I am starting a campaign

Who Adairs Wins!

I am thinking of starting a campaign to push for a knighthood for John Adair.

In all my years in the leadership and management development field, I think he has, more than any other single ‘guru’, contributed the most widely-relevant, easy-to-understand and long-lasting prescriptive analysis of leadership and related skills.

I first got to know him whilst working on a leadership course with RAF Cranwell that was open to British companies and then we published a book he had co-written on Time Management (“The Concise Time Management and Personal Development”).

From that we went on to publish books by him on Communication and Presentation Skills and on Leadership. We were able to re-publish his classic study in leadership lessons from great leaders, entitled “Inspiring Leadership”.

He is a widely published author (not just by Thorogood) and I said to him once, “John – wouldn’t it be great to have the main points from all of your books – there were then over 30 of them – brought together in one volume?” He replied that “Yes, that’s a good idea. You know my work as well as anyone – why don’t you do it!” I agreed.

It was only when I was driving away that I realised what had happened. I had said yes to this weighty project delegated to me – he had displayed his superior leadership skills!!

It turned out to be a wonderful time for me – reading and assimilating all his extant work and turning in a concise guide to his ‘teachings’. The book came out as “The John Adair Handbook of Management and Leadership” and then in a version called “The Best of John Adair on Leadership and Management”.

I urge all managers and leaders to read John Adair. I have been helped immeasurably by knowing him, working with him, reading his books and using his concepts in my management life. You will benefit greatly from his books.

He deserves a knighthood if anybody does.

Neil Thomas

Information Management

Information Management

I have been looking again at Thorogood’s recent major contribution to information management (its ‘Specialist Reports Subscription Scheme’) and marvelling not just at its value, but also its practical usefulness to members of those professional practices and companies where far-sighted ‘librarians’ have realised its usefulness.

It demonstrates just how far the service of a ‘librarian’ has travelled in recent times and how much Thorogood is trying to make the journey for them even more comfortable.

Information management, information science, information broking, knowledge management, research specialists, competitive intelligence specialists AND those who still call themselves librarians (!) will find, in the scope and coverage of the Reports, a wonderful source of incredibly useful information.

Not only in the Reports included in the service, but in the updates that will be made in new editions and new titles, the service will also feature extended facilities in continuing professional education aspects (including CPD points/hours) which participating firms will be able to access on-line – a very handy service to individuals who use the scheme.

It would be helpful to hear how users find the service and what additional features they would find useful. Please let us know.

The Reports themselves are based on the concept of a special topic being given a succinct and practical analysis by an ‘expert’ author at a length that lends itself to easy assimilation by the ‘reader’, or ‘user’, as I suppose us ‘information publishers’ must start calling our ‘customers’!!

Jerry Coe

Speak the Culture: Italy – Out now!

Speak the Culture: Italy, the latest title in Thorogood’s series of cultural guides is here!!

Speak the Culture Italy

Italy is a country that many of us feel we know well. The food, the buildings, the wild hand gestures – all of them iconic. But what lies beneath the clichés? How do the Italians actually live? What do they know of their own history, of their music or sport? What do they know of their own culture?

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is rarely out of the international news. Most of the press is negative: the foreign media guffaw at Berlusconi’s weakness for attractive women and the accusations of dodgy dealing. Yet, in Italy, he commands the kind of popularity rating that Gordon Brown or Barack Obama can only dream of. Why? Speak the Culture: Italy explains it all, giving the background on Italian political culture and the widely held attitudes to government and power.

When you’re done boning up on politics, Speak the Culture: Italy can also instruct on which wines come from where or how the Italian diet breaks down region by region. And then there are the great films of Italian cinema, the key books by Italian writers, the story of Italian art and architecture (more colourful than most), the fashions, the media, the comedians… it’s all in there.

Like the previous titles in the Speak the Culture series, on France, Spain and Britain, the new book is expertly, wittily illustrated by artist Johnny Bull. The title also benefits greatly from the input of the Italian Cultural Institute, who were kind enough to advise and instruct where required.

So, you’ve got your phrasebook in hand, and know roughly what to say. And with your travel guide, you have a rough idea on where to visit. All you need now is Speak the Culture: Italy for that rounded understanding of what Italy and the Italians are all about.

Into the Valley of Death

I went to a Society of Bookmen dinner recently. It was a gathering of literary agents, publishers, authors (as guests), booksellers, various book-trade hangers-on and the like – all ‘players’ to one degree or another in the world of publishing.

They were a decent, intelligent bunch of people, mostly the wrong side of fifty – although in fairness, their hair was probably more grey than their personalities and lively conversation flowed about the current problems faced by the ‘creative industries’, as the political guest speaker kept referring to the assembled, mostly non-creatives in front of him.

In truth, of course, the problems facing publishing – from the retail turmoil to the digital challenges faced by the traditional book – are enough to ensure that where one or more publishing types are gathered together there will be lots of nervous laughter at predictions of what the future holds and all sharp knives are best removed lest the throng be moved to self-harm.

In the crowded bar beforehand, it felt as if I was milling around at Sevastopol with the cavalry officers of the Light Brigade the night before Balaclava and the doomed charge of the six hundred, or perhaps it was more like being at a drinks do in the officers mess of a cavalry regiment awaiting embarkation to France in 1914.

The way that the forthcoming publishing war is to be fought will be very different from those in the past. The cavalry officers have had their day. The old order changeth indeed.

Jerry Coe

Robert Lindsay competition

Due to the outstanding success of Letting Go by Robert Lindsay Thorogood are prepared to give away a FREE SIGNED COPY!!

In fifteen words or less please tell Thorogood why you deserve to win the free signed copy

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