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What the Hive Can Teach Business about Leadership, Efficiency, and Growth
by Ph.D., Michael O'Malley
"It seemed to me that the bees were working on the very same kinds of problems we are trying to solve. How can large, diverse groups work together harmoniously and productively? Perhaps we could take what the bees do so well and apply it to our institutions."
When Michael O'Malley first took up beekeeping, he thought it would be a nice hobby to share with his ten-year-old son. But as he started to observe these industrious insects, he noticed that they do a lot more than just make honey. Bees not only work together to achieve a common goal but, in the process, create a highly coordinated, efficient, and remarkably productive organization. The hive behaved like a miniature but incredibly successful business.
O'Malley also realized that bees can actually teach managers a lot about how to run their organizations. He identified twenty-five powerful insights, such as:
Blending practical advice with interesting facts about the hive, The Wisdom of Bees is a useful and entertaining guide for any manager looking to get the most out of his or her organization.
"The advice itself is your standard management-lesson fare, but presented in a concise, conversational format with great personality, practicality, and verve. " - Publishers Weekly Pick of the Week
"O'Malley brings to life timeless principles of organizational success in a mind-opening, insightful, and compelling way by examining the life of bees. That may sound like a stretch, but it won't after you read this plainspoken, well- written book." - John Pepper, former CEO and chairman, Procter & Gamble
"What in the world can we learn from a honeybee colony that would provide any useful knowledge for how to run - or, better yet, change for the better - a human organization? Read this remarkable book and you will see." - W. Warner Burke, chair, Department of Organization and Leadership, Columbia University
"Humanity is fortunate that Michael O'Malley became a beekeeper. He beautifully presents twenty-five lessons that we humans can, and really should, learn from the bees about working together for group success."
- Thomas D. Seeley, professor of biology, Cornell University
This information about The Wisdom of Bees was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Michael O'Malley, Ph.D., is a social psychologist and management consultant who has coached some of the world's largest companies. He is currently the executive editor for business, economics, and law at Yale University Press and an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School. He has been an avid beekeeper since 2002. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut.
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