The Bosses Speak Adam Rogers is an executive recruitment specialist who has turned to writing. The result is this book, based on interviews with twenty Chief’ Executives. Each top manager -- none of them famous names, surprisingly -- is .given a short chapter, and there is some introductory material and a conclusion. This means you can jump from one person to another, in any order, which is good for people who are too busy to read a book from cover to cover. For a management book it isn’t expensive, although whether it’s good value for money is doubtful. Some of the twenty interviewees started their own businesses, while others joined a company and worked their way up. Some are fairly new in their position, and others have had years of experience, though, strangely, Rogers doesn’t seem interested in these differences. The interviewees work in everything, from retailing to airlines to software, and it is this variety that forms the main theme of Rogers’s book. I have to say that Rogers’s approach annoys me. He rarely stays at a distance from his interviewees, who are mostly presented in their own, positive words. If this were always the case, at least you would know where you were. But he seems to dislike certain interviewees. As a result, I don’t know whether to accept any of his opinions. It also means that the book gives no clear lessons. At the very least, I expected to learn what makes a successful Chief Executive. But these people seem to share two types of qualities. Some of them are very common, suggesting that anyone can be equally successful, which is definitely not the ease. And the other qualities are ones which most successful bosses I’ve seen definitely do not have. So in the end I’m no wiser about what really goes on. Perhaps I’m being unfair. As long as you don’t think about whether you’d like them as friends, and pay no attention to most of the advice they give, the most readable parts are where the bosses describe their route to their present position. Rogers seems to think that his book would be useful for people aiming for the top, and that it might even make a few want to start their own company; but, in fact, what they could learn here is very limited. Seen as light business reading for a doctor or teacher, though, this book would provide some good entertainment. Which parts of the book did the reviewer most enjoy reading

A. How the interviewees became Chief Executives.
B. What sort of people the interviewees are.
C. The advice given by tile interviewees.