Going for the Green

" What links business, politics, and power? Money? Patronage? No. The answer is golf, and no one knows this more than award-winning National Post columnist and bestselling author Robert Thompson. Going for the On the Links with Canada's Business and Political Elite chronicles the thoughts, successes, failures, and philosophies of Canada's top business and political leaders as they play a casual round of golf with Robert Thompson, one of Canada's best-known business and sports writers. Removed from the confines of their plush offices and freed of their suits and ties, Canada's top business and political minds relax and offer insights into their lives and their work, proving that you can learn more from spending four hours on the golf course than a week in the boardroom." Excerpt "It turns out that even with drivers, personal assistants, and access to the greatest golf courses in the world, all the powerful want is a reliable drive and the ability to get up and down from a bunker occasionally. They may have spent their days running some of the biggest companies in the country, but their ambitions on the course were usually not that grand. I found most Canadian power brokers were not unlike weekend hacks who take time out to play on a $25 municipal golf course. Surprisingly few of them did business on the course. Issues relating to their companies would often come up, especially when golfing with other executives, but rarely would a deal arise on a golf course. Some became pissed off when business was brought up on the course. While it might come as a surprise to those who have never had the good fortune to set foot on a Toronto Golf Club or the impeccable fairways of Mount Bruno, some clubs actually would rather have business dealt with elsewhere. In their minds, a club is a club, not a boardroom. What I found at most clubs was that golf among the country's top leaders was more about developing relationships and learning about those with whom you worked and did business."