cover image The Power of Many: Values for Success in Business and in Life

The Power of Many: Values for Success in Business and in Life

Meg Whitman, Joan O'C Hamilton. Crown Publishing Group (NY), $26 (277pp) ISBN 978-0-307-59121-0

Having helped shepherd Ebay, one of the few online commercial success stories, from a $4 million business to an $8 billion behemoth, former president and CEO Whitman reveals her methods in her debut, as much a memoir of her tenure at Ebay as a guidebook for struggling MBAs. Though timed to coincide with her California gubernatorial run (the out-of-place last chapter includes her reasons for running, and a defense of friend and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney), Whitman crafts an engaging and not altogether opportunistic narrative that spells out solid business values, a no-nonsense approach to work, and thoughts on corporate integrity centered around practical advice for employees, managers and business leaders (""Be authentic. You can't buy integrity""; ""Enfranchise and validate""; ""Prune distractions""). In an era of bloated corporate profits and downsized prospects for average workers, Whitman's sincere commitment to and insights regarding community-building are refreshing, and should prove helpful for entrepreneurs and voters seeking information about the probable candidate.