Secrets of success—and failure
REVIEWS BY STEPHANIE SWILLEY
Steve Case, Jerry Levine, Ted Turner: Meet the moguls of America Online and Time Warner. Actually, they were the titans of AOL Time Warner, before the merger meltdown forced them all to resign. The big egos of these larger-than-life characters make the story behind the $112 billion merger of the media behemoths better than fiction. And Washington Post reporter Alec Klein turns the heady days, shady deals and power plays into a page-turner that reads like a novel. Following AOL from its rocky start to the Internet explosion, Stealing Time, recounts the "deal of the century" that held the promise of extraordinary synergies between the online giant and the media powerhouse.
Alas, the honeymoon was short-lived. Klein's thorough investigation details the CEOs' mad scramble to hide poor financial performance and save face on Wall Street. But the blame game and sinking stock price took their toll, as investors lost millions and the deal-makers found themselves out of jobs.
How did things go wrong so fast? Maybe it was the clash of cultures or the impact of a down economy. Whatever the answer, the battle for power, control and, most importantly, pride makes for fascinating reading.
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Learning from their mistakes
AOL Time Warner turned into a debacle for employees and investors, so how can others avoid their mistakes? Start with
Why Smart Executives Fail, an insightful book that looks not only at the
causes of business failure but also at the people behind the bad decisions. Sydney Finkelstein, a professor at
Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, moves beyond the easy answers (the executives were a stupid bunch of crooks!)
to find the real causes of failure in every industry, from fashion and food (Mossimo, L.A. Gear, Coca-Cola) to phones
and finance (Motorola, Bankers Trust). A surprising number of failed CEOs were willing to tell all, and Finkelstein
found that a skewed sense of reality and a breakdown in communication often pull businesses under. Execs need to be
on guard against the "zombie business" where cockiness (both employee and organizational) crowds out the voices of
customers and competitors. The "seven habits of spectacularly unsuccessful people" are funny and insightful, and
the warning signs of the next big disaster are useful for CEOs and investors.
On the flip side, you can learn from the biggest and brightest
in What the Best CEOs Know. Author Jeffrey Krames examines seven of
the top CEOs, including Michael Dell, Lou Gerstner and Sam Walton, and distills their success into an easy-to-understand
signature strategy or tactic that anyone can imitate or borrow. Learn how Jack Welch created a learning organization at
GE and how Bill Gates harnessed the power of every employee at Microsoft.
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Solutions from sales?
Sales might be the last place you'd look for useful advice on better relationships, but face it—everyone
is engaged in sales of some sort. It takes more than technical know-how to sell your products or ideas, and Mitch
Anthony's Selling with Emotional Intelligence is a handy guide for
applying EQ concepts to meeting clients, making presentations and closing the deal. Daniel Goleman's revolutionary
Emotional Intelligence showed that now more than ever, success depends on building connections, and Anthony
translates Goleman's emotional insights into five key areas of sales success, including self-awareness and empathy.
Anthony covers a lot of ground, but the lessons on restraint and resilience are the most practical and applicable.
He shows how to successfully deal with anger and rejection, two critical skills in sales or any environment.
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