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on February 23, 2015
We've all seen execs at like babies. This book is a reminder of how it works and how it happens. If you've been working for more than 5-10 years, you've got your own stories to share.
on May 20, 2011
I've long felt a certain type of person was a mere baby. This study proves me right. For example, probably not one of the royals of Great Britain could live on his/her own. His every need is supplied by a caretaker. Just like a baby. He is carried around in a nice carriage (perhaps a Bentley in his case) just like a baby. He is shopped for and pampered and his clothes (diapers) changed frequently.
Ah, so it is with the CEO and the politician baby. Or, perhaps the head of the IMF?
"So here they come, the moguls, the chief executives of our culture--weird, mutated babies engorged into adult forms."
In this most interesting study we read, "The world revolves around babies to the exclusion of all else. When a baby enters the world, the first thing that his or her eyes encounter--after the blood and gook have been wiped away--is the image of people bending over his cradle, oohing, ahhing, and otherwise regarding him, the whole him and nothing but the him."
Ah, so true. Sounds like a lot of folks I know. Only thing is, they're over thirty or forty.
"In many organizations, the CEO/baby is referred to simply as "him" or "her," as in, "What kind of mood is he in today," with no further explanation necessary of the identity of the "him" to which the speaker is referring."
The study shows how the executive is pampered and stewed over. It discusses how his every word is listened to with great attention and every goo goo ga ga he utters is taken as the greatest words ever spoken. Fact is, in most cases what he says is quite common and sometimes plain stupid.
The baby/CEO/movie star, etc is a narcissist. The world, he feels, revolves around him. "Like babies, too, the advanced mogul is sometimes obsessed with little else than his diet. He has few other interests, with the possible exception of playing with himself."
"This basic narcissism is a tremendous source of power, focus, and energy. It also leads, in the most successful babies and executives, to a certain freedom from the behavioral and ethical standards that constrain "normal" human beings, slow them down, and render them less efficient and adept at getting what they want."
These baby/moguls have no morals. They know no right or wrong. Whatever they want to do is right. "There are very few famous babies, but a roster of CEOs, moguls and ultra-senior managers in business, politics, and the arts who clearly operate within their own set of rules would fill the biography section of any library. Included would be not only huge criminals like Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Madoff, each of whom believed, in his time, that he was representing a Greater Good of some sort. It is these individuals who, justified in whatever they do because it is they who are doing it, mold the history of our world."
This is a powerful, interesting, funny yet sad study of a rather sorry group of people. If you have a need to understand these folks, you need to click the buy button.
-- Susanna K. Hutcheson
Ah, so it is with the CEO and the politician baby. Or, perhaps the head of the IMF?
"So here they come, the moguls, the chief executives of our culture--weird, mutated babies engorged into adult forms."
In this most interesting study we read, "The world revolves around babies to the exclusion of all else. When a baby enters the world, the first thing that his or her eyes encounter--after the blood and gook have been wiped away--is the image of people bending over his cradle, oohing, ahhing, and otherwise regarding him, the whole him and nothing but the him."
Ah, so true. Sounds like a lot of folks I know. Only thing is, they're over thirty or forty.
"In many organizations, the CEO/baby is referred to simply as "him" or "her," as in, "What kind of mood is he in today," with no further explanation necessary of the identity of the "him" to which the speaker is referring."
The study shows how the executive is pampered and stewed over. It discusses how his every word is listened to with great attention and every goo goo ga ga he utters is taken as the greatest words ever spoken. Fact is, in most cases what he says is quite common and sometimes plain stupid.
The baby/CEO/movie star, etc is a narcissist. The world, he feels, revolves around him. "Like babies, too, the advanced mogul is sometimes obsessed with little else than his diet. He has few other interests, with the possible exception of playing with himself."
"This basic narcissism is a tremendous source of power, focus, and energy. It also leads, in the most successful babies and executives, to a certain freedom from the behavioral and ethical standards that constrain "normal" human beings, slow them down, and render them less efficient and adept at getting what they want."
These baby/moguls have no morals. They know no right or wrong. Whatever they want to do is right. "There are very few famous babies, but a roster of CEOs, moguls and ultra-senior managers in business, politics, and the arts who clearly operate within their own set of rules would fill the biography section of any library. Included would be not only huge criminals like Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Madoff, each of whom believed, in his time, that he was representing a Greater Good of some sort. It is these individuals who, justified in whatever they do because it is they who are doing it, mold the history of our world."
This is a powerful, interesting, funny yet sad study of a rather sorry group of people. If you have a need to understand these folks, you need to click the buy button.
-- Susanna K. Hutcheson
on March 18, 2015
Outstanding and very entertaining. Hits a Bulls Eye for its accuracy in dealing with many CEOs and more.
on February 1, 2013
No Flow, Hard to read
Interesting snippets but just too hard to follow, hops around from analogy to analogy like a drunken toad with as much coherent as a quartet on their fourth bottle of scotch.
Interesting snippets but just too hard to follow, hops around from analogy to analogy like a drunken toad with as much coherent as a quartet on their fourth bottle of scotch.
on January 10, 2013
An interesting idea and quickly compared. I felt that the author, Stanley Bing, brought his brief, satirical book to conclusion without expanding on well documented additional studies.
on May 24, 2011
A lot like a baby in a boardroom, this was rather clever and funny, but far too short. First Kindle single I bought, but I have free subscriptions that are longer and more engaging.
I will look a little differently at CEOs though, henceforth.
I will look a little differently at CEOs though, henceforth.
on September 13, 2011
Board room babies is a bit of an insult to readers. It actually sounds like a serious case study of the behavior of CEOs and Senior Managers, but provides little to no analysis on what really drives the behavior of the executive class. The book attempts to make humorous comparisons of executives and babies, but the anecdotes are so frustratingly real that they make me want to strangle my own boss instead laugh at the author's words. What I was really looking for was a case study that shows why we have an under performing, over-privileged class of lame duck leaders and an over performing under-privileged class that serves them only to get berated in performance reviews year after year.
on May 13, 2011
Delivered in form of a quick-read 99-cent Kindle Single, Boardroom Babies is Stanley Bing's latest dollop of corporate wit and wisdom. Presented as a thoroughly researched (or not) report from the author's own National Institute for Serious Studies, it's filled with insights into the "infantile/executive mentality." Example: "Everything they say is absolutely remarkable, no matter how nonsensical or inappropriately stupid it may be." For those who appreciate the absurdity of corporate life, Boardroom Babies won't change the way you bring up your kids, but it may permanently alter the way you look at your boss.
