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Rome, Inc.: The Rise and Fall of the First Multinational Corporation (Enterprise)
 
 
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Rome, Inc.: The Rise and Fall of the First Multinational Corporation (Enterprise) [Paperback]

Stanley Bing (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

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Book Description

Enterprise February 17, 2007

The world's first corporate case study, as only the best-selling Stanley Bing could tell it.

A family business prospers through a series of brutal consolidations and rational growth. Then senseless internal conflicts lead to a long line of demented CEOs, monumental expansion, and foolish diversification—at a high cost in shattered lives. In the end, a series of reverse takeovers leaves the once-proud but now overextended and corrupt parent company at the mercy of less-civilized operations that previously cringed at the grandeur of the corporate brand.

Enron? WorldCom? Try Rome, whose rise and fall carry a moral that lingers to this day for the managers, employees, and students of any global enterprise. Stanley Bing—whose satirical business books are as savagely funny as they are insightful—mingles business parable and cautionary tale into an ingenious, often hilarious new telling of the story of the Roman Empire.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Fortune columnist Bing (Sun-Tzu Was a Sissy) condenses the 1,200-year history of Rome into a slim, wildly entertaining satire for businessmen, particularly those who happen to be fans of HBO's Rome. Irreverent without ever slipping into Dave Barry–style logical anarchy, the volume renders epic history in corporate-speak, providing enough substance and insight along the way to keep readers' attention. As Bing notes, much of Roman history consists of "wars, wars and more wars," and he skips over big chunks of it. "I give up," he shrugs, focusing instead on the decisions and personalities of the colorful leaders, from Romulus to Caligula. Most interesting are the author's discourses on why Rome's "corporate strategy" worked so well for so long ("corporations willing to kill people do better than those which are not") and why its "corporate culture" was sufficiently strong to rally its citizens/soldiers/employees for an endless series of battles. And while wryly acknowledging that the Romans' use of "murder as a business tool" may be excessive in today's environment, Bing endorses many of their strategies as sound: "In any corporate transformation, a good housecleaning is absolutely called for." Word to the wise: if the guy in the next cubicle is reading Rome, Inc., watch your back—especially if it's the Ides of March. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

Wildly entertaining. (Publishers Weekly )

Product Details

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (February 17, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0393329453
  • ISBN-13: 978-0393329452
  • Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #681,116 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stanley Bing is a columnist for Fortune magazine and the bestselling author of Crazy Bosses, What Would Machiavelli Do?, Throwing the Elephant, Sun Tzu Was a Sissy, 100 Bullshit Jobs..And How to Get Them, and The Big Bing, as well as the novels Lloyd: What Happened and You Look Nice Today. By day he is an haute executive in a gigantic multinational corporation whose identity is one of the worst-kept secrets in business.

 

Customer Reviews

10 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Smart and Hilarious (was that the name of a Roman emperor?)--like a historical "Daily Show", March 27, 2006
This book is a laugh-out-loud funny take on the rise and fall of the Roman empire--or as Bing has it, the world's first multinational corporation. Sure, pundits and historians compare Rome and the United States all the time. But Bing makes it work, because his angle is a fresh one. Organizations, hierarchies, crazed leadership practices--these don't change much over time, and Rome, it turns out, really is a perfect template for the ravenous corporations and pyschopathic CEOs of our era. Bing does all of this with such a perfect voice and a lightness of touch that you don't realize you're actually learning a great deal along the way.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Very witty analysis of the Roman Empire, May 7, 2006
By 
JYK (Washington State) - See all my reviews
Like another reviewer, I usually do not find Stanley Bing's writing interesting. I find his writing more of inside jokes and tending toward rambling proses.

Having said that, I really enjoyed his latest endeavor, this time about the Roman Empire. Instead of the usual historical perspective, he draws analogy from the empire's rise and fall to today's businesses, casting new light on the history. A funny and insightful book.
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6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Der Bingle Strikes Again, March 27, 2006
By 
M. Valdemar (Undead Loss Angeles) - See all my reviews
I have been reading this guy's stuff since the old Esquire column which was frequently tear-inducing. With ROME, INC. Herr Bing delivers the goods once again, with a clever, hilarious and (gasp!) instructive walk through Roman history, crisply analogized with the crushing corporate culture of modern-day America. The quintessential bi-coastal airplane book: take with two fingers of glenfidditch over ice for maximum absorption.
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