Here starts the dilbert story the dilbert way. I will try to write how I have understood the book, and if possible any practical advantage.
Hence here comes the basic question, WHY THIS BOOK? Well, it was recommended to me by one of my friend who is an avid reader. Also since most of the book is in a comic strip form, I dared(pun intended) to read this book. I have read dilbert strips earlier.
So let me put it this way, this book is not a piece of cake for anyone. It gets quite a bouncer at times. This is because, it totally revolves around the corporate culture. So being a student I did not get the jokes proper, anyways it does not matter much. It is basically a comic way of representing a typical life cycle in an office. Or we can say, it tells all of the cartoonistic behavior of humans in an oraganisation through a cartoon. Scott Adams(the Author) calls everyone in such a system as IDIOTS. The author has, around 20 years of experience at Pacific Bell.
As all of us(here I am expecting those people who have at least completed their graduation) are some how aware of the corporate culture, this book can be read as a part of a habit. The best part is even reading the strips will give us the feel of the book. It has some of very good situational jokes. Some of us may even fit in to these characters.
The book is divided into 26 chapters. Each chapter covering topics like Leaders, ISO 9000 etc... Under each chapter, the author have explained how sometimes problem are created out of simple things. How to favor people with authority? How boss kills humanity for the heck of it? How they make things worse or rather complicated, although the problems can be sorted out easily. Reading this book we can really make out how simple management is and how cumbersome we have made it.
In the book, against each topic, the author have tried to explain it, with a direct situation. This situation is drawn in the form of cartoons This thing, about the book, I liked the most. As in no theoretical explaination are given, which sometimes get too lenghty and boring.
In the book, all sorts of typical character in an office, are covered. Be it a Consultant, the Boss, a geek(a hard core techy employee), people from finance etc... The character in focus is DILBERT. Dilbert here is a person with a techinical backgound, and belongs to the technical departmet. As the name of the book suggests, it totally revolves around all types of interactions with Dilbert. Being a techy what all problems he face. What designation changes are made irrespective of his background. All this and more, the author have humorously produced some fantastic points through his cartoon.
One more thing about the book, which is nice, is the way the topic and the chapters are selected. No chapter is linked with other directly. We can select any chapter at random to read. There are two chapter which are favorites of mine, I recommend that no one should miss it. First is on Consultancy. This chapter describes at what point in business do we need/or rather do we call for a consultant. What does they do and what must they do ideally. In the first paragraph it gives a fantastic definition of a consultant. I have written it in the last section of Excerpts. Second, is the last chapter OA5 (which means Out At 5). Of all his criticism in the 25 chapters the author have described an ideal organisation in this chapter. How things should be done ideally. How easy it is to follow simple basic rules and use our common sense to run the business as smooth as possible.
On a concluding note, it is worth buying or atleast have a scan.
I would like to add this paragraph from the book before saying ’adios’
"First, there were some amoebas. Deviant amoebas adopted better to the environment, thus becoming monkeys. Then came Total Quality Management."
your comments are welcomed.
Excerpts :
01 - The office is designed for "work", not productivity. Work can be defined as " anything you had
rather not doing".
02 - The most important market segment is known as the "Stupid Rich".
03 - Then you can lower your prices and sell it the Stupid Poor --- thats where the real volume is.
04 - Engineers are the natural enemies of marketting people.
05 - A consultant is a person who takes your money and annoys your employees while tirelessly
searching for the best way to extend the consulting contract.
06 - Engineers : Its not "who you know" that matters, its "who knows less than you do" that matters.
07 - Consultants will ultimately recommend that you do whatever you are not doing now. Centralize
whatever is decentralized. Flatten whatever is vertical. Diversiy whatever is concentrated and divest everyting that is not "core" to the business. You’ll hardly ever find a consltant who recommend that keep everyting the same and stop wasting money on consultants.
08 - You can test a persons importance in the oraganization by asking how much RAM his computer
has. Anybody who knows the answer to that question is not a decision-maker.
09 - A dollar spent on brainwashing is more cost-effective than a dollar spent on product
improvement.
10 - Obviously ther’s minimum quality that every product has to achieve. It should be able to
withstand the shipping process without becoming unrecognizable. But after the minimums are achieved, its advertising that makes big difference.
11 - The real art of selling comes in when your product sucks compared to the competition.
Talking like a Manager:
A manager would never say, ’’I used my fork to eat a potato’’. A manager would say, ’’I utilized a multitined tool to process a starch resource’’. The two sentences mean almost the same thing but the second one is obviously from a smarter person.