The Art of Business: Make All Your Work a Work of Art

by David McIntosh, Stan Davis, David McIntosh

Book Overview

All of us--business executives and artists, audiences and consumers--can benefit from seeing the world with both an aesthetic sensibility and a strategic bent. When you see yourself as an artist,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1576753026
• ISBN13: 9781576753026
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
• Length: 217 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 7.5"

Customer Reviews

A life-affirming book

"Outside the box" can be a good thing, in books, in business and in art. How often does a business book affirm the things that are most important in life (besides money?) I found this book inspiring and relaxing, not to mention spiritual. Highly recommended!

How to use artistic flow patterns to use emotion, imagination and intuition to improve the outputs o

Whether you're a student, a business executive or an aspiring artist, all can benefit from seeing the world through eyes blending aesthetic appreciation and strategy. Using the artist's eye, The Art Of Business: Make All Your Work A Work Of Art shows how to use artistic flow patterns to use emotion, imagination and intuition to improve the outputs of a job. Even a company can benefit from blending the two flows of aesthetic and emotional richness with strategic fine tuning, using The Art Of Business as a guide.

Making the arts more relevant for business majors

I discovered this book while searching for literature on creativity. As someone who teaches a required "arts appreciation" course at a mid-sized state university, I was delighted to find a number of things to share with my freshman students, many of whom are trying to get into our business school. An eclectic approach to subject matter usually helps professors "relate" better to their students in this course, and "The Art of Business" is an excellent addition to my library!

Seeing, Hearing and Acting on the AND Rather Than the OR

Many authors exhort us to hold two seemingly opposed notions in our mind if we want to make business breakthroughs. That idea is an important principle in the business classic, Built to Last. It's common for business experts to also espouse the idea of balancing perspectives such as the quantitative with the qualitative, the financial with a customer focus, and vision with practicality. More recently, some authors have started to see parallels between the worlds of the arts and business, such as in The Art of Possibility. The Art of Business represents the culmination of these new views of leadership by encouraging us to "make all your work a work of art." Although on the surface, that sounds simply like taking an artful and business-like approach, at a deeper level the book is addressing a very old tradition . . . that of craftsmanship -- creating something that rewards the soul as well as the body. The example in the book that resonated most with me was the new business model and product thinking behind the Apple iPod. If you are prepared to open your mind to more rewarding work and providing more rewards to those who employ your work in their lives, The Art of Business will help you expand your horizons in ways that will leave the world richer. This book will be of most value to those who understand a lot about how to manage what is . . . but aren't sure how to create what is needed, but doesn't exist yet. People who are interested in business model innovation will find this book contains powerful perspectives and paradigms that will enable that important work which I describe in The Ultimate Competitive Advantage. Bravo, Mssrs. David and McIntosh!

Art and business can learn from each other

The popular view is that art and business are separate spheres of life. If not incompatible, pretty close. What these authors do is make an excellent case that this is not true and specifically that there is much that business can learn from art. They then offer specific suggestions. It is a very interesting and thought provoking book. It made me think differently about business and even a bit differently about life in general. Well worth the read.