Since publishing Life Under the Corporate Microscope, I've heard from dozens of my old cohorts, some of whom I hadn't seen in years, telling me they'd read it and really enjoyed it. In fact, many of them couldn't put it down once they started reading it; and there were no adhesives to cause that situation. They just couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen next.
In broader terms, the book gives my irreverent perspective of life in Corporate America; specifically, with Enterprise Rent-a-Car, a company that grew to mammoth proportions while I was under its employ for 26 years (1974-2000). As I narrate my way through a successful career, which would ultimately make me a multi-millionaire from a wonderful, incentive based commission pay-plan (the more profit I generated for the company, the more money I made, individually); I take the reader along for a wild and fun-filled (often hilarious) ride, from my humble beginnings in St Louis, to my lucrative conclusion, living a very nice life in Las Vegas.
What makes the book so compelling for anybody associated with Enterprise (and that's a lot of people) is how the company went from a relatively small, regional-based operation when I first started, to go on to become the massive (maybe "too massive for its own good") corporation they are nowadays.
Not long ago, Enterprise was making so much money, they usually raked in more profit each year than all the other car rental companies, combined. Lately, times have been tough, they're having trouble making any decent profit, and they even resorted to laying off thousands of employees, last fall, with about 200 of them coming from their overstaffed bureaucratic headquarters in St Louis.
What my book does is bridge the gap between the corporate perspective on what a wonderful company they are, never admitting they ever made a mistake, to reality.
The reality is they're basically about like any other big corporation; no better, no worse. At times, they were a great place to work, and paid guys like me an awful lot of money to run our businesses. Other times, they were a company that seemed to distance themselves from the front-line employees, while creating a new corporate culture of micro-managing, finger pointing and backstabbing.
At times, they were the classiest company on the planet, and most of us felt proud to be working for them. Other times they seemed callous and treacherous, creating a climate of " fear" permeating the corporation.
I think the time is right for a different perspective on this slice of Corporate America, blemishes and all. I suppose it was my job to do that; it was an enjoyable project to write, edit and now market, I suppose for the rest of my life. After all, word of mouth advertising is great, but in this instant information age of the internet, there are so many other marketing options to decide to use, it's mind-boggling; and it's also making me blog a lot; which is also mind-boggling, to say the least.
I think you'll love the book, and for more information on it, please visit my other web-site: http://www.outskirtspress.com/LarryUnderwood
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