A few years ago, William Swanson, head of the world's biggest missile maker, sat down to write a little book containing the secrets of his greatness.

There is nothing unusual about this. Most chief executives like to dispense potted wisdom, and many think their aphorisms worthy of publication. Mr Swanson's rules, of which there were 33, were slightly above average for this lamentable literary genre. The content was the usual mixture of platitude, wishful thinking and plain dullness but the style was lucid enough, and the jargon content low.