Contents
About the author / xi
Publisher’s acknowledgements / xiii
Introduction: The monkey story / xv
1 Management happens / 1
Forced to be stupid
/ 1
Collective inertia – if you don’t join them, you can beat them! / 3
Pharma – the devil is in the detailing / 4
The Abilene paradox / 7
Same same but different / 8
“Selection bias” / 10
Numbers and strategy – do they mix? / 12
Inebriated cyclists / 13
Deciding stuff – that’s the easy bit / 15
How well do you know your company? (My guess is not very well at
all . . .) / 17
How to make a compelling corporate strategy in six easy steps / 19
Wanna play Strategy? Get a board game / 21
“Framing contests”: what really happens in strategy meetings / 23
It looks like we don’t have a strategy . . . / 25
2 The success trap (and some ideas how to get out of it) / 28
Why good companies go bad
/ 28
Contentsvi
The lcarus paradox / 29
Tunnel vision – “in the end, there is only flux” / 31
Operation Market Garden / 33
Mental models – let’s all think within the same box / 35
A creosote bush: how “exploitation” drives out “exploration” / 37
A bitter pill / 39
Framing something as a threat or an opportunity dramatically alters
what we choose / 41
In a downturn, manage your revenues, not your costs / 43
In a crisis, innovate / 45
Is your company brave enough to survive? / 47
3 The urge to conquer / 50
How big is your yam? (not that it matters)
/ 50
Deal-eager executives – tribal instincts / 51
CEOs, marriage, mergers, geriatric millionaires, and blushing
brides / 53
When acquisitions take over / 54
“Time compression diseconomies” – too much, too fast / 56
Seeds and fertilizer – how to build a firm / 57
“I’ve won . . . I’ve won!” / 59
Most acquisitions fail – really! / 62
“Heerlijk, helder, Heineken” / 65
Toads and acquisitions – where does CEO “hubris” come from? / 66
4 Gods and villains / 69
The heroes of our time
/ 69
Narcissus versus Humble Bloke – and the winner is . . . ? / 70
Are overconfident CEOs born or made? / 71
Hang the hero / 73
viiContents
Celebrity CEOs and the burden of expectations / 75
Successful managers – incompetent for sure / 77
Executives: superhuman after all . . . / 79
“Over the hill and far away, top managers are here to stay” / 81
Chief story-teller / 82
Managers and leaders: are they different? / 84
Women on top / 86
5 Liaisons and intrigues / 88
Facts over fiction
/ 88
Analysts, astrologers, and lemmings – three of a kind? / 89
Conflicts of interest – do analysts rate their bank’s clients’ stock
more favorably? / 90
Banks’ blurry categorizations – have your cake and eat
it too / 92
Analysts rule the waves (whether we like it or not) / 94
Sirens and investment bankers – birds of a feather / 97
How to tame an analyst / 99
Advice or influence? Why firms ask government officials to be
directors / 101
Boards of directors: cliques and elites / 103
Board-cloning – a rewarding habit / 106
Boardroom friends / 108
CEOs and their stock options . . . (oh please . . .) / 109
Stock options, risk, and manipulations / 111
Too hot to handle: explaining excessive top management
remuneration / 113
How to justify paying top managers too much / 116
CEOs do seek advice – if you pay them for it . . . / 118
Dirty laundry: who is hiding the bad stuff? / 120
Contentsviii
6 Myths in management / 122
No stranger to fiction
/ 122
Say you will – that’ll do / 123
Right again! Managers and their self-fulfilling prophecies / 125
Your expectations manage you / 126
“Reverse causality” – sorry, but life’s not that simple / 128
Eating Uncle Ed – don’t worry, it’s called downsizing / 130
Does downsizing ever work? / 133
Who can downsize without detriment? / 134
What management bandwagons bring / 135
Remember this one: “total quality management”? / 137
ISO 9000 makes you reliable, myopic, efficient, and dull – and unable
to invent Post-It notes / 139
How bad practice prevails / 140
Can we please stop saying that the market is efficient? / 143
Pin-striped pigeons / 145
Management consultants – happy slapping / 146
Star knowledge workers – you really should not pay them that much,
you know / 148
Patent sharks / 150
Information overload – and how to deal with it (if you’re the one
loading) / 152
When knowledge hurts / 154
Exaggerating to make my point / 156
R&D – it’s a steal / 157
7 Making far-reaching decisions (when you can’t see a
fricking thing ahead of you)
/ 159
The Red Queen
/ 159
Binoculars in the mist / 161
ixContents
“Today’s fast-changing business environment”? The same as it ever
was! / 163
Is innovation over-rated? / 164
Customers? Ah, forget about them / 166
Means and ends; profits and innovation / 168
It is OK to get lucky – even for a top manager / 170
Getting lucky – fortune favors the prepared firm / 171
Sometimes it is about knowing when not to decide / 173
Retaining your ability to make money? Causal ambiguity’s the
answer / 175
Company cloning – how to change a winning formula / 177
When to fire your M&A management consultant / 180
Not all trouble is really trouble / 181
Change for change’s sake / 183
Now change it again! / 185
“A serial changer” / 186
“Innovation networks” and the size of the pie / 188
Spinning clients – the McKinsey effect / 191
8 A rock or a soft place? / 194
The hidden cost of equity
/ 194
“Shareholder value orientation” – now, where did that come
from? / 195
Who should come first? Shareholders? Are you sure . . . ? / 197
Human nature: self-interested bastard or community-builder? / 199
Downtown Calcutta firms / 201
Pay inequality – good or bad for team performance? / 202
What really caused the 2008 banking crisis? / 204
The third sin / 207
“Work–family initiatives”?! That’s rather soft and fluffy isn’t it? / 209
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