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Rating: 
Summary: An unadmirable book about an admirable company
Review: BMW is a great car company and builds great cars. It deserves a great book; alas this is not even a good book. If you are interested in German manufacturing, automobile companies in general, or are obsessed with BMWs, you will find some interesting anecdotes in Driven, and some understanding of the focus on brand identity that has made BMW great, but you won't find the 'inside story' the jacket promises. It also has some value for illustrating Jim Collins's point in Good to Great that a company achieves greatness by defining a market niche that it is the best in the world at and sticking to it. The book is mainly a string of anecdotes the author has gleaned from a number of present and former BMW executives, liberally punctuated with opinions about BMW -- from journalists, industry consultants, executives of BMW and other automobile companies, and, of course, the author. These opinions are usually poorly-supported, and often brought up out of context, so the reader ends up going, 'so what?' Kiley also wanders off into long historical or technical explanations even though this book is not supposed to be about either the history or the technology of the company, but about the business of the company Kiley was evidently absent the day they taught what a paragraph is -- he writes in paragraphs of Dickensian length, which are a hodgepodge of more-or-less related ideas. His chronologies are also confusing, and he repeats himself: --one paragraph: X, who came to BMW from Porsche; --next paragraph: X, who worked at Porsche before BMW. Kiley writes entirely from the point-of-view of senior management; all his sources at BMW were senior executives. He does not convey any sense of what the company's culture means at lower levels of the organization. For his discussion of BMW's failed acqusition of British auto-maker Rover, widely blamed on poor productivity, it would have been interesting for him to speak to representatives of the British union, TGWU, for their defence of their members. Read Driven if you must, and you will probably find a few points of interest. If you are not driven, though, to read everything about the subject, give it a miss.
Rating: 
Summary: Captivating and well-done
Review: Driven captures BMW at a very interesting time. As a three-time BMW owner, I have been facinated by how this company I love so much has been changing and shaking things up. Why have the designs been shaken up so much? Why did they acquire Rolls Royce and Mini? Kiley does a splendid job of exploring this, as well as a terrific chapter on the mysterious Quandt family that conrols BMW, and another on the ill-fated attempt to run the British company Rover. A great peak inside one of the world's most intriguing companies.
Rating: 
Summary: Timely But Flawed
Review: I got this book because I like to follow the automotive industry, rather than because I am a BMW fan. Reading "Driven" was both enjoyable and frustrating...the story is told reasonably well, although it drags a bit in its description of BMW stylists in Chapter 5, for example. But the missing link to me was the lack of followup in some topics. The book comprises eight chapters with an introduction and epilogue. Each chapter title plays off the "Ultimate Driving Machine" ad line; in order, they are:
- "The Ultimate Cars" discusses the product line, and I felt that a little too much adulation came out here (the author is a 3-time BMW owner IIRC)
- "The Ultimate History" was a disappointment, completely omitting any discussion of motorcycles and only sparsely covering the aero engine side of the company. The author does eventually admit that the owners of BMW were (...)employing slave labor; while a lot of companies and industrialists in Weimar Germany supported the (...)party just to go along with the current power, but the author seemed to try to apologize too much for this facet of BMW's history.
- "The Ultimate Family" covers the Quandts, who have controlled BMW for over 40 years, along with Varta batteries and several other large German companies. This seemed a little circumspect, although I can certainly understand a need to protect sources and hold back a bit.
- "The Ultimate Brand" includes the history of BMW's advertising in the US, which is treated reasonably interestingly. (David Kiley also wrote a book on the classic VW ads in the US, and is probably the most qualified person to address this part of BMW.)
- "The Ultimate Stylists" covers the designers of the cars; not bad, although the coverage of current styling gaffes and the widely panned iDrive system drags a bit.
- "The Ultimate Blunder" talks about BMW's acquisition of Rover cars in the UK. Fairly well done - IMHO this probably worked out to BMW's long term advantage, since recovering from the red ink kept them from some other acquisition blunders.
- "The Ultimate Brand Expansion" discusses the Mini and Rolls-Royce products (both now owned by BMW). I felt the coverage was pretty good.
- and finally - you were probably wondering when this was going to end - "The Ultimate Hydrogen Future" ponders BMW's direction in hydrogen-fueled cars. A little too much blue sky for my tastes, but probably unavoidable due to the topic. The author quotes many auto industry notables, but not in enough depth for my tastes. For instance, Jim Harbour, whose firm is widely used as a productivity consultant, is quoted a few times. But...one of Harbour's most widely watched annual productions is a comparison of auto plant productivity worldwide, including hours to build a car. Please, Mr. Kiley, how about some more words on BMW's productivity versus the US and Japan rather than lyrical discussions of handling? I can go to "Car and Driver" for that stuff. This is not Halberstram's "The Reckoning" by any means. Overall, I'd give this book three and a half stars. If you follow the automotive industry, there are some interesting insights with a little too much fluff. If you are a BMW fan, you will probably enjoy the book. Despite some of my comments, it's worth a read.
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