Rules of Work, 5th Edition

RULE 72

Address corporate issues and problems

We talked about looking at things from the company’s point of view and not from your own. You have to take this further and talk only about corporate issues and problems even when you are talking to yourself or close colleagues. You have to convince them you are already a boss – see Rule 79.

I remember doing my first book and naturally being terribly concerned with the look of it – did the cover look right, feel right, smell right? The marketing manager, obviously getting fed up with the interminable dreary phone calls from me to check up on every little detail, finally said, ‘Tins of beans, dear boy, tins of beans’. I didn’t know what he meant and he had to explain it all in words of one syllable. ...