How to Get Seriously Rich While Failing in Business: A Fat Cat's Guide to Management (Hardcover)

In 96 pages,it's 'cover to cover' in well under the hour (Boxing Day?) and a very amusing and useful reminder of what to do (and not do) to ease into the boardroom. And once you're there to stay there and prosper.

It's all tongue in the cheek, of course, but the book is no less valuable for that. As a former Chief Executive of Ashridge Business School and a non-executive director of numerous organisations, Philip Sadler has seen all the manoeuvres he mentions at first hand. 'Dress well'.Don't work in the provinces'. 'Network and chat-up the right people'. In a phrase, be strategically selfish.

Once you're the CEO, use consultants judiciously - tell them what you want to hear, pay lip service (and more) to shareholder value, don't forget to downsize. Have a discreet but juicy personal life. A well timed divorce and a new partnership can add career momentum just when it's needed. Don't forget, too, that a big acquisition will help to secure your reputation and pay packet.

If, on the way up, you've made a few enemies, picked up a mistress or two then that's all part of the journey to arrive at the destination you want. Finally, don't forget to leave before the rot sets in. That will give you the time to become a NED (non-executive director), to develop celebrity status, to spend your 'top hat' pension and, above all, to enjoy yourself.

That's the satirical bit. But as Sadler stresses, 'realising one's ambitions takes planning, tactics and hard work. You need to flow chart your strategy'. So buy this book and sharpen your wits. You never know you might get seriously rich while succeeding (not failing) in business.

It is also bang up to date in its subject matter, and deals boldly with many topics which were not openly discussed a quarter of a century ago. Social Responsibility thinking since then has spawned an entire new industry, including of course, a host of consultants. Changes in the larger society allow Philip Sadler to handle the question of Gays, Second Spouses and Mistresses(and the equivalent for females) with aplomb.

I tested the value of the ideas in the book on my own career as a test of its validity. The fatal flaw in my own career occurred early on and could easily have been avoided had I been aware of the ideas in this book. I failed by not "Charting the path to my goal - becoming seriously rich". I failed on several of Philip Sadler's other factors, but none was as potent as this planning failure; on the other hand the smaller failures would have been more embarrassing to talk about openly!

A good and funny read which will make a great 'stocking-filler', whether for a prospective FTSE 100 Chairman or most of us.