Description:
In Games Without Thrones, entrepreneurship professor David Lingelbach and oligarch researcher Valentina Rodríguez Guerra show how we can all learn from oligarchs, even if we don't like them. These masters of uncertainty have found their moment again in the early 21st century, when several existential threats have overturned our ability to predict the future. Paradoxically, oligarchs hold the intellectual keys that will enable the rest of us to exploit the coming storms. This book describes these keys as eight
leadership lessons that can become a new playbook, enabling all of us to play and win the new
games without thrones.
This book makes three major points:
- Oligarchs are at the center of our worlds now, shaping the global economy in which we all
work and the politics that help determine our life choices. Understanding their centrality is
key to understanding how the world works.
- Oligarchs provide us with eight lessons to enable us to be more effective leaders. The first
three lessons comprise their distinctive Weltanschauung or worldview. They see the world
very differently than the rest of us.
- Oligarchs offer us five specific strategies--four of which were first elaborated in our The
Oligarchs' Grip and developed further in our forthcoming The Oligarchs of the Americas--to
lead during times of crisis and turbulence. Those times are likely to dominate our
professional lives, no matter where we live.
Review Quotes:
"This is an interesting and timely proposal. The subject matter is one that should be of interest to a wide audience. A strength of this work is that it potentially counters the sense of helplessness that some may feel about global uncertainty and the alarming way that the ultra-wealthy directly impact public policy. The proposal is innovative and the eight lessons are likely to be helpful to students of entrepreneurship and also to a broader audience. The authors have previously published together and appear to be a strong team. Lingelbach's expertise on entrepreneurship and Guerra's research background on oligarchs make them suitable authors for this work." - Benjamin Jones, Central Queensland University
"One of the volume's key strengths is the unique approach of using oligarchs as cases to derive leadership lessons. This perspective offers an original take on the subject. Rather than viewing these individuals solely through a lens of suspicion due to their potential character flaws and the associated negative societal consequences, we can also consider them as highly successful entrepreneurs in an uncertain environment. Another notable strength of the manuscript is its well-structured format, with each chapter grounded in concrete examples and organized around eight leadership lessons." - Ion Marandici, Fribourg University
"I find this proposal very interesting because of its unique approach to the topic. By shifting the perspective, it promises new insights on how to deal with oligarchs that cannot be gained from a purely external perspective. But the proposed book is not only aimed at readers with a political and sociological interest in oligarchs, but also at readers who want to improve their own skills and career opportunities. If done well, addressing these readers can help to spread the risk of an oligarchic society to all areas of society. " - Jonah Montenarh, University of Portsmouth