Many Unhappy Returns: One Man's Quest to Turn Around the Most Unpopular Organization in America

From Publishers Weekly
A successful businessman but political neophyte, Rossotti was appointed commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service in 1997; this book is a matter-of-fact recounting of his five-year tenure, which included many of President Bush's changes to the code. An entertaining insider's account, it reads like the bureaucratic equivalent of a police procedural. With refreshing clarity, Rossotti describes such impediments as political pressure from the White House and the "senseless issues that the [IRS] lawyers insisted on pursuing." None of the villains are identified by name, but the author's determination to name and praise everyone who helped sometimes make the book read like an overlong Academy Awards acceptance speech. It succeeds as a management case study, clearly laying out Rossotti's initial analysis of apparently intractable problems, followed by the development of strategies for change, the recruitment of stakeholders and the use of skills and tricks required to shepherd the process to a successful conclusion. And the book demonstrates that dedication by honest and talented managers can produce results (even if one disagrees with them). It's also an inspiring bit of political truth telling. (Mar. 8) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
In 1998, with public opinion of the IRS at an all-time low, Rossotti was hired as IRS commissioner. He faced the daunting task of reorganizing the behemoth organization, which had not been done since 1952. With the public and Congress clamoring for heads to roll, Rossotti was under the microscope. He was facing woefully outdated technology, including a telephone system that was busy 99 percent of the time, creaky computers with code that had been written in the 1970s that were about to collapse with the impending doom of Y2K, and a terrible system of quotas that ensured that American taxpayers were being, in many cases, persecuted and buried under red tape. Rossotti describes how he took on this challenge, which required delicacy, diplomacy, and bold initiative. Under his leadership the IRS has become more customer-friendly and moved into the information age: the IRS Web site is accessed more than nearly any other, and 40 percent of federal tax returns were filed online last year. David Siegfried
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


USA Today, March 28, 2005
"Rossotti comes through in the book as smart… and blessed with a sense of humor."


Book Description
No one believed the IRS could ever run like a twenty-first-century business. Until it did. When Charles O. Rossotti became Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service in 1997, the agency had the largest customer base-and the lowest approval rating-of any institution in America. Mired in scandal, caught in a political maelstrom, and beset by profound management and technology problems, the IRS was widely dismissed as a hopelessly flawed enterprise. In Many Unhappy Returns, Rossotti-the first businessperson to head the IRS-recounts the remarkable story of his leadership and transformation of this much-maligned agency. In the glare of intense public scrutiny, he effected dramatic changes in the way the IRS did business-while it continued to collect $2 trillion in revenue. Through fascinating accounts of heated Congressional hearings, encounters with Washington bigwigs, frank exchanges with taxpayers and employees, and risky turnaround strategies, Rossotti serves up a colorful story of leadership and change against daunting odds. He also underscores why every honest taxpayer should demand reform in the broader U.S. tax system. Infused with keen wit and hard-won business wisdom, Many Unhappy Returns illuminates the perils and possibilities of leading large, complex organizations in a transparent world.


About the Author
Charles O. Rossotti is a Senior Advisor for the Carlyle Group in Washington, D.C. He served as IRS Commissioner from 1997 to 2002, and, prior to that, as Cofounder, Former Chairman, and CEO of American Management Systems, Inc.


Buy from Amazon     Compare Prices

Charles O. Rossotti is a Senior Advisor for the Carlyle Group in Washington, D.C. He served as IRS Commissioner from 1997 to 2002, and, prior to that, as Cofounder, Former Chairman, and CEO of American Management Systems, Inc.


Buy from Barnes & Noble     Compare Prices