I started this book because I had heard the author being
interviewed on The Hidden Brain program on NPR. The topic seemed interesting
and she told a great story.
As it is, I am not unhappy about buying the book, nor am I
unhappy reading it. Francesca Gino is a great story teller, she is able to
extract the lessons she wanted from the stories and her descriptions of the
stories are excellent. Her firsthand stories of her teaching business executives
at Harvard, her and her husbands venture in to the world of improv comedy, and
most interestingly, her apprenticeship at the Osteria Francescana with
Chef Massimo Bottura captured my full attention. In fact, it is her continuous
reference back to the chef and the restaurant that kept me interested.
Her stories throughout the book, whether it is her tour of
the Pixar facilities and the retelling of “Sully” Sullenberger story were well
done and she is a very capable yarn spinner, and she is quite adept at focusing
the stories into her main points about being a rebel in the button down world
of today’s business.
The book is split into eight chapters and she lays out the
landscape of what being a rebel means in today’s world. The main points that she
emphasizes: having an eye for the new and the novel, having a different perspective
that is well considered and consciously rational, the importance of diversity,
being authentic in your actions, and being actively engaged, are actually
gospel in today’s church of the innovative management. I don’t think anyone
would argue with her conclusions.
That is precisely the problem: the points that she
attributes to the qualities of a rebel has been covered ad nauseum in
other business books. It seems that every important point she brings up are familiar
to me. It means that either I have read too many of these kinds of books or she
is treading old ground. It is probably a combination of both, but I was
actually a bit disappointed that there is not more substance to the secret of
being the rebel.
Having said that, it must be pointed out that the title is
still apt: the status quo in American business is still at a point where all
the points that the writer made are not the norm, that senior management are
clinging to their old ways by reflex and familiarity. The behavior that she is
promoting can indeed be seen rebellious. It is just that all this has been said
before. If this book does play a role as catalyst in changing the status quo of
American business and management. Then I am all for it.
In the end, I enjoyed the read, the author has a nice style,
and when she talks about Osteria Francescana, I am fully riveted, because
that is a world that I am unfamiliar, and I learned. I just wish that she had
more original points to make.
