Violets (7 Decades Of Change) - A Remarkable Autobiography By John Smith

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Life In The British Rail Offices

Violets. John Smiths autobiography. A cracking read but for anyone contemplating a career in business this should be mandatory reading!

So how did you get to be God?
How come you are up there taking decisions affecting us all?
Were you getting inside managers’ heads before that?
OK, big boy, let’s see you manage the demise.
Why can’t problems come one-by-one, like they did for Maigret and Morse? - If you start on Violets, bet you can’t put it down.

Clients & companies mentioned in Violets include..... Dexion - Tube Investments - Raleigh cycles - Allis Chalmers - Telecommunications - Cycle & Carriage - Sembawang shipyard - Cochin ship building - National Exhibition Centre - Wheway Watson - Press & Shear - Cadbury McVitie Cakes... and more

Violets is not about a small wild flower. It is about how a pretty and delicate piece of nature leaves an indelible memory. A memory not dimmed by post-war characters in a steam train railway office or by what a management consultant feels and finds when plonked by Price Waterhouse into a manufacturing plant with a problem. A memory overlaying the bruisers and sly foxes lurking in a boardroom

There is beauty in Violets. There is pain in Violets. There is all our lives in Violets. But the pretty little violets can stay quietly in the hedgerow – if we let them.

No matter what you do in life, you will be lucky if you do not ask yourself this question "how did those guys up there get to take decisions affecting me - decisions I can do nothing about except moan and rant - decisions that can pull me up or knock me down?" You will be surprised to read how an ordinary Joe (or John) got into top management and of the guile needed to stay there

Management consultancy is an obvious fast-track to the boardroom. But then again, how do you get into that? Did it require much planning or was it down to pure chance? What is it like inside a firm such as Price Waterhouse? Can you hope to do more than just the assignments that get thrown at you? Can you get to actually manage consultants and will any job be for the Chairman of a client who wants you in his team?

Moving on, what is life at the top of a corporation really like? Morality, temperance, legitimacy. All will be tested and the Christian and marital roots tried. Tried and found wanting

Violets takes us back to rural England and to steam trains and to pre-computer Balance Sheets. But, more importantly, it takes us forward but not into saccharine times. There is bitterness and failure. Never mind the guys up there, you will be lucky if you are not reading about yourself.

Vantage of Industry, Organisation, Life of the Executive, Triumph and Stumble!

 "Once you get started, try putting Violets down."

Listen To An Extract From Violets Narrated By The Author John Smith

Treat yourself or a friend to "Violets" now.
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