Camelot, Inc.

Book excerpt: This fresh and insightful examination of modern leadership and management issues uses the surprisingly relevant stories of King Arthur and Camelot to illustrate the do's and don'ts of achieving success. The many examples of popular movies, television shows, books, comics, and theatrical plays based upon the character of King Arthur or stories of Camelot provide proof of how firmly rooted they are in mainstream culture. Accordingly, King Arthur and Camelot provide a perfect vehicle to communicate important leadership and management concepts that are completely applicable to today's institutions—lessons that the author appropriately terms "Camelot wisdom," as opposed to "conventional wisdom." Camelot, Inc.: Leadership and Management Insights from King Arthur and the Round Table traces Arthur's evolution from awkward youth to compassionate King to tired ruler, explaining how he learned, developed his leadership philosophy, established a vision and mission, created success, communicated, and failed to confront issues, leading to his decline. This unprecedented examination of Arthur's life illuminates many of today's most pressing leadership challenges, including retaining knowledge; developing coherent plans and proposals; building internal and external advocacy; performing effective negotiation, team building, and success planning; maintaining ethical standards, innovation, and flexibility; and moving from vision to execution.