The Forward-Focused Organization: Visionary Thinking and Breakthrough Leadership to Create Your Company's Future.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey
• Position: Review

By Stephen C. Harper. Amacom, 259 pages. $27.95.

The highlight of Harper's book is really the ending, where, in two appendices, he offers "One Hundred Ways to Self-Destruct as a Leader" and "One Hundred Ways to Drive Away Customers." While nothing here is laugh-out-loud funny, his precepts show how negative thinking can be downright dangerous to leaders and their companies.

While the book jacket extols Harper's "blueprint" for "positioning your company in the forefront of breakthrough leadership, anticipatory management, innovative systems and revolutionary culture" -- it's often hard to see that blueprint. The Forward-Focused Organization consists largely of a series of maxims fleshed out with quotes from (or anecdotes about) people chosen to amplify...