Tesco
How They Blew It
Book

How They Blew It

The CEO's and Entrepreneurs Behind Some of the World's Most Catastrophic Business Failures

Jamie Oliver and Tony Goodwin
Kogan Page, 2010

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Editorial Rating

6

Qualities

  • Background
  • Concrete Examples
  • Engaging

Recommendation

In recent years, serial entrepreneurs and celebrity CEOs have become rock stars, not just of the corporate world but also of society at large. People love to learn about big business mavens, what they do, where they live, what they drive, where they party and who their spouses are. Even more darkly compelling are the bad boy wheelers and dealers who have dramatically blown up their firms through financial chicanery (almost exclusively a male activity; thus, few bad girls of business exist). In this timely yet disturbing book, journalist Jamie Oliver and recruitment expert Tony Goodwin present a rogues’ gallery of entrepreneurs and CEOs who have disgraced themselves and destroyed their companies, often trashing the savings of multitudes of innocent bystanders. Some of these guys didn’t blow it, exactly, in that they went home plenty rich – but their firms still suffered on their watch. The authors lightly, charmingly depict the lives of these corporate desperados, offering lessons other leaders can draw from their stories. While morbidly fascinating and a bit sensational, the book sometimes loses its edge as it catalogs deals negotiated, firms bought, bad strategies enacted and millions lost. Nonetheless, getAbstract quite enjoys this voyeur’s look at how these big shots imploded and how to avoid making the same mistakes.

Take-Aways

  • Great business leaders must be brave but not reckless, confident but not cocky.
  • When CEOs delegate too much, don’t understand their organization’s fiscal complexity and get caught up in their own wealth, their business’ downfall is the inevitable result.
  • Visionary executives who lose focus and become arrogant, such as Bernie Ebbers of WorldCom and Richard Fuld of Lehman Brothers, can harm, and even kill, their firms.

About the Authors

Jamie Oliver is a U.K. journalist specializing in entrepreneurship. Tony Goodwin owns and runs a recruitment business with offices in Russia, China, Africa and the Middle East.

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