Review of Book

Introduction and Objective

The objective of this document is to review Mario Puzo’s 1969 novel The Godfather and to list and explain some of the management lessons one can learn from it. It details the story of a fictitious Sicilian Mafia family based in New York City (and Long Beach, New York) and headed by Don Vito Corleone, who became synonymous with the Italian Mafia. The book introduced Italian criminal terms like consigliere, caporegime, Cosa Nostra, and omertà to an English-speaking audience. The subsequent sections of this document consists of a summary of the novel (in a chronological fashion rather than the order in which it appears in the novel), followed by several key management-related learnings from the novel with an explanation for each of these items, followed by ending comments.

Summary of the novel

The future patriarch of the Corleone family, Vito Andolini is sent to America for his safety after the murder of his father by the local mafia in Sicily. He assumes the name Vito Corleone upon his arrival. He earns a honest living by working in the grocery store run by the Italian Abbandando family in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. He befriends their son Genco who is like a brother to him.

He befriends two petty criminals Clemenza and Tessio, both of whom would pay key roles in his organization. His first major offence is the murder of Don Fanucci who was the local extortionist and who demands money from Vito Corleone, Clemenza and Tessio. With the murder of Fanucci, Vito Corleone earns respect and fear. He starts providing favours to local people in exchange for their loyalty and some future return of favour. He starts an olive oil company Genco Pura (named after his friend and associate Genco Abbandando) which would later become one of the biggest olive oil importers in the country.

Slowly but surely he also enters other illegal activities such as bootlegging(which fetches him a very good profit during the Prohibition era). He also...