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If you've ever talked about dating with me, you know I'm a fan of a little ridiculous book called "The Rules". It is full of advice (in the form of rules) about how she gets him to propose to her. Among the rules are such gems as "Don't accept a Saturday night invitation after Wednesday" to not appear to be easily available and "Always end a phone call early" so he never gets enough of you. If you wonder what such manipulative behavior means for life after a wedding, the book does not point to the ever increasing divorce rate but rather has some final advice for the newly married woman: "Be mysterious but easy to life with." Seeing this I finally appreciated that being a woman might have its challenges. I like this book because it quickly helps me identify who is not right for me.
About two years ago or so came along another even more ridiculous book called "Finding a husband after 35". (I'm omitting the trailing "... using what I learned at Harvard Business School" because it is so embarrasing for the MBAs of this world.) This book teaches a woman how to devise a go-to-market strategy for finding a husband. To effectively do so, she has to do market research (who is available, where to find them), to determine and prioritize key product features (should she get that face lift or rather spend the money on jewelery), to implement them and finally execute flawlessly (never cry, always smile, retreat gracefully if necessary). I have only browsed this book, but according to one friend, the book advises a woman not only on how to package herself but also on how to make sure she doesn't get unwrapped until after the wedding. Strong, inspiring metaphors, for sure!
For a while I thought it couldn't get more embarrassing than that. Then, a well-meaning friend gave me the book "Shakespeare in charge" to support my entrepreneurial career with insights from the writings of one of the world's greatest authors. Alas, this business book is not by Shakespeare, but rather it is two business book authors interpreting Shakespeare's work for examples of leadership that would inspire the reader. One work they examine is "The taming of the shrew". In this work, a father has two daughters, one commendable, one unruly (the shrew one). The father wants them to get married but nobody wants to take the older unruly one, and he won't let go of one without the other. The authors of "Shakespeare in charge" are quick to explain the father's behavior as a common business failure "when dealing with product lines".
So there you have it. The next business book on the horizon is how to view your family as a company, how to devise product lines and market them, how to form alliances by marrying your product lines to other companies, how to ... wait! That's all old news. This has been happening for thousands of years. It is just that... it seems we've never left the middle ages.
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