Already familiar on TV screens, Carolyn Kepcher makes a semi-successful transition into print with Carolyn 101, Business Lessons From The Apprentice’s Straight Shooter (with Stephen Fenichell, 2005, Simon and Schuster Inc, 222 pages).
Couch-potatoes easily recognize Kepcher as the real-estate tycoon Donald Trump’s sidekick on the New York-based reality show The Apprentice, which has tested candidates for lucrative jobs in The Trump Organization.
The book’s title rings false. Kepcher may have “shot straight” at the would-be apprentices, but when Trump spoke, she and colleague George Ross always nodded their heads, ready to spit-shine his shoes.
A three-page foreword by Trump contributes little beyond saying how he met Kepcher and to suggest that readers should heed her words because he taught her well. One wonders if their mutual admiration survived after she recently left his employ.
Valuable content surfaces when Kepcher offers entertaining and perhaps useful career advice, including a strategy to climb corporate ladders. She simplifies and highlights the best nuggets for easy reference. For example:
“You might have the title, you might have the salary, you might have the car and the perks, but you don’t have the job until you’ve proven yourself.
“Once you’re the boss, you need to know the answers – or at least where to find them.
“Never forget that today’s mailroom clerk could be tomorrow’s manager.
“A sincere and heartfelt apology gets you more respect than trying to wriggle out of owning up to a mistake.”
In the most insightful passages, Kepcher probes the perils of office politics, such as dealing with ineffective or vindictive supervisors. She recommends loyalty, but not in all situations. Torpedoing a boss sometimes protects everyone else, including the company: “It’s appropriate to go above your boss’s head when he or she is managing you to fail.”
Ultimately, Kepcher reinforces her reputation as a savvy business-woman. Readers may enjoy Carolyn 101 and even learn a little.
Approval rating: 62 per cent.
For more information: www.simonsays.com.
(December 26, 2006)
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