cover image SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 500: A Management Survival Guide for the Consulting Wars

SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 500: A Management Survival Guide for the Consulting Wars

Steve Romaine, . . Prometheus, $30 (450pp) ISBN 978-1-57392-995-0

Romaine describes himself as "an ugly American of the first order" with "more guts than smarts," who "becomes entangled in conflict with corporate mercenaries." This macho metaphor underlies an account of seven years of middle management experience in sales and computer systems projects for a variety of companies, both as an employee and a consultant. Romaine's main focus is how incautious use of consultants leads to problems. Based on his experience working for IBM and other organizations, the author argues that consultants can lead to wasted resources and poor employee morale because their primary concern is increasing billings rather than doing good work. Moreover, they may resell the confidential information they receive working at one place to other clients. His account is often overshadowed by one-sided tales of petty office disputes. Passages such as "Patti was about 5' up in heels, and 3' across. Her face was round and she had a pageboy cut to her mousy brown hair.... How people like this ended up in personnel amazed me" seem to be included more for the author's revenge than for the reader's edification. Romaine's general topic is promising and intriguing, but his work is humorless, poorly written and vindictive. Sentences like "It was early morning and I wasn't in my body yet. Even if I was, I doubt the answer would have formulated anytime soon from the brain mass floating around in my skull, like a big, heavy medicine ball," abound, undermining what might be a useful lesson. (June)