Zenobia: The Curious Book of Business - Hardcover

Emmens, Matt; Kephart, Beth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1576754782 ISBN 13: 9781576754788

Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2008

Synopsis

Zenobia is a former industry giant bedeviled by paralyzing hierarchies, grossly inadequate communications, and distrust. It is a broken place, a fortress doomed to collapse upon itself.

Enter Moira, a young woman responding to a cryptic help wanted ad that asks her to report to room 133A – but there are no directions, no sign of the room, and nobody seems inclined to help her find it. As she moves through the Zenobian maze, Moira makes some surprising discoveries about the power of teamwork and the qualities that define true leaders. Her story is interwoven with that of a long-time Zenobia employee named Gallagher, who watches and comments as Moira tries to find the ever-elusive room 133A.

Zenobia reminds us that imagination is one of the most powerful, and most overlooked, elements of business success. Like Moira, those who succeed see what is not yet there, keep faith in their vision, take risks to achieve it, and inspire others to join them. This unusual book will move readers to take a fresh and fearless look at their own organizations and to remember that leadership is not determined by title or position. Rather, as the want ad Moira answers puts it, “Creative persistence a prerequisite. A desire for the extraordinary an absolute must.”

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Imagine

Written by the CEO of a 14 billion dollar pharmaceutical company and an award-winning author and poet, this extraordinary business fable reminds us that imagination is one of the most powerful, and most overlooked, elements of business success. Moira, an enterprising young job aspirant, wends her way through a strange, sclerotic bureaucracy, never discouraged by what is, remaining tenaciously true to her vision of what could be. In the process she inspires those she meets to help in her quest to revitalize the once-mighty but now moribund Zenobia corporation.

"What leads an organization to greatness is often very different from what enables it to continue to grow and develop. Zenobia shows us the essence of what it takes for a company to change. It tells a story that matters for leaders at all levels."
--Marshall Goldsmith, author of What Got You Here Won't Get You There

"Zenobia illustrates what real change leaders do -- scale walls, inspire new conversations, find ways to have influence out of all proportion to their authority. It is a very human fable about a very important subject."
--Jon Katzenbach, Founder and Senior Partner, Katzenbach Partners and author of Real Change Leaders and The Wisdom of Teams

"Moira's winding, challenging trip through Zenobia's halls and floors represents an amazing adventure. Her climb to the elusive Room 133A was achieved with courage, creativity, grit and willingness to take risks - the very traits that Matt has demonstrated as the incredibly successful leader of Atra Merck, EMD and Shire."
-- Ed Rendell, Governor of Pennsylvania

"There's nothing like a good story to inspire, teach, fire up imagination, and stir your spirit. Zenobia is a fine story that does all this and more. It's rather like Alice in Wonderland meets The One Minute Manager -- full of surprise and delight!"
--BJ Gallagher, coauthor of A Peacock in the Land of Penguins and YES Lives in the Land of NO

About the Author:

Matthew Emmens began his career in international pharmaceuticals with Merck & Co., Inc., in 1974. There he held a wide range of sales, marketing, and administrative positions before volunteering in 1992 to help establish Astra Merck, the joint venture between Merck and Astra AB of Sweden. He later became president and chief executive officer. In 1999 he joined Merck KGaA and established EMD Pharmaceuticals, the company’s U.S. prescription pharmaceutical business. Subsequently, he was promoted to president of the global prescription business and lived in Germany. In 2003, he joined Shire Pharmaceuticals as chief executive officer and member of the board. As CEO of Shire, Emmens has engineered an extraordinary revitalization, transforming Shire into one of the top specialty pharmaceutical companies in the world in just a few years’ time.
Beth Kephart is the award-winning author of five memoirs and a partner in Fusion Communications, a company that collaborates with leading U.S. companies on the creation of special publications. She was a 1997 Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fiction grant winner, a 1998 National Book Award finalist, a 2000 winner of a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a winner of a 2005 Pew Fellowship in the Arts grant, and a winner of the 2005 Speakeasy Poetry Prize. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal Europe, Salon.com, and elsewhere. Her sixth book, Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River, was pubished in the summer of 2007, and Undercover, her first novel for young adults, was recently released. Two more young adult novels are forthcoming. Please contact Beth Kephart through her blog, http://beth- kephart.blogspot.com.

About this edition

• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1576754782
• ISBN 13: 9781576754788
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 120