The Rumsfeld Way: The Leadership Wisdom of a Battle-Hardened Maverick

Author: Jeffrey A. Krames
List Price: $18.95
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0071406417
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Trade (27 March, 2002)
Sales Rank: 77,605
Average Customer Rating: 3.59 out of 5

Customer Reviews

Rating: 5 out of 5
Rumsfeld, focus on strengths
I find Rumsfeld a fascinating character as do many Americans who saw him in action during the September 11th crisis and thereafter. Therefore, I was interested to read this book and learn more about Rumsfeld. What I found was a book that didn't dwell on gossip or juicy tidbits about Rumsfeld's life, but rather intelligently analyzed and distilled his true leadership qualities. The book helped me learn about myself and what it was that I was responding to in Rumsfeld. It pinpointed his strengths without making him seem saccharine. That ability, to present the best of the leadership qualities but keeping the man life-size, made Rumsfeld real. It also helped me grasp some of the more subtle issues contributing to effective leadership and I think would make an excellent text book on that subject.


Rating: 3 out of 5
Running towards the smoke
This book is neither biography nor a historical work but rather an analysis of Donald Rumsfeld's leadership and management style in government and business.

It is an easy read with only 213 pages of text (or 244 pages with notes and index added) and has a useful and brief summary of the 'Rumsfeld Way' at the end of each chapter, ideal for a trainer conducting an in-house management training session.

Personally I have enormous respect for DR, although I imagine he wouldn't be an easy man to work for and it would possibly be easy to fall foul of him.

Yet there is no doubt he has always been the man 'running towards the smoke,' and not just on that fateful September 11 day when his Pentagon was in flames around him.

It was DR who came back to run the Ford Whitehouse after the trauma of Watergate and the destruction of the Nixon presidency; and it was the same man who accepted the challenge of a battling pharmaceutical company, GD Searle,that had racked up eight losing quarters before being turned around by the new CEO.

As the 13th and 21st US Defense Secretary, Rummy has the distinction of being both the youngest and oldest person to hold that great office.

It is doubtful if the US has ever had a better 'minister of war'-as borne testimony to by the highly successful American-led blitzkieg in the recent Iraqi war.

DR has become something of a cult figure with his straight talking, no-nonsense style. He is a man that relishes his job and is not interested in courting popularity, although at this late stage of his life he has attracted it, through sheer performance and his sense of humour.

At a press conference at the end of the recent war, an Afro-American major, asked him a question relating to early retirement benefits for Army personnel. Rummy had a field day answering that: "You are asking a 70 year old about early retirement?," the Defense Secretary said with mock horror and a wicked grin that reminded me of the cartoon character 'Whalesteeth' (in Chick Young's "Dagwood and Blondie" series), although his critics would probably refer to him as 'sharksteeth'.

That quip was vintage Rumsfeld and will obviously make the pages of later, and more complete, works on him ( Krames book was published early in 2002).

Indeed, books on Rummy will no doubt doubt be a growth industry by the time he steps down. How long that will be is anyone's guess, but current indications would indicate he may well go the full distance of a Bush presidency which would make him 76 at the close of two terms.

America and the world have been well served by this feisty warrior - and the subject, like the book, is certainly appreciated by this Australian.


Rating: 2 out of 5
Little substace
This book has very little substance. It written in a strange style, and little summaries at the end of each chapter. This is a very fast read, double spaced and all. Though this book does have some interesting facts it is far from a bio or an account of Rumsfelds time as SoD. I wouldn't pay full price for this book, but if you want a quick read get it used!

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