Book Description

Family businesses epitomize the best of the American Dream: you work hard, you're your own boss, you leave a lasting legacy to your children -- or do you? Statistics show that only 30% of family businesses survive to the second generation, and a paltry 10% survive to the third generation. Family businesses are in trouble, and their survival is crucial to us all. Their success ensures our country's success -- and their failure can drastically affect our economic health.

In Keep the Family Baggage Out of the Family Business, family business expert Quentin Fleming has identified the Seven Deadly Sins that are invariably responsible for a family business's demise. Keep the Family Baggage Out of the Family Business presents practical and accessible advice geared toward the average family business owner or employee and is an invaluable tool for helping family businesses not only survive but thrive. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

More Truth Than Many of Us Want to Admit
As a family business counselor and consumate reader, I continually look for new materials that can help clients--family members and non-family managers--better understand the family business enterprises in which they are employed...or enmeshed.

The title of this book turned me off. I know of no family business that can avoid the "socalled 7 deadly sins." Family baggage is part of family business.

Nonetheless, I recommend the book. My usual use of the book is education of non-family managers who work for family business. My favorite reading references for professional managers are by John L. Ward: Keeping the Family Business Healthy, and his revised, expanded update, Strategic Planning for the Family Business.

Family members may be willing to read the book, although I have limited experience with that. I would refer them to books like Working With The Ones You Love by Dennis Jaffe.

okay, although I understand that it's the best of it's type
Depending upon the health of your family (and family business) most of this book does not really apply. The author also openly states that. However, he does say that it only takes one of the "7 sins" to take down a family business and it does allow for some forewarning of things that should be avoided.

He does cover a lot of ground, including immigrant businesses, a good section on succession of the business, and touches on both small and large family businesses.

I found quite a bit of it to also be his sales pitch, implying that every family business should hire, in the foreground or background, a consultant, a lawyer, an accountant, and possibly a therapist =D

Overall, it's an okay book covering topics which hopefully most people are aware of and warning you about things you may not be. If you are facing problems, this book may help you either diagnose it yourself or he suggests things to look for in an outsider to help you diagnose it.

Good luck!

Family Baggage/Deadly Business Sins
I have been the owner of a family business for over twenty five years and found Mr. Flemings book to be very accurate and insightful. My wife and I both read his book and agreed that we had committed all of the "deadly sins" to some degree over the years. The book was enjoyable to read, humorously presented and it generated a great deal of discussion among our family and friends. Highly recommended!

A "Must Read" for Anyone dealing with Family Businesses
This book really captures the dynamics of family business. The author's style blends complex theory and real life examples and communicates the results with clarity, empathy and humor. I read this book in an evening and came away with the feeling of "getting it", that I don't get from a lot of other business books. Oh yes, and in several places I laughed out loud!

Buy it as a gift for all family members.
This is the book that I wish I had written! It covers the REAL relationship issues of family business in the easiest-to-read style of any family business book I've seen (and I've read lots). Be warned. This author has the audacity to call it like it is -- about owners, family, and even about lawyers and other consultants. A lot of the book has a more negative focus, looking at the problems caused by family baggage. Use this part to open serious discussions. But, be sure to stick with it until Part V. Pages 41-43 are a must. In paperback, this is bargain priced. We're using it as prizes for our Family Business 2000 Conference in May. ... Read more

Book Description

From Enron and WorldCom to the Catholic Church and Major League Baseball, reputation crises have never been more widespread. Now Ronald J. Alsop, a veteran Wall Street Journal authority on branding and reputation management, explains the dangers -- and gives organizations the eighteen crucial laws to follow in developing and protecting their reputations.

Consider this example of a simple decision made by a low-ranking employee: When rescue workers at the site of the World Trade Center disaster sought bottled water from a nearby Starbucks outlet, they complained that an employee charged them for it. In a matter of hours, the Internet had picked up the story and Starbucks' carefully cultivated worldwide reputation was quickly besmirched.

This is just one instance among many of how the business world, ever more global and competitive, has become increasingly difficult to navigate. Studies have demonstrated the powerful impact of reputation on profits and stock prices, and yet less than half of all companies have a formal system for measuring reputation. Clearly, companies in every industry -- from Dow Chemical to Disney to DaimlerChrystler -- have much more to learn.

It is still the rare company that realizes the full value of its reputation: how corporate reputation can enhance business in good times, become a protective halo in turbulent times, and be destroyed in an instant by people at the lowest or highest levels of the corporate ladder. Mr. Alsop provides eighteen thoroughly documented lessons based on years of experience covering every aspect of corporate reputation, with a clear distillation of the complex principles at the heart of a reputation. He explains:

• How to protect your reputation when the inevitable crisis hits

• How to cope with the many hazards in cyberspace

• How to create a reputation for vision and industry leadership

• How to establish a culture of ethical behavior

• How to measure and monitor your ever-changing public image

• How to make employees your reputation champions

• How to decide when it's time to change your name

The result is a book that is important not only for business executives, consultants, and advertising, public relations, and marketing professionals but also for anyone eager to learn more about the companies they work for, buy from, and invest in. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

About time someone spoke about reputation!!!
Alsop is a senior reporter for the Wall Street Journal and I have read many of his stories over the years. I am glad that someone of his caliber has addressed the issue of corporate reputaion at a time when big business ranks about equal to politicians in public perception. Even the mafia is thought to be less sleazy!!

Alsop starts with a basic, uncontestable premise: A corporation's reputation is one of its most valuable assets. This determines how much slack a cynical public will cut it when things start to go wrong. Other assets - such as those that show up on the balance sheet - are carefully measured, tracked and managed. Reputations are not. Not even by so-called excellently managed companies.

Next Alsop lays out various 'laws' to help a company manage its reputation. The first two just talk about how important it is and how important it is to measure it. Then he becomes much more interesting as he starts laying out what a company should do build and maintain a sterling reputation.

He stresses how important it is for a company to 'live' its values and ethics and why being defensive is actually offensive. These could be bromides. What gives them value are Alsop's anecdotes drawn from a lifetime of reporting on business. These well selected stories not only illustrate his points, they also show the reader how to implement his ideas in their own situation. And there are hundreds os such stories.

For example, Alsop talks about how being socially responsible can be an important component of a sterling reputation. And he relates how Timberland does it with a range of initiatives from monitoring labor practices at its contractors' overseas factories to giving its employess the opportunity to do community service on company time. And he doesn't stop there. He tells what dozens of other companies do from Johnson & Johnson to Paul Newman's food company.

These stories and examples are, by far, the best part of the book. This is where the value resides and it is not at all difficult to take each of these examples and suitably modify it to use in your situation.

An excellent book. My one quibble is a philosophical one. I think Alsop is too easy on companies like Altria - the former Phillip Morris. Does having an exemplary ethics code with lots of employee input compensate for the fact that its core product kills when used as intended? You make up your mind on that one. Alsop shows how Altria does a lot of things right in terms of global cultural sensitivity but I would simply not have used such an example.

Stategic Insight into Managing Corporate Reputation
"The 18 Immutable Laws of Corporate Reputation" (18 Laws) draws an up-to-date roadmap for (1)establishing a good corporate reputation, (2)maintaining that reputation and (3)repairing a damaged corporate reputation. Starting with the premise that a good reputation is a corporation's most priceless asset, writer Ronald Alsop presents mini case-studies of "lessons learned" from the crises faced by companies and organizations such as Johnson & Johnson, Merrill Lynch, Philip Morris (Altria), and the Roman Catholic Church to explore the benefits of a good reputation, the consequences of a bad reputation and ways to protect good reputations and fix bad ones.

While sticking mostly to the main highways of stategy development and avoiding the gritty back roads of tactical decision making, 18 Laws provides important insights into key principles and strategies for building, maintaining, and fixing corporate reputations. Though it lacks turn-by-turn directions and employs clichés with surprising frequency, this well-researched, well-organized and clearly-written business book is a worthwhile addition to the personal, corporate or PR agency library. C-level executives and corporate communications professionals can benefit in perusing the 18 laws in preparation for the next inevitable corporate crisis or as a strategic reference manual for use as the crisis unfolds.

A Textbook for Communications Professionals
I found this book highly readable, balanced and full of useful information. It should become a textbook for people in the communications field and for senior executives.

The book is structured so well, with the best practices of companies clearly explained. The author is feisty in his assessment of reputation blunders and shortcomings, but he always turns them into instructive lessons.

Mr. Alsop vividly illustrates each law with detailed examples. I especially enjoyed learning about companies' tactics for dealing with Internet rumors, Merrill Lynch's crisis-management strategies, and the inside story of Philip Morris's name change.

There are also many rankings of companies with the best and worst reputations. And the author has written entertaining short pieces for some of the chapters about famous corporate apologies, the IBM Hall of Shame, and a corporate name change quiz.

Given the state of corporate America's reputation, this book should have a long shelf life.

Good layout of a problem, but few solutions.
This book is worth reading just to get a sense of the way the American public views business today. The stories of businesses told in this book are one-sided and even irrational, but without a doubt, they reflect the way American business is seen by the public right now.

The problem with the book is that it offers very few ideas on how a business can successfully navigate today's minefield of public perception. As a reader hoping to come away with ideas on how to nurture the public's perception of my business, I instead finished the book feeling that businesses are largely at the mercy of dumb luck and circumstance when it comes to perception. Further, the author admits that businesses are in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation when attempting to let the public know about any acts of goodwill.

This book is well-timed to take advantage of today's anti-business climate, but not of much help for those seeking to find their way through it.

A Must-Read!
In this book, Ron Alsop gives the reader an inside look into the most painful and positive decisions made in branding history. From the first page, he captivates your attention and shows that even the smallest lapses in judgment can undermine years of careful consumer cultivation. A must-read for all brand managers, CEOs, and students alike. ... Read more

Book Description

a very public offering

"Stephan Paternot has incredible drive, the kind of drive you see in people once in a lifetime. He's a young Richard Branson. He has this ‘positive irreverence' that allows him to tackle incredible things against all odds and the establishment, and lift people with his vision and enthusiasm. What he did with theglobe.com is purely phenomenal. He made business history." --Laurent Massa, Co-founder and Former CEO of Xoom.com

"Even for one who was there, Stephan's recounting of the entrepreneurial journey of theglobe.com is a great read. It brings back the thrills and spills of this Internet saga. Those reading it afresh are in for a real treat." --David H. Horowitz, 'Angel' investor and (until 2000) a director of theglobe.Com and former CEO of MTV Networks ... Read more

Reviews (28)

A good story not well told
Now that the dust has settled, the volatility of the stock market during the dot-com boom is a memory that is already disappearing in the rear-view mirror of our collective conscious. It is time for the stories and histories to be told - the recent film Startup.com chronicled the rise and fall of, as you might have guessed, a dot-com startup; this book from Stephan Paternot, cofounder of theglobe.com, is ostensibly in the same vein.
After a prologue talking about the euphoria of IPO day (on which theglobe.com's share price jumped by 1000% before closing up 700% for the first day), Paternot (with a little help from a ghost-writer) talks the reader through his early life, up until his entry into college at Cornell, and the founding of his company. I say, "talks through his life" - that is precisely the tone of the book. It comes across as more than a little rushed, though the story is consistently gripping enough that it scarcely matters that the author's writing style would not be out of place in a Dick and Jane story. There is no doubt that Paternot and his friend and business partner, Todd Krizelman, were in the game right from the very beginning, and created what was probably a terrific Web site that became the Apple Macintosh's number one online community destination. For a pair of 20-somethings, this was a wonderful achievement, and Paternot is rightly proud of his company and its achievements. Some might say a little too proud, and the hubris in the book is sometimes breathtaking; for example, it might surprise aficionados of the internal combustion engine to hear that apparently the Internet is the most important human invention since movable type... though there is little doubt in my mind that the author's enthusiastic knack for hyperbole was probably what allowed him to convince a number of business big-shots to buy into his vision (most notably the ex-Chairman of Alamo Rent-A-Car, Michael Egan).
The book continues on, talking a great deal about stock price movement, and betraying the author's bitterness that theglobe.com was never quite so over-priced as so many other dot-coms (theglobe.com was one of the first companies whose value slid dramatically). Dust-jacket hints about salacious stories of an unconventional rebel wild-child flying in the face of the business establishment are few and far between, unfortunately - I was hoping for a few more tales of bacchanalian debauchery, but Paternot's life doesn't sound too different to that of most young, professional Manhattanites.
Nonetheless, it's certainly an interesting read by a talented person - that talent may not be in the literary field, but then you would hardly read the autobiography of Richard Branson and grumble about lack of literary merit. Ultimately, though, the book fizzles out in a rather unsatisfying way, and I was left with the overwhelming sensation that it was as if the company had never really existed... Perhaps it is fitting, then, that despite Paternot's pride in the fact that his company was still operating at the time of publication, all that is left of theglobe.com today is a message on the Web site: "In 1995, theglobe.com confirmed the Internet's power to connect people worlds apart. Unfortunately, after six amazing years, theglobe.com closed its doors on August 15, 2001... Thank you for your patronage and for the incredible support over the years. Sincerely,
theglobe.com"

A great story
I really enjoyed this story. Having grown up in the same time I could relate with the description of reality as the writer describes. He is clearly not a writer by profession, which makes the book seem even more genuine and accurate. This book is a keeper!

excellent book!
I just finished reading this book and I just wanted to say that I think this story is very fascinating. It was akin to reading a private diary. ( I wish I could write like that too.) To be so young and hit it big is the sort of thing that people dream of, myself included. I am 30 years old and so I can relate to some of the things he went through. As was pointed out, on the one hand, Steph and Todd had to conduct themselves as mature businessmen running a company. And on the other hand, he wanted to act the way other 23-year olds act, fun-loving and party-going, with boundless energy.

The last chapter, The Second Coming, was my favorite, as he poses self-searching questions about what new direction to take with his life. I find myself in the same position at this very moment. Good for him that he found his calling--- writing and acting. Hope to see the movie when it comes out.

Internet mania
I am 29 years old and was looking for a book to read by an author of my generation. And I stumbled across this one by Stephan Paternot. His true story almost reads like a novel because it sounds so exciting and adventurous. Being about the same age as the author and having been swept through Internet mania and lost my share of money, I found his story very engaging. I saw the review in salon.com after reading the book and was rather disappointed that the reviewer did not share my enthusiasm. Apparently, the book did not meet the reviewer's high intellectual standards, when in fact, Paternot's writing style was (I felt) a major strength in the book. It's as if the negative reviews (from other websites) I have seen are not so much about his book as they are begrudging of Paternot who possesses youth, movie-star looks, worldly upbringing, entrepreneurial family heritage, and Ivy League schooling. So his company failed. But other than maybe Michael Dell or Bill Gates when they were starting out, how many under-30 CEOs do you know have the poise and savvy to lead a highly publicized and publicly-traded company?

An interesting story...
This book tells the story of the rise and fall of theglobe.com, told by one of its founder, Stephan Paternot. The story is interesting, as it details the greed and excess that characterized the days of the internet boom. Unfortunately for Paternot, I feel that he and his partner badly bungled and sent the company in the wrong direction which led to its ultimate downfall. If you want an interesting, fast read about the internet heyday, pick up a copy of this book, as it is enjoyable. ... Read more

Book Description

Called "trail-blazing and hard-hitting" ("Christian Science Monitor"), this in-depth portrait of an investment empire reveals Fidelity's dramatic impact on America's corporations and individual investors. of photos. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Not an insider
Wouldn't it be interesting to know what really goes on inside Fidelity? They own every company in America and their proxies ought to control the outcome of every boardroom battle, what a subject! Plus, this is one man's creation and certainly a discussion of who he is and what he does would be interesting.

But, no. Unfortunately, you can't look here for much of any insight into any of these subjects. Too bad.

tantalizingly incomplete
The author tells the very interesting history of Fidelity Investments and FMR, from Ed to Abby Johnson, and through it, a history of the mutual fund industry in America. The author makes a case for Fidelity being an autocracy geared to selling shares in mutual funds at all costs. Certainly, the last few years have shed a lot of light on the seamy side of Fidelity. In Fidelity's defense, little is told of the "good guys" at Fidelity like longtime manager George Vanderheiden, and even the tale of Magellan is told haphazardly (what happened to Morris Smith?). Still, I found that I was pretty much unable to put it down for long, and it was pretty good read.

Useful, but it has its limitations
This is a book that needed to be written: the explosive growth of the mutual fund industry in the past 20 years is one of the seminal events of our generation, and Fidelity is the most important mutual fund company out there. That having been said, I think that Diana Henriques could have done a much better job. The text is often jumpy and disjointed, and the actual events as Henriques relates them often don't warrant the build-up that she gives them in her introduction to them. More disturbing, I disagree strongly with many of her criticisms of Fidelity. Don't get me wrong: there are many valid criticisms of Fidelity that can be made, from the exorbitant fees it charges for average performance to the many ethical lapses that have plagued Fidelity in the past 10 or 15 years. But Henriques carries it too far. In one breath, she criticizes Fidelity for selling massive amounts of stock early on Black Monday in 1987 to meet the equally massive redemption requests that its funds had received over the previous weekend because most Fidelity funds did not have sufficient cash on hand; in the next, she criticizes the Fidelity Magellan fund for having too much cash on hand in early 1996, thus missing the big market rally that was in progress then. Likewise, she criticizes Fidelity's active role in corporate governance and then later criticizes Fidelity's policy that Fidelity funds in the aggregate cannot own more than 15% of any company. You can't have it both ways -- any organization which controls more than 15% of a publicly-traded company is going to have a big influence on the way that company is run. At its core, I think that Henriques's fundamental problem is that she believes that the Americans are and ought to be complete financial waifs who cannot be expected to make decisions about their finances in a responsible and informed manner. This assumption causes her to take Fidelity to task for things that Fidelity should not be taken to task for, and it undermines her books credibility.

A clear view of the explosive growth of mutual funds
The book gives a broad and clear view of the growth of the mutual fund industry in the United States and the consequences it has to the investors, shareholders and managers of the public quoted corporations. However, it rambles on sometimes, making the reader forget that the book is about Fidelity and the dangers a company of such size pose due to the power it holds trough the family of funds it has, unless it is adequately regulated and overseen. Anyway it is a great reading for anybody interested in the development of the mutual fund industry. Congratulations to Diana B. Henriques ... Read more

Book Description

In the annals of American business, Digital Equipment Corporation's case history ranks among the most interesting. Over its 40-year lifetime, it reached the Fortune 50, had sales of over $14 billion, and for a time was the number-two computer maker, behind only IBM. It also was a computing pioneer, creating a great many of the innovations we take for granted today. Yet it failed as a business and was ultimately sold to Compaq. In this book, DEC insiders analyze the culture of innovation that drove DEC to the top - how it was created, how it evolved, and why it ultimately collapsed. Author Edgar Schein's past and current consulting clients include Apple, Citibank, General Foods, Hewlett-Packard, and others. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

A provacative read
Many discussions and articles that chronicle the rise and fall of Digital simplify the failure to either "The president [Ken Olsen] blew it," or "They missed the PC revolution," or some combination of both. This book shows how the culture that so successfully nourished creativity and genius in the company's nascent days brought chaos, confusion, and internecine warfare in later days when the larger company faced a host of competitors and needed to efficiently produce commodity items. I think that the authors go a little too lightly on the role of (mis)management in Digital's failure, but they do a good job of bringing to light many other aspects of Digital's problematic history. The authors seem a bit full of themselves at times, but they have a compelling and sobering story to tell.

Helpful Assemblage of Facts about DEC as a Case History
Professor Schein has written a helpful case history of Digital Equipment Corporation as a computer industry innovator from the perspective of its organizational culture. He draws successfully on his own direct observations during decades of consulting work, and involves others for their experiences as well in describing the organizational culture. The most helpful parts are in the form of notes and comments that occurred during the rise and fall of DEC. His main weakness as an observer is that he lumps too much of what was missing from DEC under his continuing references to the "business gene." The case history, as a result, is too light on other aspects of DEC.

Anyone who is interested in Professor Clayton Christensen's work on sustaining innovation will find deeper insights into why cultures encourage innovation failure by emphasizing one way of working on issues.

If you just want to understand the lessons of why DEC was ultimately unsuccessful as an enterprise, you only need to read Gordon Bell's postscript in appendix e. Like every other computer company at the time, DEC and its leaders did not have an actionable understanding of the implications of the ongoing productivity advances in semiconductors and how nonengineers liked to interact with computers. Our firm did consulting for another computer maker in 1978 to look at how to outperform DEC, and the vulnerability to semiconductor trends was clear then . . . even before the personal computer became important.

The book fails to explain why DEC was so insulated from profit disciplines that drive so many other companies. During its heyday, DEC and its fellow computer makers enjoyed exceptionally high rates of repeat sales (well over 90%) to the same customers. The reason: Software written for one company's machine often wouldn't work on another company's machine. So customers were stuck. It cost too much and took too much time to rewrite all that code. So you would stay with a vendor who was no longer competent for quite a long time. The challenge in the closed systems world was to sell the first machine to a customer, and make it work. In the open systems environment, you have to compete for repeat sales. For DEC, that was like AT&T having to compete with other long-distance carriers after having had a monopoly for all of those years. Ultimate failure should not have been surprising.

Rather than learning more about DEC, I would suggest that you focus on studying current computing industry technology leaders who have been consistently able to adjust their business models such as Dell, Business Objects, Cisco, QLogic and EMC. They have processes in place that DEC never had, and it's hard to learn to succeed by looking at a company that lacked such a key process. Clearly, the lesson of DEC is that working on organizational development in a technology company without creating an ability to perform continuing business model innovation is a waste of time.

As I finished the book, I realized that those who are hoping that boards will use better governance to ensure that high technology companies prosper are being way too optimistic. Few boards can hope to know enough to even understand whether or not the company is working on the right questions.

The lasting lesson of DEC
MIT Sloan School of Management Professor Edgar Schein does a marvelous job telling the story of the rise and fall of Digital Equipment Corporation, the former #2 computer maker in the world behind IBM. The business reasons behind DEC's economic failure have been widely reported (missing the advent of the PC, having too many projects going at once, failure to market products effectively, etc.) However, the big question to be answered is why did these failures occur? To quote one passage, "Why did an organization that was wildly successful for thirty-five years, filled with intelligent, articulate powerful engineers and managers, fail to act effectively to deal with problems that were highly visible to everyone, both inside and outside the organization?"

Schein looks at DEC's failure through the lens of its corporate culture, and how it prohibited their executives from making the decisions, and taking the actions necessary to survive. Fans of Ed Schein will know his famous "Three Cultures of Management" paper, in which he describes the "Executive", "Line Manager" and "Engineering" cultures, all of which must exist and be balanced against one another for an organization to survive. Schein argues that DEC was dominated by the engineering culture, which valued innovation and "elegant" design, over profits and operational efficiency. This engineering culture dominated even the top levels of DEC, where proposals to build PCs out of off the shelf parts that were readily available in the marketplace, were shot down because the machines were thought to be junk compared to the ones DEC could build themselves.

That DEC was able to survive for as long as it did was largely attributable to its ability to innovate in a field that was so new it had not yet coalesced around certain standard systems, software and networks. However, as the computer industry became in effect a commodity market, and the buyers began to value price over innovation, DEC found itself increasingly unable, and in fact, unwilling to compete. The engineering culture which valued innovation and required creative freedom, did not want to subject itself to the requirements of being a commodity player which demanded autocratic operational efficiency and control over how resources were allocated.

Although DEC is now long gone, even readers who were too young to use computers at the time of its demise will find familiar truths in this book. As the old saying goes, the fish in the tank does not see the water it is in. Neither do we often see the cultures in which we are ourselves embedded. The real lesson of this wonderful book is to show us how our corporate cultures often prohibit us from doing the right things, even when we can see them clearly. Sometimes culture is most easily visible in the things you need to discuss, but that are simply "not on the table" for discussion.

There are many lessons here too, for companies that seek to innovate new products and services, and how to balance the creative freedom desired by the engineering culture with the "money gene" culture of sound executive management. The names of companies that have failed to realize the full financial benefits of their technical innovations is too long to list here. But the DEC story is a must read for anyone who seeks to balance innovation with sustainable economic success in any organization.

Outstanding work!
I am not certain as to how much of the previous reviewer's comments could be ascribed to a personal disagreement with Dr. Schein's book, but I found it to be a well-researched and soundly presented piece of writing documenting the rise and fall of one of the greatest innovators in the technology industry. In much of this research, the author has had to gain insights from others associated with DEC, and as such, views differ. In almost all of the cases, the author has clearly indicated that what he is presenting are the thoughts and experiences of others (in tandem with his own sentiments from his tenure at DEC). As such, viewpoints will always differ. In my opinion, this is a solid piece of writing that is insightful, thorough, and very well researched - and a damned fine read.

Missed the Mark
I may be a be prejudiced since Mr. Schein agreed to collaborate with me on this book (I was to write the technology section, which he apparently dropped) and then went back on his agreement when he ceased communicating with me after I did my part. That said, the coverage of the cultural aspects of DEC is reasonably good, but the authors miss the point entirely that DEC was merely a culture. Management malfeasance, technological gaffes, horrid marketing, and a centralization of power that defied the so-called "management martix" were equally responsible for the DECline. And have have two decades of journalistic, consulting, and analyst experience to back this up.

Still interested? Wait for the paperback, borrow a copy, or get it used! ... Read more

Book Description

Foreword by Steve Reinemund, CEO, PepsiCo

Despite decades of social progress and legal reform, minorities still face obstacles on the path to success, both internal and external, from cultural insensitivity to outright prejudice, from isolation to over-scrutiny.

Cracking the Corporate Code looks at the factors that have framed the careers of 32 African-American executives, whose accomplishments have made valuable contributions to the success of organizations ranging from Pepsi, Kraft, GE, Merrill Lynch, and Miller Brewing to Prudential, Sears, Verizon, American Express, Chrysler, and BP.

These men and women, in wide-ranging interviews, discuss what motivated them, recount sources of support and conflict, and reveal the strategies they developed to acquire and use power and to achieve undisputed corporate results.

The authors have analyzed the experiences selectively, resulting in a book that is both an inspiration and a call to action. Cracking the Corporate Code is an eye-opening and practical guide for anyone who seeks to blend professional, personal, and cultural identities into an individual formula for success. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

A Must Read For All Attorneys of Color!
Reading Cracking the Corporate Code (CTCC) is like having conversations with the best mentors in the world.. When I first read it, I was in the middle of my fourth year as an associate at a major law firm in Silicon Valley. I was one of very few blacks, and I was struggling through work assignments and feeling so alienated. It was CTCC that gave me the confidence to look honestly at my law firm environment. I think every African-American lawyer should read this book!

Thought provoking
As an American lawyer in London, I often feel isolated in an alien culture, even though everyone is speaking English. CTCC was given to me by a colleague who knows Judy Turnock. I was surprised to find how much I identified with the experiences of the corporate executives interviewed there. What they shared has given me even more respect for what so many people have sacrificed to make the promise of America a reality. It also made me proud of my small part in the cultural change underway in every workplace. I find myself turning to CTCC again and again. Wherever you work, read this book.

Inspirational
As the director of a not-for-profit art center, I've spent years struggling to raise enough funds to improve our center, build our programs and pay our staff.  I read Cracking the Corporate Code because I know Judy Turnock, but I had no idea it was going to help me in my work.  It made me start thinking strategically about the struggle of every art center, and now I've put together a consortium of over 40 art centers.  I would never have thought this way if I had not read CTCC.  It makes you think about how to accomplish more.  I think CTCC has a message for everybody.

Just Good Reading
I'm not in corporate America. Heck, I'm not even in business. But I do enjoy reading about people who work hard and make it to the top and don't give excuses for setbacks. This book shares principles that will work in any field. I love excellence that is presented simply.

Essential for All Professionals
This is a fabulous book with lots of great stories, information and strategies on being successful in corporate America. This is a must read for ALL corporate professionals especially those seeking to craft their own strategy for growth in corporate America!!!!! ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Disturbing, enlightening, and moving.
Despite being a relatively recent transplant to Montana, I've had the benefit of traveling throughout most of the state, and have had the good fortune of spending some time in Libby. Before I moved here, my knowledge of the fallout of W.R. Grace's mining operations there was limited to what I'd seen on "60 Minutes." After visiting Libby & working with a few folks from the town, the story held a much more personal interest for me--so I sought out this book to learn more.

I really couldn't put this book down once I'd started reading--Peacock does a wonderful job of detailing the history of Grace's (ongoing) policies of deceit, to such a degree that I found myself literally wondering aloud "how could they DO this?" over & over. On the other hand, I felt that her depiction of the Libby townspeople's part in the tragedy was also fair; not overly harsh, but also not glossing over the roles that complacent plant managers had in perpetuating the policies that Grace officials were handing down (despite the evidence of an impending public health disaster). The section on the possibility of a massive public health crisis in NYC (due to the use of Libby vermiculite as insulation in the World Trade Center buildings) ought to be required reading for every New Yorker, in my opinion.

All in all, I feel that this is a crucial exploration of not only one small Montana town's problem, but also of a much larger set of problems that every community faces. When the unethical practices of corporations like W.R. Grace go unchecked, it results in disaster for everyone.

This book will haunt you
Author Andrea Peacock has crafted a thorough and thoroughly human portrait of the tragedy of Libby, Montana.

For decades, a vermiculite mine there, operated most recently by the W.R. Grace Corp., was poisoning the people of Libby with asbestos. Many people knew this and many others suspected, yet they allowed it to continue.

This book connects with the reader immediately, as Peacock tells the poignant stories of families that were affected. The voice belongs to them; the author, obviously a good listener, gently paints the scene and allows her sources to speak.

Well researched, the book takes the reader into the lab to learn why asbestos is so dangerous, and why Libby asbestos is deadlier still. It also documents in detail how scientists associated with the mining industry knew the dangers of asbestos decades before that knowledge reached the public.

Peacock does an admirable job of trying to explain the side of those within Grace, but for the most part those folks aren't talking. It's no wonder, considering the damning paper trail she has uncovered. Others, such as the Libby real estate agent who worries what a Superfund designation will do to the local economy, get even-handed treatment.

Most ominously, the book foreshadows what might become a sequel: officials in New York downplaying the threat of Libby asbestos spread in the collapse of the World Trade Center towers.

In the end, this book raises questions that neither Peacock nor the reader can answer. How can human beings inflict such evil on their fellow man? How can otherwise decent people rationalize such actions away in the face of overwhelming evidence? And how many other Libby, Montanas are out there right now under our noses?

More true than true and worse than anyone could believe!
I was born in this town, Libby, Montana. Eventhough I grew up eighteen miles away in Troy, I knew most of the families mentioned in the book. My high school field trip was a day trip to the mine, the dry processing plant, the expansion plant, the loading docks. All through junior high and high school, we had track meets next to the railroad tracks where the trains were loaded with the ore. What she says in her book is true, no one told anyone that the ore was harmful, or even had asbestos in it. No one said a word, and if anyone asked, they were told it was "nuisance dust." It was such a cover-up that I had to read the Seattle PI account twice before I believed it.
I applied for a job at the mine when I went to college. That was thirty years ago. If I had gotten that job, chances are I would be dead, just like my father. Dad never worked at the mine, but he drove by it several times a week to maintain some radio equipment on top of the mountain. Several times a week for twenty-six years and he died of Mesothelioma.

Excellent Read
Andrea Peacock did an excellent job of describing the
environmental disaster that has ravaged this small
Montana town.

Peacock's description of human suffering,
corporate greed, and "bought" politicians brings
this true story to life.

Highly recommended reading.

mesothelioma lobby loves this book
Truth be told, asbestos will not kill 100% of everybody. Consider these stats: Industrial accidents comprise 1.1 million deaths, which exceeds the average annual deaths from road accidents (999,000), war (502,000), violence (563,000) and HIV/AIDS (312,000). Of this total deaths from asbestos exposure equals about 100,000 (9% of all industrial accidents, and only 2.9% of the total deaths above).

Yet the mesothelioma lobby would want you to believe that asbestos--which is a mineral known since ancient times--will kill everybody unless it's totally removed.

This reporter tries to ape Aron Brockovitch, and plays up to the hype. In fact, it gives just one side of the story. The other side is this: the people at Libby supported asbestos while the going was good, yet when demand died down, they turned against it. You cannot have your cake and eat it too. Harsh but true. BTW, I have nothing against cancer sufferors, just pointing out that there's a lobby of lawyers who make a killing filing lawsuits on behalf of mesothelioma victims. And this book plays to that lobby. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Arianna Huffington, popular pundit, columnist, and author, is not known for her polite criticisms or her carefully worded complaints. In the course of Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption Are Undermining America, the corporate CEOs, accountants, politicians, and lobbyists at who she takes aim receive little relief from their porcine characterization first intimated in the book's title. And while she is full of invective for Enron's Kenneth Lay, Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski, Dick Cheney, and others, she backs up her outrage with dollar figures, dates, names, and specific information. The voluminous research is made more digestible by Huffington's direct and often amusing writing style (she characterizes a CEO's process of getting a loan approved by a corporate board as being akin to Tony Soprano getting a loan from Paulie Walnuts). Interspersed between chapters are entertainingly informative sidebars, including quizzes on executives' avarice and games where you match the CEO to his yacht. Occasionally, Huffington's anger gets mired in name-calling, which deflates her points. And while she spends ample time and space outlining the particulars of a flawed power structure, she dedicates little time to offering practical solutions toward remedying the problems. But Huffington is not trying to write a political science textbook or a party platform. As a highly readable indictment of corporate and governmental excess, Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption Are Undermining America is highly successful. --John Moe ... Read more

Reviews (55)

Communist?!
I just read "Pigs" on a cross country flight. I thought it was an excellent analysis of how the U.S. government no longer functions as a democracy. It works like a radio station payola scheme. Inbred corporate directors steal money from investors and workers by giving each other outrageous amounts of money despite poor performance. Some politicians try to pass laws against these abuses, but these corporate govenors fund election campaigns making it impossible to change the system. Huffington lays out the issues that need to be addressed in order to correct these problems and gives out information on groups working to fix these issues.
I find the attack of this being a communist book to be [silly]. Huffington shows ways to make us back into a democracy where our vote counts and competition is fair. Corporate welfare is a form of communism if you ask me.
In regard to the cliches. Huffington uses the same wit that you could see on the Daily Show, or Politically Incorrect. This isn't a masterpiece, but it is a very accessible and useable guide to how our government currently works.

Maybe Ms. Huffington should direct her anger elsewhere
Arianna Huffington, the failed gubernatorial candidate in the 2003 California recall campaign, attempts to write a subject to which she has very little actual experience. First, Ms. Huffington's premise is that most corporate executives are greedy and therefore laws need to be enacted to hamstring our managers who wish to exercise the best interest of their shareholders. She does not emphasize how any of her so-called "reforms" will actually benefit long-term shareholders who wish for chief executives to take risks to earn a decent return on their investment. Further, Ms. Huffington fails to emphasize how there are already laws on the books to punish chief executives who have abused the trust positions to which they have been appointed. It is the executive branch's duty to punish those who engange in fraud, something the Bush Administration is already doing. However, we would not hear about that in Ms. Huffington's book, because that would hurt her premise, which is that Bush is in on the fraud too.

Most of the research contained in Ms. Huffington's book is related to stories she has read about, not people or companies she has actually chosen to research on her own. As such, practically anyone who has a modicum of research experience could write a similar book of her type -- without having any documentary evidence to prove the assertions made therein.

One thing that is most lacking in Ms. Huffington's book is the notion that honest chief executives are able to work on behalf of their shareholders and employees. There is a sense that the position of chief executive necessarily entails a sense of greed that will infect the entire operations of the company. In a sense, by stating that all chief executives are guilty, Ms. Huffington is too leniant towards those truly guilty of malefensense. In truth, the system does work: witness the convictions the U.S. Department of Justice has been able to secure on crooked corporate executives. But the capitalistic system itself--a markedly effecient system where sharehoulders can exercise their disapproval of managers at any time--will carry on despite Ms. Huffington's heckling. One could hope the same could be said about our so-called "great" governmental institutions such as Social Security, the public schools, and the post office.

Waking up the American people
I had heard of this book, and 'on a lark' bought it. Reading this was a real educational event. EVERY AMERICAN should read this.

Mrs. Huffington, gives names of CEO's that have been convicted, ones investigated, outlines what they did to amass their fortunes. Mrs. Huffington (who is a Rhodes Scholar), explains corrupt methods, used by many of these CEO's, in a such plain terms, anyone should be able to understand.

How did you lose your 401K, you pension, why did your job go overseas? Let me quote from the excellent book:

[quote]

"Since the beginning of the new century [2000], over 570 public companies--including most famously Enron, Global Crossing, Adelphia, WorldCom and Kmart--have declared bankruptcy."
"Nearly $9 trillion in market value has been lost on Wall Street. But while the average American has suffered staggering losses in 401(k) and pension value, and many have struggled to stay afloat, the average CEO has added millions to his personal wealth. In corporate America, apparently, nothing succeeds like utter failure."
"At Enron, after tens of billions of dollars vanished--including over $1 billion in employees' pension funds---and over 4,000 employees had been laid off, Enron's "Kenny Boy" Lay strolled out the door with over $100 million."
" In his last three years at Tyco, Dennis Kozolwski received $466.7 million in salary, bonuses, and perks. He did such a bang-up job that since the summer of 2001, Tyco has closed or consolidated 300 plants and laid off 11,000 workers."
"When Bernie Ebbers resigned from WorldCom--claiming he didn't understand that WorldCom was defrauding investors of $7 billion--and received over $44 million in pay; His severance package promised him $1.5 million a year for the rest of his life, and the use of the WorldCom jet for 30 hours a year. And medical benefits. And life insurance. And a desktop computer."

Source-"Pigs At The Trough"-Arianna Huffington;copyright-2003; ISBN 1-4000-4771-4;-page-38-9

Do you wonder why the price of prescription drugs remain high?

[quote]

"The pharmaceutical industry spent a whopping $177 million on lobbying in just the last two years. And of their 623 registered lobbyists, more than half are former members of Congress or former government employees. Which is nice, because if you're a young politician selling off your vote and your integrity, it's easier if there's a seasoned veteran involved who was once in your shoes."
"Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was formerly CEO of drug giant G.D. Searle, and White House Budget Director Mitch Daniels was a senior vice president at Eli Lilly."

Source-"Pigs At The Trough"-Arianna Huffington;copyright-2003; ISBN 1-4000-4771-4;Page-139

Everyone should read this book.

Yea!
Well researched and cleverly written. It is engrossing, but is almost difficult to read at times as she exposes the details of unbelievable corporate greed.

Brilliant and on the money
Arianna Huffington articulates the basic thoughts that many of us already knew we had; the rich get much richer at the expense of people that have to go to work every day.

The funny thing is this - I have worked many years for big companies and as I read the book, it dawned on me that she has only barely scratched the surface. Fact is, I don't think she has actually seen some of the folks she writes about in action. I have lived through quite a few of these folks as well as future "lion's of business" in the making.

The only criticism I have about this book is that it presents an excellent post mortem on the greed and avarice that permeates boardrooms but it doesn't really outline how common people can effect change in our society and in companies to prevent this kind of malfeasance.

Further, while touching upon government duplicity, I would have liked to have seen more depth given to the subject of how our government facilitated and even created circumstances for this to happen.

Overall, this is an excellent book that should be part of the core curriculum of any business ethics class. Unfortunately, my fear is that history will repeat itself and many future up and coming business elite will read this only after they are booted from the boardroom, at the expense of working people with families that have to clean up their mess. As always Arianna Huffington approaches the most malignant in our society with wit, humor and an irreverence that makes the book worth reading even if you don't agree with her. I agree with her completely. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Coca-Cola has become such a ubiquitous American symbol such that it's often hard to distinguish where mere substance ends (its formula is a secret as closely held as military stealth technology) and its seductively overwhelming marketing begins. But in the 1980s and '90s, Coke's new corporate management evolved it from a reliable, if sometimes stodgy, icon of American industry into one of the hottest stocks in a notoriously overheated bull market. That explosive corporate evolution is the focus of veteran NY Times beverage industry reporter Constance Hays' cautionary business history. Eschewing strict chronology in favor of skillfully weaving in appropriate pieces of the company's complex legacy and unique coporate culture to underscore their impact on the contemporary story at hand, Hays carefully dissects a company billed in boom years as a virtual perpetual profit machine of boundless potential. Coke's growth was largely the product of Roberto Goizueta, the methodical, Cuban-born chemist who'd risen through the company's ranks and outflanked fellow veteran executive/personable "super salesman" Don Keough to become its CEO. Goizueta may have been able to rise above the hubris-fueled "New Coke" reformulation fiasco of the mid-80s, but his penchant for ruthless market expansion, corporate rejiggering and tight control of the company's operating details and financial numbers would also sow the seeds for the inevitable collapse that halved Coke's value. That implosion quickly took down successor CEO Doug Forrester--ironically the original financial architect of much of the company's remarkable boom. While this is largely a business history and not a cultural one, it's filled with a wealth of telling human details: corporate pressures exerted on family-owned Coke bottlers to sell out; an obscure academic/stock analyst whose curiosity helped unravel the company's financial secrets; Machiavellian corporate politics where one era's loser becomes another's cautious victor. --Jerry McCulley ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Coca-Cola Unexpected Summer
I received this book in an unexpected summer package that arrived courtesy of coke-gps, a business that deals with the coca-cola gps contest. I decided to read it and find out what coke cell phone products and gps receivers were doing to the us market.

Coca-Cola Unexpected Summer Sweepsteaks and other marketing campaigns have a stronghold on the market right now and the fact that they now have their hands on GPS receivers and Coke Can Cell phones is somewhat scary. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the Coke GPS and Coke Cell phones.

Misbranded
Douglas Ivester may have been the top Number 2 in U.S. corporate history. Yet his disastrous tenure as CEO of Coke shows once again why the winners of the Best Supporting Actor don't necessarily all go on to be top stars. Some people who are invaluable in the second chair prove to lack what it takes to run the show.

Roberto Goizueta who led Coke to unprecedented riches was the first executive of an established Fortune 500 company to become a billionaire. The handpicked successor of Robert W. Woodruff drove the price of Coke stock to new highs. Goizueta died unexpectedly in 1997 and Ivester assumed the reins of the Coca-Cola Company.

The Real Thing is a book that is promoted as a history of an American institution. It is not. It is a tale told more from Ivester's perspective than any other. As such it gives too much credit to Ivester for the success of the Goizueta Era and too little blame for the rapid collapse during Ivester's tenure.

On the whole, it is a disappointing and mislabeled business school case study.

A jumble of stories
First of all, I have to recommend a far superior history of coke's first 100 years, Mark Pendergrast's "For God, Country and Coca-Cola..." Pendergrast's well researched (over researched?) book neatly and clearly tells the story of how the company started and ended up in the late 80s.

In some ways Hays book is a sequel. At its best it tells the story of what happened to the giant syrup manufacturer after 1990. But the main problem with the book is Hays insistence on a non-linear style that works poorly when presenting history. She often starts a story and then stop--moving on to pick up another thread. Sometimes she comes back to finish the first thread, often she just mentions it in passing in another thread. The result is a convoluted, hard to follow story of Coke in the 1990s. Perhaps it is a refreshing change from the straight forward "and then this happened" approach, but it makes for difficult reading.

Hays does a good job researching, she obviously spoke with many key people in Coke's world (or used other sources). Often though the book reads like a magazine article, long on colorful quotes and interesting asides, short on a central narrative drive.

If you have read Pendergrast and want to get updated (through the turn of the century at least) then Hays will do the job. But if you know only vague details about Coke then you should start with For God, Country and Coca-Cola.

A Rigorous Analysis of Real Crises
Many of those who are already familiar with the long and colorful history of the Coca-Cola Company may share my own curiosity about the problems it has struggled with in recent years. What happened? A question of greater interest to me, what caused all the problems after a century of increasingly greater sales and profits? In this volume, Hays provides a brief but sufficient review of the company's history through 1980 before focussing the bulk of her attention on Robert C. Goizueta's 17 years as CEO until his unexpected death in 1997, and then on M. Douglas Ivester who succeeded Goizueta for only two years until being forced out. In certain respects, Hays resembles a cultural anthropologist as she rigorously analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of the two CEOs as they struggled (with mixed success) to sustain the Coca-Cola Company's market dominance, both domestically and internationally. As she presents her material, I was convinced that many of the problems they faced and some of which they inherited are similar to those which Louis V. Gerstner encountered when he became CEO of IBM. Specifically, a highly political corporate culture, well-entrenched resistance to change, estrangement from customers, and contempt for early-warning signs of imminent deterioration of both prestige and profits.

To her credit, Hays demonstrates meticulous care and commendable circumspection when explaining that several of the problems which the Coca-Cola Company encountered during the past two decades were by no means unique as its globalization initiatives proceeded, given internal upheavals in emerging markets and currency devaluations over which it had little (if any) control. It was also among the corporate victims of anti-Americanism which, if anything, has become even more virulent during the last 12-18 months. Nonetheless, one of her central themes is that the Coca-Cola Company was as relentlessly committed to a defective "formula" for growth worldwide as it was protective of its super-secret formula for syrup. Meanwhile, the company weakened long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with many of its independent bottlers. Some of the most engrossing material in her book examines a number of executive-suite dramas (and melodramas) which suggest, to me at least, an inability and/or unwillingness among senior managers to affirm in their conduct certain values with which the company had once been so closely identified, notably in areas such as corporate good citizenship and strategic partnerships based on trust.

Recent developments suggest that current CEO Douglas N. Daft and his senior management team continue to struggle with many of the aforementioned problems and, through their determined efforts, the Coca-Cola Company is beginning to solve them. Hays observes that "They knew the formula. They had done it before. They would just have to do it again." Hopefully they will succeed, guided and informed by lessons learned during recent years...lessons which are specified or implied in this riveting account by Hays of "truth and power" in a company which, for more than a century, has been synonymous with so many of the "best and brightest" achievements in the history of American free enterprise.

Outdated on arrival
New York Times reporter Constance Hays is an excellent business journalist, but her book is already so dated that it is no more than a mundane history book. Unfortunately, it pretends to be a contemporary analysis of The Coca Cola Company's management practices. And, in this regard it just fails.

The book spends a long time on the origin of this all American company. It also develops well the very successful 16 year tenure of Roberto Goizeta from 1981 until his surprising death in 1997. It does a good job of covering the miserable and short tenure of Douglas Ivester from 1997 to 1999. He made so many mistakes within such a short time, that he was forced out before he could do any more damage.

Unfortunately, Hays hardly covers the valiant efforts of Daft, CEO from 1999 until February 2004 to turnaround the company. Thus, her criticism of Coke's management leadership is already two CEOs and nearly four years behind as the book just hits the stores. For this explicit reason, I would pass it up.

Instead, I recommend a similar but far superior book written by another top notch NY Times journalist: The End of Detroit: How the Big Three lost their grip on the American Car Market written by Micheline Maynard. Maynard's analysis is far sharper, current, and relevant than is Hays' in The Real Thing. ... Read more

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The founder of the visionary, yet doomed, GO Corporation keptnotes throughout his years at the helm, thinking that one day he wouldproduce a book. It shows. This is a vivid and lively rise-and-fall account of acompany born to create a pen-based computer. It begins on a corporate jetwith the author and fellow industry visionary Mitchell Kapor, founder ofLotus, sharing a vision of pen computing. From there, Startup quicklyleaps to the day-to-day challenges of hiring staff, constantly reassessing andreadjusting goals, and coping with the stress of endless rounds of venturecapital funding. That Kaplan, in his first attempt at running a company, battleswith the top forces at Microsoft, IBM, and other industry giants to bring theidea to market, only makes the story more compelling. His company'sultimate failure says more about a cutthroat industry than about the quality ofKaplan's product. This is a real David and Goliath tale. If you've everwondered why things go right or wrong, how competition can kill you, or howfinancing really works within a small startup, read this book! ... Read more

Reviews (35)

Chronology of a Failure
In Startup, Go's Jerry Kaplan (better known for his later success with onsale.com) recounts how he and his team built the company from an idea, and how due to internal politics and competition the walls came tumbling down.

Kaplan takes us through the twists and turns of forming a company, describing, in detail, how he secured venture capital and found Go's first few key people. He comments extensively on the changing competitive landscape throughout Go's history. The EO spin-off, IBM and AT&T deals and all other major events in Go's life are detailed. The book is a quick read, written like a first person novel, not a stuffy business book.

The book's biggest flaw, however, is that it is written entirely from Kaplan's perspective. Throughout, he blames situation, competitors and others for the various problems that Go encountered; Kaplan though, fails to review his own actions and how they may have contributed to Go's demise -- unfortunately this could have been the most beneficial analysis: allowing us to learn from what Kaplan perceived as his mistakes.

Over all, Startup is well written, and a "must read" for anyone working for or contemplating starting a tech company.

An Insider's Look at the Startup Struggle
Startup tells the story of the rise and fall of GO Corporation, a maker of pen-based computer hardware and software. GO was founded in 1987 based on the idea that lightweight portable computers that used a pen instead of a keyboard would be quite useful devices, and that entirely new operating system software would be required to run them.

From the outset, the company faced a major problem: their main product was a pen-friendly operating system, but the device for which their software was targetted did not exist! Back then, the so-called portable computers were affectionately referred to as "luggables", and they all came with a keyboard. So to demonstrate the benefits of their software, GO was forced to spend its early precious resources developing its own pen computers. It was 3.5 years before the hardware group was spun out into a separate company called EO and bought by AT&T.

Kaplan's book is an interesting no-holds-barred account of the hectic start-up life and the cut-throat business world. To succeed, GO required a variety of partnerships, from hardware vendors to ISVs. In the course of wooing companies to help them, they rubbed shoulders with such big technology companies as IBM, Apple, HP, Microsoft, and AT&T. Negotiating with and placating the IBM bureaucracy turned into a major ordeal, and Microsoft's unethical theft of GO's intellectual property allowed Microsoft to become a competitive threat long before they otherwise should have been.

GO's other serious problem was that, in its 7+ years of existence, it never realized any significant product revenue. As a result, Kaplan was constantly scrounging for new investment money and was forced to make large concessions to get it. In the book's epilogue, he sums up the situation rather succintly and forthrightly: "In looking back over the entire GO-EO experience, it is tempting to blame the failure on management errors, aggressive actions by competitors, and indifference on the part of large corporate partners. While all these played important roles, the project might have withstood them if we had succeeded in building a useful product at a reasonable price that met a clear market need. ... The real question is not why the project died, but rather why it survived as long as it did with no meaningful sales."

The book may make even more interesting reading today (mid-2001) than when it was first published (1994). The intervening years have seen the dot-com boom and bust of the late 1990's, and the development of Palm handhelds, the first truly affordable and useful pen computers. GO may have burned through $75 million in its 7 year existence, but that is nothing compared to the hundreds of millions of dollars wasted on short-lived dot-coms with ridiculous business models. And the overwhelming success of the Palm devices is a testament to the power of the idea that gave birth to GO. It was a valiant and commendable attempt, but in the final analysis, GO just had too many forces working against it, not least of which may have been that it was a bit ahead of its time....

A highly engaging look at life inside the startup whirlwind
Whatever Jerry Kaplan may lack in business acumen--or business luck--he makes up as a writer. Many books, usually written by journalists, claim to take you inside the experience of starting up a company; this one, written by the founder of GO, delivers. Kaplan not only makes you feel what it's like to hire key people, chase money, and get your first customer; initially, at least, he makes you care what happens to the people caught up in this adventure. That said, about 2/3 of the way through the book, I began to get lost in the details. Skimming along, I never fully understood what happened to GO in its dealings with EO and AT&T. But the book's problems with plot development are more than outweighed by the vivid portraits--John Doerr as "a whippet in a cage"--that Kaplan paints along the way.

Get real, Jerry
This is a pretty good read by an exceedingly arrogant businessman who seems more often than not to forget that he failed and, moreover, is clueless why. His knowledge of business is about 50th percentile. His knowledge of government is at best 10th. Lots of 50thth percentile businesspeople make it. If you're naive about government - as Mr Kaplan surely was - about the best you can do is whine about that mean old Bill Gates while your company goes belly up. Read it and weep -- or laugh.

Excellent diary of a computer visionary & his failed startup
I bought this because I read an interview with Mark Andreesen (co-inventor of the browser) in which he shared kind words for Kaplan's memoirs. Having seen the Netscape debacle from its inception to its consumption by AOL, I take Mark as a reliable source on startups and corporate deals.

Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure has much to recommend. Andreesen points out (and I paraphrase) that no one will tell you the real secrets of how their business succeeded; these have to be learned from observing failures and reading between the lines. Jerry Kaplan's GO Corporation was a failure -- a collosal one. At the end of GO's life, its staff were not surprised to see it go... away. The watercooler scuttlebut focused on how unusual it was that GO survived as long as it did -- considering it had no products, no market (and no marketing), constant financial troubles and, to complete the drama: Bill Gates in the role of surreptitious competitor.

Jerry Kaplan describes in diary-like detail how he and fellow industry visionary Mitch Kapor (founder of Lotus) conceived the idea of portable, pen-based computers in a spontaneous moment of shared epiphany during a private jet flight. Here was an idea seemingly out of nowhere: no one had thought of pen computers up to this point. None existed, and none were being developed -- a market vacuum of seemingly unimaginable proportions. The sad irony of Jerry's tale is that when GO was finally absorbed by AT&T and immediately beheaded, only the proportions of this unimaginable market remained. The market itself and the products to drive it never materialized.

Kaplan gives a harrowing behind-the-scenes account of how startup venture capital is *really* enjoined -- and its not what you think. In another moment of divine inspiration, he conceives of and perfoms a one-man show for the bored and now-napping investors who have agreed to giving Kaplan his 15 minutes of fame -- or at least a shot at it. Things are almost too good to be true when the meeting turns out to be a slam-dunk. With a few exchanged words and surprised handshakes all-around, GO Corporation is created and Jerry, Mitch, and their investors start down the Yellow Brick Road.

As in the fabled story of Oz, bad apples appear quickly and threaten to poison the troupe. Some of GO's early supporters are seeking to improve their minds. Some are looking for a community with a heart. And our Jewish Dorothy sings too much and is easily distracted while searching for a way to get home.

GO seemed doomed from the... well, from the get-go. Although I admire Jerry's vision, ambition, and personal commitment (Jerry turns out to be a pretty likeable guy), his company's business plan was a disaster waiting to happen -- at least in retrospect. Always afraid of running out of money, the group scrambled to make deals with anyone and everyone who would talk to them. They committed to hardware platforms they had never seen. Relied on software developers who had no interest in developing their applications. Pursued only one major customer and then never developed anything for them. And meanwhile took big-bucks from some household names on Wall Street -- $75 million of them, to be exact. These were not "rounds of financing," mind you. They were more like desperate attempts to sign with anyone who would assure them of making the next payroll.

Startup makes the VC commandos look like Las Vegas high rollers. The logical outcomes of a startup's business plan and the reality of its day-to-day operations are not considered when VC's "throw the dice." Oh, I know they go to great lengths to prepare press releases in which they ennumerate the "logical" reasons for creating a company -- but Kaplan shows that, behind the scenes, this information plays no part. Investors are not even marginally informed on the daily realities of the businesses in which they invest -- which explains a lot of the funding that continues to happen for silly ideas. And Jerry & Mitch's idea was not silly.

While GO played cat & mouse with every investor, software, and hardware company they could think of -- they spent an enormous effort on ignoring their "customers." Since they never had any customers, perhaps this seemed like a reasonable approach at the time. From the perspective of today's CEO, it seems impossible that a $75 million company would even attempt to get off the ground without a serious marketing and CRM program. GO's concerns focused more on getting boxes and circles to come out pretty on the screen (is there a business application for this feature?) and on fixing their stupefyingly awful handwriting recognition software. A small concession here is the fact that one has anything better than a stupefyingly awful handwriting recognition program -- even today. This odd collusion of a misfocused attention span and an obsession for technical "goodies" almost resulted in GO's pen computer displaying the enormous image of a very embarrasing term during an important "spontaneous" customer demo of the handwriting recognition capabilities. (Lesson: Never let a customer try something you have not tried yourself.)

Another glaring error that one can see from this tome is GO's almost cult-like insistence that a non-standard platform was the way to go. They alone could turn the tide! We've been hearing that since Altair first put a machine with keyswitches on the cover of BYTE magazine. And who has succeeded in creating a platform out of nowhere? Clearly Microsoft, with invaluable "assistance" from Xerox PARC and Steve Jobs and incredible naivete on the part of IBM. Yes, Virginia, you can create a platform out of nothing -- if you can zap yourself back to the early 80's and talk IBM into giving you DOS for free.

In reality, the three biggest components of Microsoft's operating system (a simplified mouse-based GUI, shared interface libraries for applications, and Ethernet networking) were all invented at PARC, not at Microsoft. If you haven't already guessed it, the pen computer wasn't invented by Microsoft, either. A 1988 email from Bill Gates shows that, at that time, he was already planning a standardized machine with a higher-resolution screen -- to be produced en masse by "the Japanese." I don't have to tell you this email was circulated interntally the day after Bill saw a demo of GO's prototype. They could have joined the ranks of the enemy right then (being "acquired" by Microsoft today and quitely going out of business isn't even headline news anymore), but GO's insistence on riding out "The Perfect Storm" lead to a grisly end for the end for the company that set off with such bright hopes. Groupthink, in this case, did not pay.

In the end, the GO experiment never benefitted anyone but millionaires Redmond -- at least insofar as the advance of pen computing was concerned. Nearly everyone GO touched attempted to steal something from them, although none was any more successful than GO in turning them into real products. In other words, despite Bill's "fast track" development, unlimited checkbook, and propensity to "borrow" heavily from others' work, the ubiquitous pen computer imagined by two buddies over a tray of airline food has still not arrived as the real millenium approaches. Today's best laptops far exceed the target price of GO's imagined device (a price that even Gates agreed with) but still don't have any reasonable inputs other than a keyboard. No one has even come up with a good mobile mouse yet; we're still stuck with primitive tiny trackballs and little eraserhead things -- or worse, miniature touchpads. Who thought of those? Long before any of this drivel was up for grabs at finer stores everywhere, two visionaries tried to build a computer that was actually better than the ones we have today. My hat's off to them for their efforts -- and for having the guts to divulge the catastrophic business decisions that ultimately led to Microsoft's Comdex announcement of the Tablet PC, albeit without the people who "made it so."

Startup is peppered with a Warhol-esque array of dignitaries from the early days of personal computing, which means it sometimes reads like Valley of the Dolls. Save those chapters for bedtime. You might also find that keeping up with all the names and relationships can be difficult in later chapters if names like Manzi, Gasseé, and Cannavino don't conjure up a whole host of memories for you (these are then CEO's of Lotus, Apple, and IBM).

A valuable business book for any serious entrepreneur or new CEO, regardless of industry, and written in an engaging personal style, Jerry Kaplan's Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure is a page-turner that could change your company forever -- if, as Andreesen suggess, you read between the lines. Highly Recommended. ... Read more