Content area
Full Text
Henry M. Caroselli. Cult of the Mouse: Can We Stop Greed From Killing Innovation in America? Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press, 2004, 190 pages, hardcover, $24.95.
Twenty pages from the end, the author wonders if the reader "may be thinking about tossing this book in the round file right about now." He had just finished chastising everyone for worshiping the "God of Greed." Yet in doing so he didn't acknowledge the irony of his having been in the advertising business for much of his career, including a stint as head of the creativity department of Walt Disney and subsequently in a new career as president/owner of a "retro-styled street-rod" business. Here's a guy who as much as anyone has been responsible for fueling the insatiable, consumer American need for the newest gadgets and pleasures, few of which in my opinion "advance the human condition," which seems to be his idealized purpose for innovation, or the "real-deal idea."
Truth be told, because I'm not in the advertising business, I had wanted to toss his book 20 pages from the beginning. But please don't toss this review now. I got more open-minded as I continued reading (the author asks readers to be just that), you may find the review provocative, and you just might be tempted to pick up the book.
I really should not blame the author for my reaction during those introductory pages. I had been forewarned. He describes his style as "deliberately conversational," and he advises readers they'll be disappointed if they are expecting an "authoritative" or "text-book-style analysis." The book he says is for readers who prefer "a more free-associative approach" and who "love the idea of ideas."
He's right. His style is so conversational it often seems glib, and his views about the nature of innovation, what stifles it, what fosters it, what its role is in corporate success, and what needs to be done are subjective and sometimes debatable. The book is peppered with anecdotes (some the author's own while at Disney), hand-picked examples of innovativeness (e.g., the Wright Brothers), metaphors (e.g., "fear of sticking out one's neck"), analogies (e.g., like expecting a "cow to produce just cream"), and quotations (e.g., John Steinbeck's "ideas are like rabbits"). As such, though, I...