Description: A definitive study of executive failures-why they happen and how to prevent them. There's a scenario that keeps repeating itself in today's business climate. A company is voted one of the most admired in the world. Then three or four years later, it's in dire financial trouble. A CEO is celebrated on the covers of BusinessWeek, Forbes, and Fortune. Soon after, the company is in the midst of a disastrous merger or some other fiasco. What goes wrong in these cases? Usually it seems that the top management made some incredibly stupid mistake. But the people responsible are almost always remarkably intelligent and usually have terrific track records. Even more puzzling than the fact that brilliant managers can make bad mistakes is the way they so often magnify the damage. Once a company has made a bad misstep, it often seems as though it can't do anything right. How does this happen? Instead of rectifying their mistakes, why do business leaders regularly make them worse? To answer these questions, Sydney Finkelstein has carried out the largest research program ever devoted to business breakdowns. In Why Smart Executives Fail, he uncovers-with startling clarity and unassailable documentation-the causes regularly responsible for major business breakdowns. Why Smart Executives Fail relates the stories of great business disasters and demonstrates that there are specific, identifiable ways in which many businesses regularly make themselves vulnerable to failure. The result is a truly indispensable, practical, must-have audiobook that explains the mechanics of executive breakdowns, how to avoid them, and what to do about them if they happen.
Brief description: Sydney Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management and director of the Center for Leadership at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, where he teaches courses on leadership and strategy. He is also the faculty director of the flagship Tuck Executive Program, and has experience working with executives at a number of other prestigious universities around the world. He holds degrees from Concordia University and the London School of Economics, as well as a PhD from Columbia University in strategic management. Sydney has published over twenty-five books and ninety articles, with several bestsellers, including Why Smart Executives Fail. On Fortune Magazine's list of Best Business Books, the Wall Street Journal called it "a marvel-a jargon-free business book based on serious research that offers genuine insights with clarity and sometimes even wit . . . It should be required reading not just for executives but for investors as well." It has also been featured in media around the world and has been translated into twelve languages.
Review Quotes:
"Casting off standard management fare, Finkelstein has raised eyebrows with his unconventional research...lessons are more profound say students."
-- "BusinessWeek"