Up The Organization: A Timeless Classic

I spent a couple hours catching up with Diego of Metacool fame the other week. We talked about a lot of different things. One of them was Up the Organization, a classic business book by Robert Townsend who, among other things, was the CEO of Avis.   Diego commented that it was a great book, a series of brilliant blog posts written decades before anyone had ever heard of a blog.  I also noticed that Mozilla CEO John Lilly put in a plug for the book on his blog too.

 I bought the book (I actually never had read it), and I am just stunned with his boldness and wisdom.   There is new commemorative edition out, with some great little essays in the forward, including one by the Warren Bennis (who I have been blogging about a bit). But the text of Up the Organization is what is really something.  Tom Peters' blurb says that the book shouldn't just be read, it should be memorized, and he has a point.  A sample of tidbits to whet your appetite:

"If you have to have a policy manual, publish the Ten Commandments"

He advises CEOs to get rid of their PR departments and all their PR consultants too.

"Fire the whole personnel department."

On conviction vs. ego: 'Before you commit yourself to a new effort, it's worth asking yourself a couple questions: "Are we really trying to do something worthwhile here?"  "Or are we just building another monument to our diseased ego?"

You won't agree with everything; I didn't. But I once you start reading it, I bet you can't stop. It is as irreverent, creative, and fun as any business book I have ever read. 

Comments

[Roger Maury]

Robert also made a video of this book, I think it was distributed by Time-Life, but I have written to them and they do not have an archive of it. It may have been on the UTC format
If anyone knows where to get a copy of it, I would really like to get one

[SG]

I couldn't agree more. I'd never heard of the book until the reprint was published, but it quickly became my favorite business book. My only regret was that I never got a chance to have a beer with Mr Townsend. I think that Ralph Nader's quote sums it up best: "Robert Townsend was a witty and incisive archenemy of corporate bureaucracy."

[Walter Underwood]

I read it decades ago and still remember several of his bits of advice.

Go work for a big company for a few years, take notes, then do the opposite.

If someone is absolutely essential to your business, fire them immediately. [Because they are a huge risk and you should not be blindsided when they leave.]

Give the secretaries the reserved parking places.

I think he's also the originator of the stand-up meeting.

A great book and just amazing that it came from a CEO of a big business.