The Initiate's Blog

About the Book

He's back. The Second Coming. Well, he said he would be – so no big surprise there then.

This time, the Coming has been really well researched. It's got a decent budget, a Steering Group and, of course, overall direction from Him in the Corner Office. The Base Location has been thought through. It's at the periphery of the old Roman Empire. It's on an island called England, which ticks a lot of boxes as far as history, heritage, culture, communications and language are concerned. And it doesn't have the death penalty. Unfortunately, the exact location turns out to be Burnley, and a lot of Unintended Consequences are brought into play.

The Mission this time will be to unite the planet – and not divide it as happened last time. The Ten Commandments will need re-writing.

The Universe at large is watching, so a daily (two-way) communication structure is set up with all (appropriate) Constellations. This book contains a record of the first six-months of these communications.

Talking of Unintended Consequences, the new hair-do and trimmed beard bring some. After all he's a single, good looking lad with his own car and (eventually) his own (terraced) house in Burnley. Bit of a target, really. Recruiting disciples doesn't get off to a promising start, with the project short on quality and quantity. His first public address is to a Golf Club Society dinner. There's a lot of alcohol. That which could go wrong does so.

About the Author

During his 5 years as the US-based Chairman/CEO of Burger King (world-wide), Lancastrian and long-suffering Manchester City fan Barry Gibbons received international acclaim for his performance (he was cited as a "Turnaround Champion" in Fortune magazine).

Having retired from big business (his choice), he is now an author, speaker and is co-founder of the UK publishing business Infinite Ideas.

He has made over 250 speeches to blue-chip corporate audiences on four continents. He aims to show audiences how to stay ahead in fast changing and unpredictable markets.

His first book (This Indecision is Final) was published in 1996, followed by If You Want To Make God Really Laugh, Show Him Your Business Plan (1998); Chronicles from Planet Business (2000); Dream Merchants and Howboys (2002); Warning: May Contain Nuts (2003); Speakeasy (2005) and Five Loaves, Two Fishes & Six Chicken Nuggets (2006 – reviewed with the author on Simon Mayo, BBC Five Live, Feb 2007).

The majority of these titles were published in the UK and USA, and most have been translated into at least one other language.

Driven by Spielberg's maxim ('If you want to engage, you MUST entertain), his speaking (Barry you are a madman. OK, visionary': Tom Peters) and his book titles (and contents), the author shows evidence of an irreverence and humour not normally associated with the dry world of business.

It was inevitable that these sometimes dysfunctional impulses would find an outlet in fiction…