The B-2 Chronicles: Uncommon Wisdom for Un-Corporate America

Will the race of man inevitably destroy itself looking for power, wealth and immortality? More to the point, why should today's twenty-somethings commit their energy and talents to companies run by down-sizers and up-braiders? The author of a 25-year old business bestseller attempts to answer these questions for a teen- and twenty-something generation in The B2 Chronicles: How Not to Butt Heads with the Next Generation, by Robert Townsend. A quarter century after penning the best-selling Up The Organization: How to Stop the Corporation From Stifling People and Strangling Profits, former Avis Rent-a-Car CEO Robert Townsend directs his message to tomorrow's instead of today's CEOs. The book starts with a cosmic computer crisis looming. Seventeen computer whiz kids have intercepted a secret nuclear destruction scenario formulated years ago by the world's superpowers. The protagonist Crunch (author Townsend's persona) agrees to help save the world. Crunch opens a storefront in San Pedro, California, and advertises for teenagers to help "test pilot" new virtual reality games provided by game manufacturers. Woven in with this plot is Crunch's theory about energy and how it is allocated to tasks. A computer program called QuoVadoTron, which made him and his young whiz kid associate Dooley Stepnowski rich, measures a company's energy level on a daily or weekly basis, over twenty degrees of energy from "Fetchwork 0" to "Stretchwork 10." The fictional software can project how management decisions will affect employees' level of commitment and thus, what level of energy they will devote to meeting goals and objectives. If you get the feeling this book is hard to describe, you're right. But I know of at least one CEO who might get it in a flash: T.J. Rodgers of Silicon Valley's Cypress Semiconductor. From QuoVadoTron, the story wanders to other games invented by young Dooley. Each game requires an assistant, and each assistant is obtained by having a contest and hiring the winner. Everything is a game, every action and decision is a spreadsheet entry that has potential consequences for the future. At the end of a successful game, all hands celebrate. Ther'e a fish story, some health food advice, an emphasis on play, enjoyment of literature and music, and some light moralizing, all delivered in Townsend's Brautiganesque plain style. The common thread is that work ought to generate high energy levels. If it doesn't something can be done about it. Namely, hire younger people whose energy isn't spent, assuming that smart kids of today will have a reason to work tomorrow. Some ideas which come out in this crazy quilt of song lyrics, stories and management theory: -Universal downsizing-- no organization or institution should have more than 250 members; -Bureaucrats have their function-- everyone should learn to tap into government and get money out for their favorite causes; -For disadvantaged youth, it's hard to top the ed