Customer Reviews

Leadership the Hard Way: Why Leadership Can't Be Taught - And How You Can Learn It Anyway (J-B Warren Bennis Series)

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Leadership the Hard Way is a gripping autobiography viewed through the lens of leadership. Dov Frohman is an interesting and inspirational person, who has achieved wonderful things, but for me the "leadershp" angle often seemed contrived. For example as a child Frohman, who is Jewish, was adopted and hidden from the Germans by a Dutch family in occupied Holland. A husband and wife taking the terrifying and courageous decision to take in an otherwise doomed Jewish boy is turned into a coaching moment about leadership: "Often, genuine leadership is the result of the leader's commitment to a transforming vision and to a set of values that follow from that vision." I can't help suspecting that this sort of guff is Harvard Business Review Editor and co-author Robert Howard's deadening influence.
That criticism aside there are many thought provoking ideas and much inspiration to be had from this book.

That this remarkable story could be told in little more than 100 pages speaks volumes about the author, Dr Dov Frohman, the story he tells, and the message he wanted to deliver. Whether dealing with the loss of his parents in a concentration camp, his earliest, formative years as the foster child of a devout Calvinistic Dutch family, his moving to Israel after the war as an orphan, his discovery of the prototype of the erasable, programmable read only computer memory chip (EPROM) early in his carer as a physicist and electrical engineer - one of the most significant advances in computer technology ever, and his then dedicated creation of INTEL Israel as a major engine of R and D, and chip manufacture, in a company regarded as the world leader in this field. A riveting read, with the unbeatable clarity and authority of one who turned a sequence of exceptional life challenges into a positive and principled life philosophy that became the basis of his highly successful management style. Dr Frohman's story carries so many messages of importance in todays world - while a must for every MBA student and aspiring business leader, it surely needs to be read by a much wider audience. Anyone interested in people, and especially those who transcend the conventional boundries to achievement will find this story inspiring.