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 Interesting collection of management success stories
This is an interesting collection of short (1 to 3 pages) accounts of management successes. However, I went into it hoping to get insight into the decision process of great managers and did not find it. In fact, it was not even clear whether these were good decisions or merely good outcomes.
"The Greatest Lessons" that followed each account were interesting, but they had no cohesion. In fact some were contradictory: "Style is all" (decision #2) or "give people something that is useful and informative" (23)? "Move on" (4) or "persist and then persist some more" (10)? "Change constantly" (16) or "continue the legacy" (19)? "Trust your nose" (24) or "innovations need believers"(25)? Enjoy the stories and draw your own lessons. You can probably find a story here to back up any management theory you choose.
 A collection of management examples in a compact package
Anyone coming into this book looking for a deep case study of decisions will be disappointed. This book is more of an introductory survey course into business decisions made - the decision is cited, given a page of explination and the lessons to be derived are bulleted to end the section. Some of the decisions are a stretch - noting the posting of a reward for a runaway slave as the first example of advertising. It's as if he took a number of management textbooks, distilled them into one cliff notes version and presented it in themed chapters. Yet that is why the book is so informative - you are exposed to a wide variety of decisions with the meat extracted for quick digestions. Decisions are stripped from a lot of their extraneous outcomes, and focus is put on what makes them great (or worst in the appendix). It is a launching point - giving you examples and letting you think beyond the story. The reader is left to ponder many of the points brought up. It is to show you how seemingly little things (Microsoft retaining the right to license DOS to other companies) can build empires. Sit down, read and absorb the examples, and then try to apply them to your decisions.
A Solid Effort!
Great authors, historians, musicians, and sports stars are usually included in end of the year "best" lists. Managers rarely show up on such lists. This book highlights 75 history-making management decisions that changed the way we think, live, and work. The decisions profiled remind executives that great management requires experience, vision, the ability to take risks, and good luck. This entertaining volume also covers 21 truly mistaken management decisions, a valuable contrast. We [...] recommend this book to executives and managers who would like to be able to recount colorful war stories about some ups and downs in the evolution of management.
A Multi-perspective Structured Decision Process
Stuart Crainer describes good management decisions made throughout history based on the ideas and insights of "executives, consultants, academics, commentators, and opinionated people from the business would and elsewhere"(p.xvi). The 75 greatest decisions are arranged under ten headings. They are Industry Inventors, The Name Game, Getting on, Marketing Magic, Lucky foresight, Leading by Example, Competitive Advantages, Bright Ideas, and People Power. Under each heading Crainer provides specific examples of decisions made and offers lessons learned. Although Crainer recognizes management as a scientific process and that management science has a place in decision making, he, also, contends that reality is often more complex than analytical models allow for. Crainer states that decision making does not always allow for consistent, systematized, or rational thinking. On human-side of decision making process, the author holds that emotion or prejudice also play a large part in the decision making process. He, also, contends that managerial decision making is based on intuition, experience, and analysis. While he believes analysis is a crucial part of decision making, he states that intuition and experience cannot be measured. He calls these components the "mysterious art" of management.In the section titled "Industry Inventors," Crainer recognizes those who created a new industry. Examples range from a posting of an advertisement by a slave owner to locate slaves in 100 BC to Bill Gates decision to license MS-DOS to IBM in 1981. Most notables are the example of Henry Ford's decision to start his own company in 1903. Crainer argues that this decision led to the first industrial mass production line, created a market for automobiles, and provided and outlines for industrial production. Ford, also, saw the potential for international operations and established his first sales branch abroad in France in 1908. The lessons stated by Crainer were to create your vision and that flexibility is a must. He holds that Ford saw the potential for a mass market for automobiles and created a means to provide it. He, also, feels that Ford's inflexibility in production and limiting of choices caused him to lose ground. Ford failed to focus on the need for marketing. "The Name Game" section focuses on the importance of a name. While this section offers only three examples, the discussion of Thomas Watson, Sr. deciding to change the name of Computing Tabulating Recording Company to International Business Machines was cited. IBM had no international operations at the time, but Crainer describes this as a "bold statement of ambitions"(p.28). The lessons cited for this example include thinking big and thinking internationally. In "Marketing Magic" Crainer holds that marketing is the essence of business. He, also, describes that great marketing decisions are noted for their simplicity, opportunism, and success. Crainer quotes Philip Kotler as saying, "Good companies will meet needs; great companies will create markets." (p.37) Richard Sears' decision to put his products in a catalog, thus opening a new rural market and the decision by Mattel to extend its Barbie brand by introducing Ken in 1961 are examples presented in this section. However, the lessons learned in the example of Harley-Davidson are invaluable. The example states the decision of Harley executives to start the Harley Owners Group (H.O.G) as a strategy that worked to get customers more involved with the brand. The lessons from this example include loving the product, connecting with customers, and making quality and issue. Crainer states that the executives' decision to form the group demonstrated a deep commitment to a product. At the time of publication, the H.O.G. had 325,000 members, demonstrating a true connection with customers. By using branding and name recognition for its products, Harley-Davidson also insisted on a high quality regime. Crainer describes that some decisions are based on luck, foresight, and gut reactions in the "Lucky Foresight" section. The most notable example in this sections that of the creation of the Walkman radio by Sony. Sony's chief Akito Morita is quoted as saying that "the public does not know what is possible, we do"(p.77) when faced with the need for market research. Morita envisioned the Walkman when he noticed that young people liked listening to music wherever they went. The lessons described by Crainer include starting with a philosophy, trusting your nose, and forgetting market research. Morita's philosophy help spawn Japan into an industrial power as opposed to the belief that Japanese products were substandard. The author illustrates the ethical elements to decision making in "Leading by Example." He describes the decision of Aaron Feuerstein of Malden Mills to keep his business open and 2400 people on the payroll after a fire destroyed his factory. Crainer depicts Malden Mills as unusual for a business in 1995. In an environment of downsizing, Malden Mills held onto traditional corporate values of loyalty and trust. Feuerstein used his personal savings account to maintain the payroll for the 2400 employees displaced due to the fire. In return for his loyalty, the factory was back at almost full capacity in 90 days and the employees' productivity and quality increased dramatically. The lessons learned from this example are clear, ethics pay and businesses are a large part of the community and the community is a large part of the business. In the next section Crainer portrays examples of good organizational designs. Of note in this section is the description of Michael Dell's decision to bypass dealers and sell direct to consumers. The demonstration of supplying superior customer service, decreasing costs, and improving product design are just some of the lessons learned from this example. "Getting On" describes the need for managing your own career. Crainer states, The route to outstanding performance is to identify and improve your unique skills, and then find jobs or assignments that match your skills, values, and so on." (p.123). An interesting example used to illustrate this concept was the decision by Napoleon to promote people based on merit. In a time when inherited nobility determined promotion, Napoleon recruited based on talent, irrespective of nobility. The lessons from this are that talent rules and understanding motivation are crucial. "Competitive Advantage" heading begins with a description of Porter's five competitive forces. Crainer relates that competitive advantage changes and can be bought. Interestingly, Crainer depicts Harvard Business School in this section. Crainer proffers that "no other school can match this potent combo of branding, finance, and ivy." (p.149). Crainer states that with the development of the Harvard Business Review and the HBS fund that Harvard created a place for itself. The major lesson learned from this example is customer loyalty. The Business School relies on alumni and donations to maintain its HBS fund for financial aid to its students. In "Bright Ideas" Crainer describes that you make your own luck. He states, "luck may come your way, but you still have to convert it into business reality." (p.175). Crainer depicts the creation of McDonald's in this section. He describes how McDonald's began as the idea of two brothers and was developed by Ray Kroc. The lessons learned include seeing the opportunity, maintaining control, and insisting on quality. In his final section, "People Power," Crainer recites the establishment of a center for executive development by GE in 1956. Ahead of its time, GE recognized the need to develop its managers and incorporate the organizational culture. Many companies such as. Ford, Intel, Apple, and Sun Microsystems, have since followed suit. The lessons here are in developing people for the future and that leaders must teach. Unfortunately, Crainer did not take as much care in describing bad decisions as he did with great ones. The 21 worst decisions may be placed for humor rather than true learning. Examples include the selling of the bottling rights for Coca-Cola, Apple's refusal of cloning its operating system, Xerox's turning down the first PC, and the failure of Matsushita to license Betamax resulting in the commonplace VHS video. Crainer does not delve into the reasoning behind these poor decisions to offer any true lessons from the results. Crainer, while acknowledging the existence of analysis in decision making, seemed to place a much greater focus on gut feelings as a basis. I am sure that all of the great decisions involved much more analysis than described in this book, however, it was refreshing to note that relying on your gut is still acceptable, when it works. I am assured that since one can justify, and communicate his decision that any means necessary to reach it are reasonable and defendable. However, de
Not as scintillating as the title portays...
I give this book 3 starts - not because of all the lessons I learned but because I enjoyed getting some of the history behind the decisions and about some of the companies. I think other than enjoying this history in some of the stories (which because of the way it is written it is easy to pick up and put down - and skip to the next if not interested) I would have given it two stars.I found that while in some cases Mr. Crainer would bring up new companies and share some interesting insight, in many others he focused on the same companies (HP, IBM, Ford). I would have like to have had good decisions made by one company in 'One' of the decisions instead of in a number of them. Frankly, I was also disappointed by the "21 Worst" as well. #17 for example read: "American Express's travails deserve mention. An almost dysfunctional management team led by CEO James Robinson III damaged the Amex brand. Robinson's grand strategy to turn the company into a financial supermarket collapsed. In 1993, Robinson was replaced as CEO by Harvey Golub, but not before the company's Shearson Lehman brokerage subsidiary had eaten up about $4 billion in capital before being sold off." That's it. There is nothing to describe what it is that happened to creat the $4B capital loss or the decision that went into making it the worst. I struggle to see what learning or benefit I, as a reader, can gain from this "worst decision". Other sited decisions, in my opinion, were similar. Unless you are interested in some history about some of the companies/decisions, I would recommend spend your reading time on another book.
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