Red Helicopter—a Parable for Our Times: Lead Change with Kindness (Plus a Little Math)

In this twee debut memoir, Rhee, founder of the investment firm FirePine Group, melds stories from his immigrant upbringing with reflections on his rescue of clothing brand Ashley Stewart. The secret to a successful career, he contends, is blending business acumen with empathy. The importance of kindness became apparent to him when as a child he shared his lunch with a friend whose widowed father forgot to pack him one (the grieving dad brought Rhee a toy helicopter as thanks). Making a tortured attempt to draw leadership advice from this anecdote, Rhee suggests that helicopters’ ability to hover should remind readers that “sometimes staying still” is the correct move because the answer is “right in front of us.” The author is at his best when reflecting on his family, poignantly recounting the frustrations caused by the language barrier between him and his parents, who emigrated from Korea to the U.S. in the 1960s. The material on how “kindness and math” helped him save Ashley Stewart from bankruptcy is trite by comparison, as when Rhee suggests that replacing fluorescent lights with LED bulbs constituted kindness because they lasted longer and so employees sustained fewer injuries climbing ladders to replace them. (By math, Rhee mostly just means paying attention to the bottom line.) Earnest meditations on family elevate this otherwise mawkish outing. (Apr.)