Anyone familiar with bipolar disorder understands and appreciates the challenges and gifts that this mental health condition bestows upon those who have it. Industry executive Todd Hagopian, who has worked for such prestigious organizations as Whirlpool and Bevcorp, successfully melds personal experience and business expertise in this book’s biographical introduction of his business model—Hypomanic Operational Turnaround (HOT)—which is based on the high level of creativity and energy that can be harnessed and transformed from episodes of hypomania that he learned to channel to his advantage.

The brief but detailed and frank introduction is followed by an allegorical novel that illustrates and applies all points of Hagopian’s Hypomanic Toolbox concept to a fictional shopping cart manufacturer’s struggling organization. The story of the manufacturer’s near-demise and subsequent overhaul by an open-minded but desperate business director with suggestions from a popular, bipolar billionaire industrialist with revolutionary, forward-looking ideas is, in many regards, not only potentially inspiring to business people but to anyone dealing with the mood fluctuations bipolar disorder causes.

The accessible prose and clearly delineated plot and characters serve well as an inspirational, illustrative business guide. Despite occasionally uneven prose, the tale is entertaining and engaging. What could be a less universally read and prescriptive non-fiction narrative filled with tedious lists, steps, and spreadsheets is brought to greater life with the drama of fictional Cartwell Manufacturing. The essence of the plot and assigning the disorder to mentor Eugene Sharp works well to illustrate Hagopian’s creative business concept, which deserves consideration by many industries.

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