Life is funny. And so is business sometimes, even when we don’t want it to be.

From his platform as a senior house writes for executives at IBM. HP. MasterCard, Arthur D. Little, Symphony Services and other companies, an American author has complied a remarkable and often amusing series of insights into what works and what doesn’t work in the art of doing business in the global economy. The title comes from a Hindu proverb about a frog and his need to see more of the world than just the narrow confines of the well in which he lives.

Customs and cultures may vary, but business professionals around the world today are more alike than they are different. The key difference, and often the difference between success and failure, is how both junior and senior people approach the soft arts: How do you size up the “other guy”? How do you deal with different personality types? How do you get people to do things? How do you make convincing presentations, sell a plan to senior management, and make the best use blogs, wikis, and the tiresome world of PowerPoint’s? One chapter is devoted to “Three good things and three bad things you should know about American business people.” In one sentence, this book is about helping people in business understand each other.