Game of Thrones on Business, and other career lessons from literature

George RR Martin’s saga is the focus of a new manual for career success – but it’s not the only book to provide useful tips for getting ahead

With 11,000 business books published each year, titles have had to be lavish with their promises – How to Be a Star at Work, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive – and systematic with their diagnoses (The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Six Thinking Hats, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People) to stand out from the crowd. Now canny authors Tim Phillips and Rebecca Clare have seized on the power struggles and psychopaths of Westeros to write Game of Thrones on Business, which promises to “turn you into an outstanding leader and transform your business”, hopefully without losing any body parts along the way.

The book draws parallels between George RR Martin’s fantasy kingdom and “today’s frenetic business world”, comparing icy patriarch Tywin Lannister to Steve Jobs (neither favoured “a mothering style of leadership”, apparently), applauding Littlefinger’s nefarious networking and Daenerys Targaryen’s leadership skills (free your subteam and they will follow you across desert wastes) and pointing out that insufficient “scenario-planning meetings” can lose you your head, a la Ned Stark.

Continue reading...