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Why Smart Executives Fail: And What You Can Learn from Their Mistakes
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Sales rank 447,917
Customers rating (based on 33 reviews)
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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-read book that explains the mechanics of executive breakdowns, how to avoid them, and what to do about them if they happen.
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| Publisher | Portfolio Hardcover | | Release date | 06/2003 | | Availability | | | Edition | Hardcover |
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 Not Sure I Could Learn from Their Mistakes, but a good read anyway
I found this book to be a little bit dated. Having been published in 2003, this book uses contemporary examples of major business mistakes "taken from the headlines" of 2003. For example there is no mention or chapter on Ford's Edsel. The Edsel is considered one of the biggest business blunder of the 20th century, if not the biggest and it isn't even mentioned.
Nevertheless, the author does identify the traits of business blunders and the personalities behind the blunders. I think this book would be better suited for a Psychology student. People are people after all and we're all fallible. It is an interesting read and you will learn something, but you probably won't identify with Enron, Worldcom, Rubbermaid, and Schiwinn. Brands that have little relevance 7 years after this book was published.
Best quote from this book:
"But there is one blind spot that appears somewhere near the center of almost every major business disaster: a seriously inaccurate perception of reality among executives." Page 138.
I found this book missed the mark in exploring the politics that often set up failures.
 Great for leadership training
Fascinating stories and very entertaining. Good for leadership training and mindset. The case study perspective flows very well.
 Great for Research
I am working on a manuscript for a book that explores an array of mismanagement practices and attempts to highlight the mistakes that managers make that result in such problems. I purchased this book as one of my many resources to support views that I will express in my writing. I find the book to be very good, its content still holds true and it is on a subject that needs more study.
Jack Risewick
very readable (mostly)
This was an excellent set of case studies and I felt the author mostly kept it readable - though on some occasions, it got a bit slow/boring. But certainly a good read for those of us who try to understand the pitfalls of power. I particularly enjoyed the section on "7 habits of highly unsuccessful people".
Solid reporting on the most colossal business failures in history
In Why Smart Executives Fail, Finkelstein has assembled a collection of the largest failures in business history over the last 20 years. Through interviews with current and former chief executives from companies like Motorola, J&J and Samsung, he paints a picture of the critical mistakes organizations make in management and makes recommendation of how they could have avoid these disasters. In addition to great source material, Finkelstein's style is succinct and highly readable.
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