Mark McCormack has made a fortune out of his International Marketing Group, which represents such luminaries as Tiger Woods, Monica Seles and Michael Schumacher. His entrepreneurial skill, which has turned athletes into global superstars and marketing icons, means that when he speaks on a subject he is listened to. If you go by the title of his latest offering, he seems to be about to do the same for the current global obsession, the Internet.
However, the title is a bit of a misnomer and smacks of opportunist marketing because the book is really about getting ahead, an obsession as old as time itself.
McCormack offers some advice to those who think the Internet is the be all and end all. It's just a tool, albeit a powerful one, and the fundamentals are still the same: the customer is king, the human touch is indispensable and you've got to work and watch your back if you want to shin up the greasy pole. In McCormack's world, work is the defining element and he brooks no argument to the contrary. He describes coming in to the office an hour early as "the huge perk of working before the rest of the world shows up".
His views on ideas are summed up thus: little ideas get little respect, big ideas get all the attention and applause and resources but the best ideas usually start out as little ideas and grow into big ideas.
Where McCormack differs from the plethora of such go-ahead get-ahead book is that he takes office politics seriously and dissects it as thoroughly as he does making deals, business etiquette or not being blinded by the next big thing (the Internet).
McCormack tells us to know your enemies but, more importantly, know your friends. He, helpfully, even compiles a list of what should be your frame of reference for your "friends". Top of the heap are those in your workplace who want you to succeed and includes people who watch your back. Further down the list are those who go out for a drink with you after work.
McCormack writes engagingly, but the only difference from the host of others offering such advice is his name. But then using names to shift units is something he knows all about.
comidheach@irish-times.ie
