Index
2008 banking crisis 204–9
Abilene paradox 7–8
ABN-Amro/ING merger 53
acquisition premiums 54, 63, 67
acquisition sprees 54–5
acquisition strategy 21–3
of Heineken 65–6
acquisitions
of Ahold 59–60
and aspirations of executives 53
CEO hubris and 67
databases 156–7
diversifying 100
failure of 62–5, 71
and “integration trouble” 182
and investment bankers 97–9
and protability 66
size as excuse for 50
statistics on 63–4
and thrill of the chase 53
and urge to conquer 52
advice-seeking
and CEOs 118–20
and status 109
agency theory 110–11, 200
Ahold 52, 59–62, 74, 201, 204–8
Akram Khan Dance Company 167
Allan, Bill (THUS) 194–5
ambiguity and classication
schemes 93–4
analysts
inuence on divestment 97
and lemmings 89–90
relationships with CEOs 99–101
analysts’ recommendations
basis of 99
to buy (positive) 89, 91–2
categorization schemes 93–4
and conicts of interest 91–4
to hold 89, 92
to sell (negative) 89, 91, 92, 93
Andersen, Hans Christian 216
Anderson, Warren (Union Carbide)
75
animals, Chinese categorization
of 92
Apple 73, 85
Arcelor 55
Asian disease scenario 41–2
“association is not causation” 129
astrology and nancial forecasts 89
attribution bias 80–1
Aventis 182–3
awards
to Cees van der Hoeven 60–2,
206
study of recipients 76–7
bad practices 140–5
Barrett, Craig (Intel) 38
baseball pay study 203–4
229Index
Been Products 179
being different 8–10
Bhopal accident 75, 204
bias
in selection 10–12
toward numbers 12
Bisque 26, 172
Black, Conrad 74, 78
BlackBerry and patents 151–2
blame and credit 79–80
board memberships as web 105
board-cloning 106–8
boards of directors 88, 101
and CEO remuneration 114–16
criticisms of 108
as elite and clique 103–6
relationships with CEOs 108–9
study of governance 104
Borodino, Battle of 74–5
bravery and survival 49–9
breaking the mold 6
A Bridge Too Far (lm) 34
British East India Company 178
British Gas 201
Browning, General 34–5
Buffett, Warren 66
business environment, turbulence
of 163–4
business plans, numbers in 12
business practices see management
practices
business strategy see strategy
calculate, tendency to 12
Calcutta story 201–2
Carrefour 59, 61
cascade of coverage 90
causal ambiguity 175–7, 179
CBS/Viacom merger 53–4
cello lessons story 56–7
CEOs 69–87
and acquisitions 50, 52, 67, 71–2
and advice-seeking 109, 118–20
and agency theory 110–11
and attribution bias 80–1
as chief story tellers 82–4
compensation packages 76, 108,
113–18, 136–7, 214
and environmental changes 31–2
female 86–7
as heroes/adoration of 69, 75
hubris of 67, 72
narcissistic 70–1
as normal people 9, 86
omnipotence of 74
overcondence of 71–3
performance versus competence
77–9
as personication of company 73
as personication of failure 69
relationships with analysts
99–101
relationships with boards 108–9
and risk-taking 11–12, 110–11
and stock options 109–11
successor characteristics 106–8
study of celebrity 75–7
time dealing with stock market
194–5
as tribal heads 52
vilication of 74–5
when they leave 81–2
challenging the norm 4
change
to avoid “comfort” 188
for its own sake 183–5
increasing capacity for 186
and power distributions 186
Chaudhry, Farooq (Akram Khan
Dance Company) 167
Chinese walls 90–2
Church of England 207
Index230
Cisco 188
classication schemes and
ambiguity 93–4
cloning
of board of directors 106–8
of companies 177–80
“close to home” inventions 139–40
CNN 26
Coca-Cola 178
Cohen, Tony (Fremantle Media) 83,
173–4
collective inertia 3–4
commitment and downsizing 132,
133, 134, 135
communities 200–1, 208–9
community, care for 213–14
companies/rms
CEO and performance 71
cloning of 177–80
and creativity 201–2
entrepreneurial 37
high-performing 31–3, 37
networks within 184–6, 188
public 194, 196
requirements for effective 58
and shareholders 196–9
size of 50–1
why good go bad 28–9
compensation packages (CEOs) 108
and adoption of management
techniques 136–7
and awards 76
and boards of directors 114–16
and CEO performance 113–14
and economic factors 115
justifying 116–18
as market mechanism 113, 115
and size of rm 114
and takeover protection 214
see also employee pay
competition
learning effect of 160
as a race 159–62
and strategy 162
competitive advantage 14, 58–9
and knowledge 154, 156
competitors
inuence of 2
and innovation 190–1
and movement of staff 192–3
selling below cost price 45–6
complex systems and knowledge
156–7
concealment 120–1
conicts of interest 88, 90–3
and CEO compensation 116
and equity rating systems 93–4
and outside directors 121
conglomerates 95
conquer, urge to 50–68
context, understanding of 35
control
and decisions 17
and numbers 17
“core activities” 95, 128–9
corporate culture 129–30
corporate strategy, steps to 19–21
costs in a downturn 43–5
coverage of rms by analysts 89–90
creating value 176, 182
creativity and environment
199–200
credit and blame 79–80
creosote bush (analogy) 38–9
crises and innovation 45–7
cross-functional teams 11
customers
and innovation 167, 190
networks of 191
Darwin
and bad practice 141
231Index
and competition 160
and female CEOs 86–7
and markets 47, 143
Dawkins, Professor Richard 138,
148
decision-making 15–17, 159–93
and control 17
framing of 41–3
knowing when not to 173–4
and numbers 13, 19
detailing by pharmaceutical
companies 4–7
Daily Telegraph (newspaper) 3, 46
Delhaize 61
directors
and Abilene paradox 8
as amateur/part-time 102
backgrounds of new 106–8
friends as 108–9
and governance reform 104–6
government ofcials as 101–3
directorships as currency of
inuence 102
diverse revenue base 45
diversication 95–7, 100, 135
divestment of businesses 97
division of labour and
specialization 205, 207
downsizing 132–5
and protability 133–4
without detriment 134–5
downturns 43–5
drugs, detailing of 5
earnings manipulations and stock
options 112
emperor’s new clothes 215–16
employee orientation 197–9
employee pay 202–4
empowerment 136
energy conservation study 1–2
Enron 69, 74, 83, 126, 204–8
environment, care for 213–14
environmental changes 28, 31–2,
129
equity, hidden cost of 194–5
equity analysts see security analysts
equity rating systems, study of
93–4
error rate (sigma) 18
escalated power distributions 186
escalation of commitment 35, 55
excessive remuneration 88, 113–18
executives see managers
experience, building on 37
exploitation versus exploration
37–9
failure
of acquisitions 62–5
of Operation Market Garden 34
false conclusions 11
false prior beliefs 126
false sense of security 17
nancial distress/trouble 6–7, 14,
40
nancial forecasts and astrology 89
nancial fraud (Ahold) 62
Firestone 29, 32, 201
rms see companies
oating (companies) 195
ux 31–3
Fore people of Papua New Guinea
130–1
foreign markets, entering 9, 178
Fortune 100, turnover in 28
“fortune favors the prepared”
171–3
framing contests 23–5
framing effects 42–3
Fremantle Market 173–4
Fremantle Media 83, 173–4
Index232
fund managers 79
Future plc 82–3, 86
GE 69, 73
getting lucky 170–3
Ghosn, Carlos (Nissan) 73
gibberish example 36
goal, alignment toward common
16
Goldman Sachs on Enron 83
governance
and 2008 banking crisis 208
and directors 104–6
and economics 200
government ofcials as directors
101–3
greed factor 207–9
groupthink 37
Grove, Andy (Intel) 24–5, 27, 38,
44, 172, 174–5
growth
deciding avenues of 15–16
and diverse revenue base 45
and initiatives 43–4
and innovation 165
limits to speed of 57
and protability 57
urge for fast 51
Guardian (newspaper) 3, 46
Hanson plc 95
hard stuff (factors) 14–15, 58
Harley-Davidson 29
harmful practices 145–6
Hayek, Nicolas (Swatch) 85
Heineken, Freddy 65–6
Heraclitus 33
herds 205–6
Hewlett-Packard 188
homogeneous teams 11
Honda 29
Hornby
and innovation 170–1, 190–1
and management 84
and markets 26, 170
and stories 83
and strategy 24, 170–1
HR practices and downsizing 135
human nature 199–200
IBM
and innovation networks 189
and personal computers 12, 27,
29, 172
and success 36
Icarus paradox 29–31, 204
imitation
among analysts 89–90
by competitors 176
and herds 206
as inuence 9
incentives
and 2008 banking crisis 207–9
and CEOs 110
and motivation 199–201, 203
incompetence and success 77–9
Independent (newspaper) 3, 6, 46–7
industries in trouble 46
inebriated cyclist story 13–14
inuence
directorships as currency of 102
of others 2
information overload 152–4
ING/ABN-Amro merger 53
initiatives and growth 43–4
innovation 168–9
in a crisis/downturn 45–7
and customers 167
and ISO 9000 139–40, 144–5
maintaining 37, 168
and money 41
“over-rated” 164–6
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