Billion Dollar Lessons

What You Can Learn from the Most Inexcusable Business Failures of the Last 25 Years

By: Paul B. Carroll, Chunka Mui

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Paperback | 25 August 2009

At a Glance

Paperback
336 Pages

Age
18+

Dimensions(cm)
21.3 x 14.0 x 2.2

Paperback

RRP $35.00

$31.75

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Carroll (Big Blues) and Mui (Unleashing the Killer App) collaborate to perform an autopsy on some of the most spectacular business failures and corporate disasters in recent times, hunting down the fatal strategies responsible. The authors examine more than 750 inexcusable corporate collapses, neatly cataloguing them into eight common failure patterns- doomed practices, including the Illusion of Synergies, as illustrated by the ruinous merger attempts by Sears and Dean Witter; Faulty Financial Engineering, as conducted by Tyco and Revco; Staying the (Misguided) Course Too Long, a sin committed by Kodak, which missed the boat on digital photography; and Consolidation Blues, as depicted by U.S. Airways, which crashed as a consequence of buying up too many companies too quickly. While there are assuredly lessons in defeat and the authors' detailed analysis and bracing honesty is welcome, readers hoping for a more encouraging or inspirational business book might find Carroll and Mui's avalanche of disastrous failures, avoidable bankruptcies and destruction of shareholder value a depressing-if highly instructive-read.

Industry Reviews

aA fascinating study of business error and failureacouldnat be more timelya]"Billion-Dollar Lessons" is an insightful and crisply written booka
aDaniel Akst, "The Wall Street Journal"
aA worthwhile repository of wisdom.a
aRichard Pachter, "Miami Herald"
aAn indictment of the bold and chowderheaded.a
aLeigh Buchanan, "Inc. Magazine"
aWell-researched and thought-provoking.a
aMary Whaley, "Booklist"
aFun to reada]engaging.a
a"BizEd"
aA great read.a
aMarc Kramer, "The Evening Bulletin"
aThe Toronto Globe & Mailas #1 Best Business Book of the Yeara
aA fascinating study of business error and failureacouldnat be more timelya]"Billion-Dollar Lessons" is an insightful and crisply written booka
aDaniel Akst, "The Wall Street Journal"
aA worthwhile repository of wisdom.a
aRichard Pachter, "Miami Herald"
aAn indictment of the bold and chowderheaded.a
aLeigh Buchanan, "Inc. Magazine"
aWell-researched and thought-provoking.a
aMary Whaley, "Booklist"
aFun to reada]engaging.a
a"BizEd"
aA great read.a
aMarc Kramer, "The Evening Bulletin"

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