Mob Rules: What the Mafia Can Teach the Legitimate Businessman - Hardcover

Ferrante, Louis

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1591843987 ISBN 13: 9781591843986

Publisher: Portfolio, 2011

Synopsis

The Mob is notorious for its cruel and immoral practices, but its most successful members have always been extremely smart businessmen. Now, former mobster Louis Ferrante reveals its surprisingly effective management techniques and explains how to apply them-legally-to any legitimate business. As an associate of the Gambino family, Ferrante relied on his instincts to pull off some of the biggest heists in U.S. history. By the age of twenty-one, he had netted millions of dollars for his employers. His natural talent for management led Mafia bosses to rely on him. After being arrested and serving an eight-and-a-half-year prison sentence, Ferrante went straight. He realized that the Mob's most valuable business lessons would allow him to survive and thrive in the real world. Now he offers eighty-eight time-tested Mafia strategies, including: * Go get your own coffee!: Respecting the chain of command without being a sucker. * The walls have ears: Never bad-mouth the boss. * Is this phone tapped?: Watch what you say every day. * How to bury the hatchet-but not in someone's head. * Don't split yourself in half: The wrong decision is better than none at all. * Don't build Yankee stadium, just supply the concrete: Spotting new rackets. * Leave the gun, take the cannolis...and beware of hubris. Ferrante brings his real-life experiences to the book, offering fascinating advice that really works and sharing behind-the-scenes episodes almost as outrageous as those occurring on Wall Street every day.

About this title

About the Author:

Louis Ferrante is a former Mafia associate and heist expert who served eight and a half years in prison after refusing to incriminate members of the Gambino family. After his release, he wrote a memoir of life in the Mafia, Unlocked, that won enthusiastic reviews. Ferrante now lectures around the country to at-risk teens and other groups about the value of learning.

Review:

An excellent example for business wisdom seekers. Ferrante shares cogent business advice for employees, middle managers, and bosses. A colorful and surprisingly practical business primer.
--------Publishers Weekly

Ferrante draws on an extensive knowledge of world events, mob lore, and personal experience to deliver an engrossing effort that reads like a rousing memoir, meditation on world history and mafia expose all in one. -----Kirkus Reviews

"[Mob Rules] pours out spicy tales of Mob lore to make its management points, an approach most execs couldn't refuse."
-----New York Post 3/20/11.

"Wiseguy's Wisdom. Worthwhile, sometimes humorous tips on how to succeed in business." --- --New York Daily News

"He never got an M.B.A. but ex-mobster Louis Ferrante learned enough about business on the street."  -----Crain's New York Business

"Former Gambino family associate Louis Ferrante has delivered one of the wisest and wittiest collections of reflections on life and business ever penned by a wiseguy."
-----Fort Worth Star-Telegram

"The Mafia Management Guru."-----BusinessWeek

"Leadership lessons from the mob. Ferrante's book is worth the read...colorful tales of mob life."----Forbes

"Useful lessons for entrepreneurs and even middle managers."
----London Financial Times

"Mob Rules is packed with case studies highlighting the techniques of great practitioners (with) historical insights."
----The Week (London)

"Mob Rules is a collection of lessons that can be gleaned from the long and colourful history of the Mob and applied to the legal business world." -----CTV Canada

"Mob Rules lays out the ways the rules of the Mafia can be applied in pursuit of straight-world success, injecting historical parallels and real-life anecdotes along the way."
-----New York Post 6/13/11

"It's very rare when someone from Lou's world has the heart of a writer. Criminal experiences don't usually lead to great insights. Louis Ferrante is different-his talent for storytelling shines through in Mob Rules."
------Nicholas Pileggi, author of Wiseguy and Casino

"Louis Ferrante is a wise guy in every possible sense of the word. His wisdom is extraordinary and his writing style immaculate."
-David Black, screenwriter and producer for Law & Order

"I knew John Gotti better than anyone, and if he were alive today, Mob Rules would be his favorite book."
----George "Fat George" DiBello, caretaker of John Gotti's South Queens social club during the don's reign

"Finally, Lou brings all of the Mafia's wisdom and business acumen together in Mob Rules and shows readers how they can apply the mob's best practices to their own businesses."
----Rita Gigante, daughter of the late mob boss Vincent "The Chin" Gigante

About this edition

• Publisher: Portfolio
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1591843987
• ISBN 13: 9781591843986
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272