Product Description

As the youngest-ever CEO of John Hancock Financial Services and the bestselling author of Brand Warfare, David D'Alessandro knows plenty about breaking away from the pack. "In Career Warfare", this ultimate insider tells the true story of how he learned the unwritten rules of corporate ladder climbing.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #96449 in Books
• Published on: 2003-11-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 216 pages

From Publishers Weekly
D'Alessandro, chairman and CEO of John Hancock Financial Services and author of Brand Warfare, offers winning strategies based on the notion that everyone needs to develop a "personal brand" that distinguishes them from other employees. This lively book has advice that is entertaining and bluntly honest. D'Alessandro outlines 10 rules for career success including "Try to Look Beyond Your Own Navel," "Put Your Boss on the Couch" and "Everybody Coulda Been a Contender; Make Sure You Stay One." All employees need to realize that success won't come only from hard work and dressing appropriately-"by themselves, they will not set you apart from your peers, and they will not propel you into the executive suite. In fact, the biggest mistake you can make is to assume that organizations are rational, and that success will proceed in a rational manner from your good performance reviews, nice manners, and sharp suits." Instead, D'Alessandro shows how people can get themselves noticed within a corporation, find ways to make their bosses excel, develop reputations for honesty and effectiveness and learn how to work with the enemies that will inevitably jeopardize their positions. He also offers very specific advice on the three types of meetings-staff, get-something done, combat. Occasionally, his comments-not having an affair with a colleague or not getting drunk at off-site meetings-are obvious, but, overall, this volume is a solid and inventive guide to success that should inspire many readers to alter at least some of their on-the-job behavior..
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From the Back Cover

"A refreshing message ... from someone who has fought many corporate wars." -- The New York Times

In Career Warfare, David F. D’Alessandro, the bestselling author of Brand Warfare, has written a business classic: an insightful and delightfully frank book about achieving professional success at a high level.

What really defines those who get ahead? Hard work and accomplishments will only get you so far. If you intend to compete at the levels where the competition gets really ferocious—where everybody is hard-working and accomplished—you need a much more subtle weapon. According to D’Alessandro, the CEO of John Hancock Financial Services, you cannot win without the kind of reputation or “personal brand” that convinces powerful people to trust you.

D’Alessandro, a keen observer of the unwritten rules of organizational life, shows how personal brands are built out of people’s day-to-day behavior in even the most insignificant moments. He also demonstrates what a battle it is to build a good one. It is a battle even to be noticed early in your career; it is a battle not to become dangerously arrogant later on. You constantly have to defend your brand from the sniping of your enemies, the indifference of your bosses, and your own worst impulses.

Career Warfare will help you to win these fights at every stage of your career by showing you how to

• Look beyond your own navel
• Make people want to take a chance on you
• Get your boss to promote your “personal brand”
• Decide when to stay in a bad job and when to leave a good one
• Recognize the types of organizations that will keep you from rising
• Pull away from the pack in mid-career
• And much more

Using vivid stories from his own rise through the organizational ranks, D’Alessandro offers shrewd advice for disarming the people who hold your career in their hands and introduces a remarkable cast of characters along the way. You’ll meet the corporate chairman who gave himself a speech impediment, the account executive who sang opera for a president, and the job candidate who washed her face with a pancake. You will also meet some of the smartest managers of their own public images on the planet and learn from the things they have done right.

Success, says D’Alessandro, is not going to come from your accomplishments alone. But you can separate yourself from the crowd and rise to the level of your ambitions—if you create the kind of personal impression that commands respect. Career Warfare offers the smartest advice you’ll ever get about how to do it.

A breakthrough new book that shows you how to stand out from the crowd

“A witty and insightful book about personal and career strategy. It is impossible to read this book and not come away with new insights about how to further one’s career——and be a more effective person.”

—Michael E. Porter, Harvard Business School

“D’Alessandro dares to speak the truth. If you don’t manage your own reputation, those around you will. This is no theoretical exercise. In corporate America, people talk about you every day. You can affect what they say.

“With a cut-the-crap sharp eye for the passions, yearnings, and follies that drive every organization, D’Alessandro draws apart the drapes and reveals what it really takes to get ahead in business.”

—James Carville, Author and Democratic Strategist

“With good jobs becoming harder to find, D’Alessandro’s sage advice is more timely and important than ever, especially for those who are trying to build their personal brands and enhance their careers at the same time.” —Tom Neff, Chairman, U.S., Spencer Stuart

“Smart, strategic, and useful career advice from someone who has actually achieved success in the real world. D’Alessandro shares the lessons he’s learned, and the mistakes he’s made, on his way to being one of the most talented and respected CEOs in America.”

—Harvey Mackay, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller

Swim With The Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive

“Lessons from the master. D’Alessandro is living proof that there’s no more important brand than the brand called you.”

—Donny Deutsch, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Deutsch Inc.

About the Author

David F. D'Alessandro is Chair- man and Chief Executive Officer of John Hancock Financial Services. D’Alessandro spearheaded John Hancock’s appearance on The New York Times list of the top 100 brands of the 20th century.

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Customer Reviews

Very smart, honest book
After 20 years in a very competitive global financial institution, I only WISH this book had come out 10 years ago. I am now in a highly visible and quite senior role, and this book rings ever so true. Though it sugar coats nothing, the insights and advice are not cynical, whatever your level in the organization. Even its occasionally Machiavellian bent is (sadly) realistic. The only thing I would caution: the whole premise of the book is that success is defined as amassing more power and more wealth. If you are not motivated by power and wealth, this book will not resonate. That said, for most I suspect, it is well worth the 2-3 hours of reading time!

The Art of Warfare
This book is gold for any employee. And it's worth its weight in diamonds for any business owner.

Running your own company makes you most of the time thinking about your clients, your finance and yourself. Then there are also your employees that do the job for you. Wrong! They are aware of their career just like you are aware of your own company.

This book gives you great advise about building a career and for anyone being at the top of the company already, it makes you recognize talent. So, unless you're somebody who wants to keep your current job for the next 30 years, grab a copy of this book!

The Ultimate Career Guide (really!)
This is one of those few business books that you can read more than once. D'Alessandro makes one key point with this book - you don't get to the top by being great, but by not screwing up. This point is made through countless stories that he tells about his career.

D'Alessandro is not arrogant, like many (if not most) other business authors. Rather, he is hilarious. I lost count at how many times I laughed so hard, interrupted my wife, and related a story from this book. This is what I want out of a career guide - a book that conveys it's point so well, and in many different ways, that you can't help but to remember it.

If you work in the real world, and need a career guide (trust me, you do), then this book is for you. I have recommended it to others several times, and have been thanked often for the referrals.