement for a Silicon Valley technology company. "(Our) mission is to scout profitable growth opportunities in relationships, both internally and externally, in emerging, mission-inclusive markets, and explore new paradigms and then filter and communicate and evangelize the findings". It was only afterward, when he let them in on the joke, that they realized he was pulling their collective leg.
And so goes the ever-evolving legacy of the creator of today's most popular cartoon strip -- one that continues to grow with each passing month. At last count, more than 150 million fans all over the globe read his strip every year. These readers will no doubt enthusiastically feast their eyes on Journey to Cubeville like manna from a heaven that's mission statement-free.
