Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
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Also this issue: Fit To Print Chinese Ceramics Today
Hide Sadohara: New Work Swoosh E. Lynn Harris Nrityagram Dance Ensemble Bridging the Gap Puppetry of the Penis 1776 |
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July 10-16, 2003
books
Mao in the Boardroom: Marketing Genius From The Mind Of The Master Guerrilla
That’s it. I’m ready. Ready to smash all the street signs, ready to be the world’s forgotten boy, searchin’ to destroy, ready to take on the world. Or at least topple the water-ice vendor down the street. Thanks to America’s favorite Communist, Mao Tse-tung, this freelancer is renouncing writing for a life of exploiting capitalism.
Well, almost. I'm not about to trade my dirty denim and tattered Converses for a penguin suit and leather briefcase. But CEO dreams did stir while reading Gabriel Stricker's Mao in the Boardroom: Marketing Genius From the Mind of the Master Guerrilla.
The business world, especially in today's crumbling market, is like war without the bloodshed. To excel, you have to be cunning and ruthless, a guerrilla with a laptop for a rifle. It's fitting, then, as Stricker links the tactics of Mao's 1937 manifesto On Guerrilla Warfare to the rise of Apple, Starbucks, Diesel and other leading Cinderella companies.
"You can't ever let up," says Yvon Chouinard, founder of outdoor apparel company Patagonia, Inc. "You have to foment revolution." Chouinard's story is one of many Stricker convincingly litters with guerrilla metaphors. Each is of the ever-elusive entertaining and informative variety, spiked with humor, photos and the sort of size 14 fonts usually reserved for the young-adult section.
It may be easy on the eyes and digestible in an afternoon, but Stricker's work is hardly half-assed. In 282 pages, he somehow distills the history of most modern-day American companies, links their policies to fundamental Tse-tung teachings and, by the end, you're entertained and -- sound the gong and fire the tank -- a new-wave Marxist. Take that, Fast Food Nation.
There's also enough Photoshopped pictures of Mao strewn about to start another Red Scare. Never mind that he has rotted in Tiananmen Square for the past 25 years -- the chairman looks absolutely smashing in wraparound Oakleys, And 1 basketball shorts, biker digs and in formal attire accepting an Emmy for his role as Chairman Goomba in The Sopranos.
Stricker knows exactly what he's doing. Many will dismiss this tiny work of genius because of its typeface, outrageous photos or "You the man!" Mao cover. But that's the point. This is meant for the next Ben and/or Jerry, the next hippie with a hankering to go public, not Joe "Trust Fund" Baby.
Remember, as Mao once said, "All guerrilla units start from nothing and grow." So start living up to that Che Guevera T-shirt of yours and revolt, will you? That is all.
MAO IN THE BOARDROOM: MARKETING GENIUS FROM THE MIND OF THE MASTER GUERRILLA
By Gabriel Stricker
St. Martin’s Griffin,
282 pp., $14.95
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