Sure, Bama has built a 1,000-person food manufacturing operation in Tulsa over eight decades, and the company has continued to grow under the direction of Marshall during the last quarter century.

But “Finding the Soul of Big Business,” released earlier this month by Yorkshire Publishing, is a one-person management manifesto about how to run a private company with a long-term focus.

Marshall takes a swipe at Wall Street firms for their focus solely on quarter-to-quarter results, and at MBA programs and the tyrannical chief executive.

Even the book’s subtitle, “One Company’s Ego Elimination Strategy,” gives a notso- subtle hint that many companies and CEOs possess warped priorities about running a business.

“What if management’s job was to keep the company in business for twenty-five, fifty or one hundred years,” Marshall writes. “I can assure you the decisions would be dramatically different if they were managing for three generations from now, instead of next quarter’s profit.

Marshall’s book is a mix of the philosophies that have made her a successful CEO of a multimillion-dollar business.

She mixes the constant improvement philosophies of Six Sigma with management philosophies of W. Edward Deming and Stephen Covey.

“Too often CEOs are focused on

“Reporting statistics and share earnings does not qualify a manager as a leader.

“Finding the Soul” gives some tried and true advice for owners and managers looking for a way to create a better business atmosphere and improve productivity. In the book, Marshall rails against fear-driven workplaces, quotas and ranking systems.

While the Marshall name may be known only locally and in food industry circles, the same book written by Warren Buffett would be on best-seller lists everywhere and extolled as the new way to think about business.