The reason for reading Charles Handy

I notices the price tag on Beyond Certainty was in Chinese. My bookmark is the stub of my boarding pass and it shows Taipei. I realised I bought Beyond Certainty in my trip to Taipei and checking the entries in May 10, I probably bought it at 1010 bookshop. I usually give books by Charles Handy in Kinokuniya a miss because the titles do not sound interesting to me. Also it is right beside my favorite guru, Peter Drucker.

I am glad I bought Beyond Certainty and there were many articles (this book is a collections of essays) I like and was summarize in my other entries in May and June. I like the article "When Arithmetic Doesn't Count". It describes very aptly the weakness of having too many accountants.

"If you can't count it, it doesn't count." He articulates well. Some of his best and cleverest and wisest friends are accountants. Their quality is not at issue. What is at issue is what they count. Accountants were trained, and still largely are, to be auditors first and foremost - society's inspectors, conditioned to look backward rather than forward, to be cautious in their estimates, to shun risk, and to count only what the can put their finger on and cross their hearts about. It is a way of thinking entirely appropriate for auditors but not always best for the leaders of growing business.

This has describes so well some companies I know that I decides to read his other books. I am now on the Empty Raincoat. Harvard Business published it as The Age of Paradox. It is very interesting concept he expounds.