Rome, Inc.: The Rise and Fall of the First Multinational Corporation (Enterprise)

By Stanley Bing

Book Overview

A family business prospers through a series of brutal consolidations and rational growth. Then senseless internal conflicts lead to a long line of demented CEOs, monumental expansion, and foolish diversification--at a high cost in shattered lives. In the end, a series of reverse takeovers leaves the once-proud but now overextended and corrupt parent company at the mercy of less-civilized operations that previously cringed at the grandeur of the corporate brand. Enron? WorldCom? Try Rome, whose rise and fall carry a moral that lingers to this day for the managers, employees, and students of any global enterprise. Stanley Bing--whose satirical business books are as savagely funny as they are insightful--mingles business parable and cautionary tale into an ingenious, often hilarious new telling of the story of the Roman Empire.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393060268
• ISBN13: 9780393060263
• Release Date: March 2006
• Publisher: W. W. Norton
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.8" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Corporation should look at the Roman Empire - Oh Yeah, it is not here any longer!

This is a great book. Tells about the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, sure sounds like Corporate America to me. Corruption and Greed, I love it.

Surprisingly insightful and entertaining

A good read with a fair dose of drole wit and surpisingly insightful about the nature of Rome and its people. Sometimes history makes more sense when one uses common sense. For example, the part about the rationale for continual war in Roman culture was right on the mark, as well as the following humorous observations what kind of psychological qualities were required to be a functional senior manager. Also his discussion of the fall of Rome, while truncated, hits it on the head about the importance of the myth of Rome and its unifying power. A little bit of history and a little bit of management and a large bit of flippant humor makes for an enjoyable read

Bing's best yet

I laughed my way through Stanley Bing's new book like I did for all of his old ones (Sun Tzu Was a Sissy is especially good). Rome, Inc. has all the stuff he's known for, straight-to-the-point business advice no one else is brave enough to say out loud and a hilarious way of phrasing things. But the best thing is that now I remember the Roman history I supposedly learned in college! Bing gives you a really great short summary of the "Rise and Fall" of Rome. I could (and probably will) read this book over again!

Smart and Hilarious (was that the name of a Roman emperor?)--like a historical "Daily Show"

This book is a laugh-out-loud funny take on the rise and fall of the Roman empire--or as Bing has it, the world's first multinational corporation. Sure, pundits and historians compare Rome and the United States all the time. But Bing makes it work, because his angle is a fresh one. Organizations, hierarchies, crazed leadership practices--these don't change much over time, and Rome, it turns out, really is a perfect template for the ravenous corporations and pyschopathic CEOs of our era. Bing does all of this with such a perfect voice and a lightness of touch that you don't realize you're actually learning a great deal along the way.

Der Bingle Strikes Again

I have been reading this guy's stuff since the old Esquire column which was frequently tear-inducing. With ROME, INC. Herr Bing delivers the goods once again, with a clever, hilarious and (gasp!) instructive walk through Roman history, crisply analogized with the crushing corporate culture of modern-day America. The quintessential bi-coastal airplane book: take with two fingers of glenfidditch over ice for maximum absorption.