Mob Rules: What the Mafia Can Teach the Legitimate Businessman

by Louis Ferrante

Overview

The average Mafia don knows more about effective leadership than a trunkful of Fortune 500 CEOs.

For all the mob's well-deserved reputation for violence and immorality, its most successful members have always been remarkably astute businessmen. Former mobster Louis Ferrante reveals their surprisingly effective management techniques and explains how to apply them in any legitimate business.

As an associate of the Gambino Family, Ferrante pulled off some of the biggest heists in U.S. history before the age of twenty-one, netting millions of dollars. His natural talent for management led bosses like John Gotti to rely on him. Now he offers time-tested Mafia wisdom, such as:

• Three can keep a secret (if two are dead): Build trust with your colleagues.

• You don't always need a gun to hit a target: Lead people without force.

• It's never personal: When circumstances demand it, never hesitate to pull the trigger.

Ferrante brings his real-life experience to the book, offering fascinating insights into Mafia behavior and sharing behind-the-scenes episodes almost as outrageous as those occurring on Wall Street every day.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781591843986
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/02/2011
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.66(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.97(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Louis Ferrante is a former Mafia associate and heist expert who served eight and a half years in prison after refusing to incriminate members of the Gambino Family. After his release, he wrote a memoir of life in the Mafia that won enthusiastic reviews. Ferrante now lectures around the country to at-risk teens and other groups. Visit louisferrante.com.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Ferrante shares cogent advice for employees, middle managers, and bosses. A colorful and surprisingly practical business primer.”
—Publishers Weekly

“One of the wisest and wittiest collections of reflections on life and business ever penned by a wiseguy.”
—Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Editorial Reviews

Sopranos fans, take heart: it turns out the mob is not only full of ethical heavyweights but an excellent example for business wisdom seekers. Ferrante (Unlocked) spent years in the Gambino crime family, finally choosing to go straight while in prison. He shares his wisdom with cubicle jockeys and nervous managers everywhere—and reveals that aboveboard businesses are far more nefarious than the organized-crime variety. Ferrante argues that no self-respecting loan shark would offer the terms of your average credit card company, and even the Mafia doesn't employ the tactics of a collection agency. Through stories of his own compatriots and famous mobsters, Ferrante shares cogent business advice for employees, middle managers, and bosses: make them an offer they can't refuse (offer to work on commission), harness the power of networking, make your own luck, motivate your people, never embarrass someone in public, reward loyalty. Though Ferrante paints a somewhat unbelievably sunny picture of organized crime, if readers can get past the gimmick, they'll find a colorful and surprisingly practical business primer. (June)

Publishers Weekly

A veteran mobster who walked away from "The Life" with his head held high offers road-tested life lessons that served him well inside and outside La Cosa Nostra.

Some Mafia dons have their heads blown off. Others live long enough to expire peacefully in their own beds. In either event, Ferrante—who left prison behind eight years ago to become a well-respected author—insists that today's CEOs, middle managers and employees would do well to learn a thing or two from their counterparts in the underworld. Building his case in concise, economical prose, Ferrante draws on an extensive knowledge of world events, mob lore and personal experience to deliver an engrossing sophomore effort that reads like a rousing memoir, meditation on world history and Mafia exposé all in one. Who would have thought that George Washington had so much in common with Lucky Luciano, the "Founding Father" of the American mob, or that there was something good to be said for "Scarface" Al Capone? In eschewing mob violence, Ferrante has nonetheless retained an appreciation for the way the mob operates as a successful business enterprise. When it works, Ferrante writes, it's a blueprint for the way businesses in the "legit" world ought to operate. And when it doesn't, it's a sobering cautionary tale for every over-reaching CEO, power-hungry middle manager and clueless employee.

Punctuated with the dark humor you'd expect from a graduate of the streets, a thoughtful treatise with implications far outside the boardroom.

Kirkus Reviews

Ferrante shares cogent advice for employees, middle managers, and bosses. A colorful and surprisingly practical business primer.”
—Publishers Weekly

“One of the wisest and wittiest collections of reflections on life and business ever penned by a wiseguy.”
—Fort Worth Star-Telegram

From the Publisher