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Summary: Same old, same old
Review: An interesting compendium of prominent management failures (oddly reminiscent of a B-school casebook), but far from thought-provoking. If you've taken Management 101, you'll recognize this book's bottom line: managers are human, and the companies they lead are far from perfect.
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Summary: Couldn't Put It Down
Review: As a MBA and manager, I've been reading business books for years, and we all know what that can be like. Weak research, spotty stories, stilted prose. When I picked up Why Smart Executives Fail (don't judge a book by its cover, but this cover is great), it seemed like I was entering a different genre. The writing is highly entertaining, the stories are fascinating, and the author's (Finkelstein is a b-school prof from Dartmouth) insights are nuanced and carefully drawn. It's hard to imagine a business book being a page-turner, but this one is as close as I've ever seen. All the front page stories are here - Enron, Tyco, ImClone, Adelphia, WorldCom, but there is also a host of companies whose crimes were more strategic in nature - Motorola in the cell phone business, J&J in the stent business, Rubbermaid, LA Gear, and even the Boston Red Sox. The stories of what went wrong and why are sprinkled with quotes from interviews the author conducted with CEOs, other managers, competitors, and customers, which I found gave me a much better understanding of the key lessons than any previous press accounts I had read. Topping it all off is the author's storytelling skills, which keep you almost entranced. This is one business book that you will want to read cover to cover.
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Summary: This Book Has Answers
Review: Finally, this book explained to me why people running companies can manage to make some huge mistakes. The stories are great. Anyone interested in a readable, thoughtful discussion of what is wrong with business today would like this book. It is definitely the best book out there on what needs fixing at the top of companies. There is also lots of practical advice. For example, this is the first book I've seen that says you should look at "worst practices." This is a great idea if you want to avoid big mistakes. The book is really worth reading.
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Summary: Learn from the Worst
Review: I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. That said, the book I chose to follow this one was "On A Clear Day You Can See General Motors," which is about the downfall of what Finkelstein calls a "zombie organization" (an organization seen by others as healthy but in fact dying for varying reasons). Reading On A Clear Day definitely made me appreciate Finkelstein's book a lot more, since I was able to see so many of the warning signs of an organization in trouble that Finkelstein outlines in his book. Unfortunately so much of this book's ideas seem banal and a lot of it just feels like muckraking of the business failures of the 1990's. This isn't the worst book in the world, but you can probably pass on it.
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Summary: A Primer for a good business life....
Review: I originally picked up this book thinking that it was a book about executives who screwed up and cost me a lot of money in lost stock valuation. Now that I've finished reading it, I realize that it is a lot more than that. It is a snapshot into what makes these top execs tick. It is a roadmap that helps us understand their failures and their paths to failure..all of which will hopefully help us avoid such pitfalls in our own business lives. The lessons are applicable to the managers of the smallest mom and pop store..to the top executives of the largest corporations. It reads well from cover to cover. You will enjoy it.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing, shallow book
Review: I read this book based on a positive newspaper review and was very disappointed. Finkelstein puts together a long list of reasons for failure, things to look for in companies which will fail soon and ways to avoid failure. One problem is that the study is flawed by a lack of anything like a control group. For example, he makes a big deal about Motorola's reluctance to venture into digital cell phones in the mid 90s -- surely a big recent corporate failure -- but then doesn't examine a situation where a company (correctly) refused to overhaul its product line (such instances do occur). The lesson he draws is excessively oversimplified and I'm not sure it applies anywhere beyond the cell phone market of the mid 90s. Another example: Finkelstein points out to cases of CEO hubris, in which an invincible company head leads the company to ruin for various reasons (poor listening, a sense of invincibility, a reluctance to tolerate criticism, et al). The potential dangers of an excessively headstrong leader is no news to either business or general readers. But Finkelstein doesn't acknowledge that headstrong leaders can often be vital assets to a company. He doesn't go into enough detail and instead delivers an incomplete, unsatisfying answer to the problem such CEOs present. In general, the book is marked by shallow analysis, repetitive and overarching review of the case studies, and underdeveloped understanding of marketing and finance (for example, Finkelstein makes a howling mistake in discussing Tyco's accounting), let alone technological trends. The sheer amount of repetition is also unhelpful -- Finkelstein must refer to the Motorola analysis a dozen times in the second half of the book without ever expanding on it -- and the endless series of lists in the book's second half... well, how can one really "use" 12 bullet points from list #7? Bad organization, which reflects an inability to boil down his case into a shorter, more concise summary. Sophisticated businesspeople will have no use for this sort of analysis. Less advanced readers will not profit from the book's weak organization, which betrays a lack of thought. Not recommended.
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Summary: Where's the Beef?
Review: I was disappointed that there was so little helpful information contained in this book. Many of the examples were simply high level overviews of well known business failures. The authors did their best to demonstrate "Why" these execs failed, but I think they failed to deliver on "What" I could learn from their mistakes. I only made two notes to keep after reading the entire book while on vacation. Bummer...
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Summary: Fantastic Read
Review: I was stunned by this book. As a successful executive who reads several business books a year, I am usually disappointed by both the ideas and the writing style of most writers-especially strategy professors. Professor Finkelstein's book is the exception. It is beautifully written; has excellent examples based on REAL RESEARCH; offers ways to avoid making mistakes yourself; and it comes at just the right time for those of us running large organizations. Bravo, Professor!
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Summary: First Time, Shame on Them...Second Time, Shame on You
Review: Initially, Finkelstein really didn't understand, nor did I before reading his book, how and why can so many business leaders fall so far so fast. "How can so many people be do disastrously wrong? What can possibly account for the scores of business failures we see each year, in different industries, and even in different countries? And how can we prevent this sort of thing from happening again?" Finkelstein devoted more than six years of research to answering questions such as these. "My goal was not only to understand why businesses break down and fail, but to focus on the people behind these failures; not only to understand how to avoid these disasters, but to anticipate the early warning signs of failure. Ultimately, I wanted to move beyond ad hoc explanations of failure on a case-by-case basis and expose the roots of these breakdowns in a definitive way." Whereas Peters and Waterman set out in search of excellence, Finkelstein and his research associates set out in search of failure...and achieved that objective. What they found and what they learned are now offered in this brilliant book. He organizes his material within three Parts: Great Corporate Mistakes, focusing on four different business challenges: creating successful new ventures, managing mergers and acquisitions, coping with innovation and change, and developing winning strategies in the face of new competitive pressures. In Part II, he identifies the underlying causes of failure evident even across different types of corporate mistakes. In this Part, Finkelstein offers a deeper analysis of the common patterns of behavior that executives in failing companies exhibited. In Part III, Finkelstein shifts his (and his reader's) attention to explicitly developing two critical ideas that have stayed in the background to this point. "First, can we use the findings of our study as an early warning system? Can our results tell us how to predict when troubler is coming? And second, how do successful executives create organizations that can learn from, and better yet avoid disaster? What can we learn fro them?" Almost everything of any significant value I have learned in my life thus far has been the result of personal experience. And almost everything of value I have learned from that experience involved a failure of some kind. Hence the great importance of this book which examines dozens of "smart executives" who failed. They include Jill Barred at Mattel, Dennis Kozlowski at Tyco, Jean Marie Messier at Vivendi, Robert Pitman at AOL Time Warner, and Wolfgang Schmitt at Rubbermaid. Indeed, the research for this book devoted rigorous attention to senior level executives in 51 different companies of various sizes and nature. Where did even the brightest executives go wrong? What can we learn from their mistakes? How can we avoid repeating those mistakes in the future? In essence, that is what this book is really all about. Long ago, someone made a clever observation that Russian historians always predict the past with absolute accuracy. I recall that comment by way of suggesting that Finkelstein indulges in no gloating whatsoever. There is no indication of any hubris in him even as he examines several victims of that classical affliction. He well realizes -- and with evident dismay -- that the mistakes of any presumably capable executive can sometimes have serious, if not catastrophic implications for hundreds and even thousands of others. He lists and then evaluates seven theories which are frequently offered to explain executive failure. (For example, "The Executives were stupid.") Next, he explains that before the research began, there were no "crystal-clear hypotheses" with regard to patterns of failure. Then on to a series of mini case studies which reveal both the executive mistakes and what lessons could be learned from them. Of special interest to me is the set of early warning signs which the research uncovered. They may not prevent others from making mistakes but recognition of them in a timely manner can indeed reduce the potential damage. Also of special interest are the ways Finkelstein formulated by which to diagnose business mistakes as they are happening. It may not have been Finkelstein's initial purpose but in fact what he found during his search for an explanation of executive failure is a wealth of information which can help smart executives to succeed. Obviously, there is so much more involved than merely inverting a serious of mistakes (e.g. cooking the books) and then assuming that (Eureka!) a recipe for certain success has emerged. This is a remarkably thoughtful and sensitive book about human failure. How valuable it proves to be is for each reader to determine. If appropriate, when reviewing other business books, I intend to include this book among those recommended for further reading. I presume to suggest that this book would be an excellent choice to serve as the basis of an off-site meeting of senior level executives. Reading of it in advance would of course be required. I further suggest that the agenda follow the book's structure: Rigorously examine areas in which, over the previous 12-18 months, the organization has either failed or encounted less than the success it desired; next, with equal rigor and (yes) candor, determine the reasons for unsatisfactory performance; finally, determine with meticulous precision the lessons learned and then formulate a game plan to make whatever changes are necessary throughout the organization's operations, with special focus on leadership and management. Of course, I hope this book helps many smart executives to avoid making the mistakes Finkelstein examines. My greater hope (and presumably his is as well) is that countless others who are not directly involved in the decision-making process will be spared the financial and emotional damage which has been inflicted upon their counterparts at companies such as Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom. John Donne was right. "No man is an island." That is especially true of senior-level executives.
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Summary: I love this book
Review: Like all my friends, I have a business degree. We thought we were going to set the world on fire. What we ran into were senior managers who didn't have a clue about the very company they worked for.
A good interview is at www.firstvoicebooks.com/finkelstein.html
When I read this book, I laughed so hard I dropped the book. Most people won't have that strong a reaction. But for those of us who were taught that the guys at the top were the smart ones, it hits the nail on the head. The author is very organized, descrete and professional. It's a good book to read to learn from others' mistakes.
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