Alice in Corporate Wonderland: Down the Long Hallway

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Lenny's description:
Talasek's Alice is studying towards her MBA degree at Ivy League University. One day, while preparing herself for her final exams, she falls asleep. In her dream, Alice is thrusted into the world of corporate America.

We follow Alice during her first chaotic day of work at the company Wonderland, Inc., when she goes off to explore corporate programs, policies, and self-aggrandizing executives, manifested as a menagerie of familiar characters from the original Alice in Wonderland story.

Seller's description:
The world knows and loves the character created by Lewis Carroll in Alice's Adventure in Wonderland. Over 150 years later, Alice is all grown up and a freshly minted Ivy League MBA. She is thrust into the world of corporate America, much to her own surprise and chagrin. Still wide-eyed, idealistic, and a little spoiled, she quickly finds out that the real world is nothing like what she learned about in school. Follow Alice as she explores this new, fantastic, and somewhat insane world of corporate programs, policies, and self-aggrandizing executives, manifested as a menagerie of familiar characters from the original work of her childhood.


Product details:

Item number (ASIN): 1413796818
Author: R.T. Talasek Ph.D.
Dewey Decimal Number: 338
ISBN: 1413796818
Manufacturer: PublishAmerica
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 82
Package Dimensions: 20 x 590 x 880 (hundredths-inches)
Publication Date: August 15, 2005
Publisher: PublishAmerica
Binding: Paperback

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Rating: - Alice in Corporate Wonderland: Down the Long Hallway
Loosely based upon the classic story of Alice in Wonderland, sometimes very loosely (the seven dwarves do make a very amusing appearance), Alive in Corporate Wonderland is both entertaining and so close to the truth that it is scary. The story starts with young Alice studying, or rather being distracted while attempting to study, for her accounting exam. Alice is a somewhat spoiled girl whose Daddy is paying her way through college and whose only real goal is to marry well. Therefore, when Alice falls asleep and finds herself in Wonderland, Inc (a somewhat exaggerated version of the worst aspects of the real world), the reader will feel very little pity for the underachiever. Moreover, as the story continues, the reader will note hierarchical cliques, positions that have no real purpose, and bureaucracy at its worst that he or she has likely experienced first hand in his or her own corporate experiences. This only makes the storyline that much more entertaining and hilarious. Beware the real world, it will make Alice in Wonderland look like kid stuff!

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Rating: - Talasek Has Succeeded Admirably In Depicting The Madness of Corporate America
Lewis Caroll's classic tale of Alice Adventures in Wonderland was first published in 1865 and is still a favorite among young readers. Most of us will remember this children's story as a tale filled with satire references to the author's friends and to the lessons that British schoolchildren were expected to memorize. R.T. Talasek has now reincarnated this famous tale with his loose adaptation, Alice In Corporate Wonderland: Down The Long Hallway. Talasek informs us in the Prologue that hopefully the reader will realize that the similarities between the two stories are frightening, with some allowances for the passage of time and change of venue. It should be pointed out that Talasek worked in the corporate world for over twenty-five years and the story draws from this experience. Talasek's Alice is studying towards her MBA degree at Ivy League University and one day while preparing herself for her final exams, she falls asleep. In dreamland Alice meets up with a woman dressed in a white linen suit and matching white shoes, who towers over her. Alice is quite perturbed! Who is this woman, whom she compares to a rabbit with her "floppy hair ears." Moreover, Alice does not know if she herself works in this building or why is she here. Finally, Alice is informed by the woman that she is the senior assistant to the president and people call her WR. Alice is instructed to follow WR to her first meeting and that Wonderland Industries values punctuality. WR tells Alice what Wonderland Industries is all about however Alice admits she has no idea what WR is talking about, as the descriptions and jargon she hears make little sense. Unfortunately, Alice can't keep up with WR and looses her in the corridors. Feeling abandoned and confused Alice is now left to find her way to her first meeting. No one is around to aid her and the windowless hallway seems to go on endlessly. Eventually, Alice runs into a group of seven men singing "Hi, Ho, Hi, Ho, it's off to work we go!" Sound familiar? Are these our seven dwarfs? Only this time they are dressed in Brooks Brothers business suits of varied shades of blue and gray. All of these employees seemed to be programmed and are not exactly sure as to what their respective responsibilities are in Wonderland Industries. Although, they do understand that in order to survive and keep their jobs they must tow the company line, otherwise they will be history. Alice is finally approached by a short man with thinning hair, large ears and a round head, who beckons Alice to a room filled with row after row of steel desks, badly in need of paint. He tells Alice that he has been looking all over for her and that her help is needed, as she definitely is management by the way she is dressed and they need a management representative as a sponsor. Again, Alice is perplexed, as she has no idea what Mr. Mouse (Alice's nickname for the gentleman) is talking about. As we follow Alice during her first chaotic day of work, we have to ask ourselves how do you rationally expect employees to grasp and understand America's ambiguous corporate "la la" land where there are sometimes vague norms, values and expectations that supposedly are to serve as unifying the workforce and strengthen a company's success. The characters that make up this corporate world are very often bizarre and "off the wall" with little or no direction. New and even old employees constantly face the taunting challenge of comprehending both the norms of the company as well as communicating in a somewhat new language while adapting to a sometimes ambiguous culture. Conveying thoughts, ideas, beliefs and feelings to another individual is never an easy task. Some authors choose the straight forward method and others rely on various techniques as allegory, parables, symbolism, metaphor, and irony in an effort to reach their readers. Talasek has succeeded admirably in conveying his thoughts and feelings pertaining to corporate America's madness with the clever use of Carroll's characters and the loose similarity with the original story line. Norm Goldman, Editor Bookpleasures

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Rating: - Alice All Grown Up
Reviewed by Cathy Yanda for Reader Views (5/06) Having met Lewis Carroll's Alice when I was a child, it was fun to be re-introduced to her now that she has an Ivy League MBA and is beginning her first job in corporate America. R.T. Talasek brings together characters from the original "Alice's Adventure in Wonderland", other children's stories, movies and rock-n-roll. "Alice in Corporate Wonderland" begins with Alice studying for her finals and nodding off to find herself at Wonderland, Inc. for her first day on the job. Alice, in typical fashion, gets separated from everyone and is lost in a long hallway. She decides to quiz a group of vertically challenged men, bearing a strong resemblance to the Seven Dwarfs, she runs across in the hallway. She discovers they are blindly loyal to the company and simply do what they are told. As she quizzes further..."But don't you know how your assignments tie to the goals of the company? How do you activities tie to the long-range strategic plan of the organization? How do you know when you are successful in completing your task when you don't know what your goals are?"...the men are perplexed and reply, simply..."Now, we must return to the assignments that our supervisors have given us, because we know that it is imperative to the success of the company, and that we will be rewarded for our efforts"... R.T. Talasek weaves many more valuable lessons into this brief volume of corporate adventures. At one point, Alice is told by Castillo Erpillar (Cat), her mentor at Wonderland, Inc., that she would read "Sun Tzu: The Art of War" is she wants to learn how to be successful at Wonderland Industries. Alice recalls that this is not the first time she has been advised to read this book. Perhaps in the next adventure of Alice she will have picked up a copy and applied some of the wisdom. She reflects on some wisdom later, "Better to retreat and live to fight another day..." not sure whether it was from Sun Tzu or Top Gun. She decides at that point that maybe Cat had been right about the book. "Alice in Corporate Wonderland" is a well-written, concise volume which would be a valuable asset to anyone newly entering the corporate world. It also offers a fresh perspective to those who have been there for years.