Big Picture, Small Office, a quilt of 150 closely-knit anecdotes featuring an ensemble cast of recurring characters, lets you experience the hilarious, the heartbreaking, the peculiar, and the poignant moments of corporate life.

An affair between a buyer and a supplier starts tentatively, progresses haltingly and, finally, blossoms catastrophically. A presentation to a group of Norwegian retailers goes awry when lunch - a contrivance of meatballs in a cream sauce with pickled cucumber and lingonberries - makes its presence felt. An ominous shadow creeps over a midwestern plant when a disgruntled employee threatens reprisals. In a burst of unfathomable rudeness and conjugal disregard, a customer unloads on his wife. Hollywood comes calling. Will the powers that be allow one of its operations to be the setting for a spy thriller?

Big Picture, Small Office is a highly entertaining reflection of human nature... at its best and at its worst. It is, at the same time, a celebration of the human spirit, a spirit that, in its collective form, perseveres and, at times, soars to unexpected heights. It is a celebration of those - like the redoubtable leader and CEO of the Small Office, the Man from Glad - who never compromise their integrity, never lose their dignity, and never give up on humanity.

Big Picture, Small Office is also a useful treatise on management, leadership, strategic thinking, and personal relationships. It educates even as it titillates. Think of it as a latter-day collection of Aesop's Fables with a corporate twist. Unlike Aesop's Fables, however, its literary style is sardonic - like a Starbucks' French Roast coffee, it is dark and delicious. At least on the good days.