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Joy At Work: A Revolutionary Approach To Fun On The Job
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 658.314
EAN: 9780976268604
Edition: 1
ISBN: 0976268604
Label: PVG
Manufacturer: PVG
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 314
Publication Date: March 07, 2005
Publisher: PVG
Studio: PVG
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Editorial Review:
Dennis Bakke was co-founder and eventually CEO of AES, a large energy company which grew to over $8 billion in annual revenue and over 40,000 employees. Bakke's Joy at Work is in part, a CEO memoir, as it chronicles AES's growth, complete with anecdotes about boardroom confrontations, employee relations, and new openings of production facilities. Joy at Work goes beyond the standard business tale, though: Bakke believes in moral values as ends in themselves, as opposed to means towards the end of greater financial return, and he's not afraid to say it.
A number of authors in recent years have made the case that companies which embody humanistic values, and which nurture uplifting cultures, come to house happier, more productive employees. "Values" should be embraced, the argument goes, because they lead to better business results. Bakke shuns such thinking. He wants "values" for values' sake--because he believes they are an integral part of the human experience, and one that daily work should incorporate. He argues that financial return is only one good alongside others. As Bakke writes at one point in Joy at Work: "Why should enriching shareholders be more important than producing quality products and selling them to customers at fair prices?"
Readers who start off sympathetic to Bakke's worldview will likely enjoy Bakke's book. "Joy at Work" is situated perfectly within values-led business literature, alongside books like Howard Schultzs Pour Your Heart Into It, the Body Shop's Anita Roddick (Take It Personally) and Ben & Jerry's Double Dip, by the ice-cream guys. Joy at Work provokes questions and warrants a read, if, for no reason other than its impressive string of blurbs from friends of the author: Everyone from President Bill Clinton to Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren vouches for Bakke and his gospel. --Peter Han
Imagine a company where people love coming to work and are highly productive on a daily basis. Imagine a company whose top executives, in a quest to create the most "fun" workplace ever, obliterate labor-management divisions and push decision-making responsibility down to the plant floor. Could such a company compete in todays bottom-line corporate world? Could it even turn a profit?
Well, imagine no more. In Joy at Work, Dennis W. Bakke tells the true story of this extraordinary companyand how, as its co-founder and longtime CEO, he challenged the business establishment with revolutionary ideas that could remake Americas organizations. It is the story of AES, whose business model and operating ethos "lets have fun"were conceived during a 90-minute car ride from Annapolis, Maryland, to Washington, D.C. In the next two decades, it became a worldwide energy giant with 40,000 employees in 31 countries and revenues of $8.6 billion.
Its a remarkable tale told by a remarkable man: Bakke, a farm boy who was shaped by his religious faith, his years at Harvard Business School, and his experience working for the Federal Energy Administration. He rejects workplace drudgery as a noxious remnant of the Industrial Revolution. He believes work should be fun, and at AES he set out to prove it could be. Bakke sought not the empty "fun" of the Friday beer blast but the joy of a workplace where every person, from custodian to CEO, has the power to use his or her God-given talents free of needless corporate bureaucracy. In Joy at Work, Bakke tells how he helped create a company where every decision made at the top was lamented as a lost chance to delegate responsibilityand where all employees were encouraged to take the "game-winning shot," even when it wasnt a slam-dunk.
Perhaps Bakkes most radical stand was his struggle to break the stranglehold of "creating shareholder value" on the corporate mind-set and replace it with more timeless values: integrity, fairness, social responsibility, and, above all, fun. And Bakke doesnt shrink from describing the assault on his leadership when AES was sucked into the Enron downdraft and faced a plunging stock price. At this moment of crisis, influential colleagues and directors distanced themselves from the values that had made AES one of the most celebrated companies in the world.
Joy at Work offers a model for the 21st-century company that treats its people with respect, gives them unprecedented responsibility, and holds them strictly accountablebecause its the right thing to do, not just because it makes good business sense. More than any book youve ever read, Dennis Bakkes Joy at Work will force you to question everything you thought you knew about corporate success.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - An inspiring story of a company where values mean more than profits
H. L. Mencken defined an idealist as, "One who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup." His clever definition suits entrepreneur and author Dennis W. Bakke, who learned that you need both rosy ideas and practical outcomes, and that sometimes - but not always - you can have them simultaneously. He and his partner, Roger Sant, founded the Applied Energy Services Corporation (AES), an international energy giant that now serves 100 million ... Read More
Rating: - Doing Well by Doing Good
This book is in the same category as BEN & JERRY'S: THE INSIDE SCOOP and NUTS: SOUTHWEST AIRLINES' CRAZY RECIPE FOR BUSINESS AND PERSONAL SUCCESS. The two things that make it unique are: 1) Bakke's thoughtful analysis of the conditions contributing to a joyful workplace (and the obstacles to creating these conditions) and 2) the fascinating fact that AES was (and is) a GLOBAL corporation.
Many people have observed that "humor doesn't cross boundaries." This is in fact true. But ... Read More
Rating: - People Are NOT Your Most Important Asset!
Finally! Here's a truth-telling CEO, with years of in-the-trenches experience, who practices what he preaches. Dennis Bakke thoughtfully dispels popular business myths, and he'll persuade you to think differently about your workplace. People are not "our most important asset." (People are people, not assets.) Customers are not always No. 1. (It's not that simple.) Gutsy CEOs will buy Joy at Work for every co-worker--and feed a revolution of joy in the workplace.
Rule #3 in Bakke's ... Read More
Rating: - Join the revolution
It is easy to by cynical about this book. You can sit back and say why Mr. Bakke's approach won't work with the people you have, in the industry that you are in, or with any number of the restrictions that you deal with. And you may be right. But there is reason not to keep an eye on the utopian goal of making work enjoyable, and at least to veer in that direction. How can one argue with a right-minded approach to making the world a better place?
Mr. Bakke was the founder and guiding ... Read More
Rating:  - Great concept, tends to be repitive and rambling, not tatical
I greatly admire the concepts and approaches defined in Joy At Work. No question there are many inciteful ideas that need to be applied to the American workplace. It is refreshing to read a business book that takes a very different approach than the overused "CEO" approach to leading a company to success. Books like "Good To Great" and "In Search of Excellence" are really missing the point that Joy AT Work captures.
However, Joy At Work suffers in the writing and lack of tangible application. ... Read More
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