Reading List: The Business Romantic

Businesses today need an infusion of wonder, enchantment and mystery, contends self-described business romantic Tim Leberecht, chief marketing officer of the global design and architecture firm NBBJ.

In Leberecht’s lexicon, a business romantic “embraces hope as a strategy… delivers return-on-community, and develops, designs and implements ‘acts of significance,’ that restore… trust in business as the most impactful human enterprise.” Business romantics “bring the art of life” to their companies and strive to find deeper meaning and fulfillment in their lives.

In The Business Romantic, Leberecht encourages individuals, startups and established companies to create opportunities for informality and to build serendipitous encounters into their organizational design. He also shares a series of starry-eyed “Rules of Enchantment” for people and organizations to follow. The author claims that after reading this book, “you will have more ways to open yourself up to the delights, the mysteries, the moments of transcendence… of an everyday life in business.” The book’s message doesn’t quite jell. Even so, Leberecht’s fresh approach and storytelling skills make it worthwhile.

by Tim Leberecht

January
HarperBusiness; $27.99