The Book Club's next meeting will be on March 4th and the plan is to meet in a City Centre location (tbd) on the first Thursday of each month thereafter.  Two books will be chosen, one business, one other and there will be a rotation of participants to ‘lead' the reviews.  All MBA Association members are welcome – the more the merrier.  If you're interested in attending, email John Dooly at jcdooly@yahoo.com in advance.

Note: The titles for the next ECBC book club meeting are
 
1) Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime. By John Heilemann and Mark Halperin
 
2) The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right - Atul Gawande
 
Participants may read either or both.

Book Review: Back from the Brink

Marc Coleman's presentation to the MBA Association was riveting enough to result in a sell out of his most recent book on the evening.   But did the book live up to its glowing reviews? The newly formed Eastern Chapter Book Club put "Back to the Brink"  through its paces at their inaugural meeting.

[[PHOTO553]]Back from the Brink, Ireland's Road to Recovery by Marc Coleman Reviewed by the Eastern Chapter Book Club (ECBC)) 
  
Coleman unsurprisingly approaches his topic in typical MBA fashion – posit a theory "20-20 Vision The Best is (Still) yet to Come" an executive summary type-approach that alludes to his previous offering and that outlines his basic thinking; paint the background through detailed research (body of the book) and then deliver a solution or "seven-year strategy" (conclusions) that will allow Ireland Inc to recover.  

The work, while both serious and detailed, is never too heavy, is replete with insights into where we are and how we got here and his conclusions provide one roadmap that might be adopted to, as he says, "reclaim the Republic by 2016".  Five areas are seen as crucial:
• Reducing the State Sector Bill;
• Rescue & Reform the Banking Sector;
• Control Public Spending;
• Re-shape the Tax Base
• Build a Smart Economy. 

In and of themselves, none of these are particularly new but by putting them all together, Coleman brings his own clarity, strategic thinking and, dare one say, leadership to the table - traits bereft in most of our current crop of politicians.  Not one to sit on the fence, the reader is left in no doubt as to Coleman's convictions.

In brief, "Back from the Brink" is not bedtime reading but it is a must-read for anyone who firstly has an interest in the successful future of Ireland's economy and secondly wants to see a clear path mapped out to deliver that future.