Book Description
Barbarians at the Gate has been called one of the most influential business books of all time -- the definitive account of the largest takeover in Wall Street history. Bryan Burrough and John Helyar's gripping account of the frenzy that overtook Wall Street in October and November of 1988 is the story of deal makers and publicity flaks, of strategy meetings and society dinners, of boardrooms and bedrooms -- giving us not only a detailed look at how financial operations at the highest levels are conducted but also a richly textured social history of wealth at the twilight of the Reagan era.
Barbarians at the Gate -- a business narrative classic -- is must reading for everyone interested in the way today's world really works.
Download Description
With more than 500,000 copies sold, Barbarians at the Gate is the definitive account of the largest takeover in Wall Street history: the frenzy of strategy meetings and society dinners, of boardrooms and bedrooms -- giving us the view from the top of the financial ladder to the social history of wealth at the twilight of the Reagan era.
Over six months on the New York Times bestseller list, Barbarians at the Gate is the definitive account of the largest takeover in Wall Street history. Bryan Burrough and John Helyar's gripping record of the frenzy that overtook Wall Street in October and November of 1988 is the story of deal makers and pulicity flaks, of strategy meetings and society dinners, of boardrooms and bedrooms, giving us not only an unprecedentedly detailed look at how financial operations at the highest levels are conducted but also a richly textured social history of wealth at the twilight of the Reagan era. As compelling as a novel, Barbarians at the Gate is must reading for everyone interested in the way today's world really works.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent.......2007-10-21
No one that works at financial markets can afford loosing this book. It's historical and wonderful. The audio book I bought was to listen on the way to work. It's perfect.
Stranger Than Fiction.......2007-09-22
A takeover story that reads like a Jeffrey Archer novel, Barbarians at the Gate is a meticulously detailed account of the takeover of RJR Nabisco by KKR in the late 80s. The authors were WSJ journalists who covered the story for the Journal and the book does a great job of communicating the tension and intrigue of those six weeks in 1988. The book does slack in pace at times but the story keeps you engaged. Recommended.
Barbarians at the Gate audio book.......2007-09-02
Great book. Great format. I listened to it on the plane. A must read business book - goes along with reading the art of war and the prince.
The business classic.......2007-08-20
Simply compulsive. If you have an interest in business and finance or people, greed and behaviour this is a must read. In many ways this story reflects a broadly held image of the 1980's and its culture of excess that was abound in our worlds financial capitals.
This is a gripping read; the story of the battle for RJR Nabisco and the characters involved contains many elements of the best fiction with the distinct difference of this story being true. Whilst the business finally conducted may not have been the finest work of the venerable KKR it was important mainly due to its Herculean scale which was at the time unprecedented.
This book is simply a must read on many levels. Since it was first published in 1990 it has gripped the imagination of many and has kindled an interest in business reaching far and wide.
The business book of business books.......2007-08-05
To say this book was expertly written, would be an understatement. The authors craft the perfect description of an LBO, with all the players, transactions, and affects on peples lives. How they were able to get inside as well as they did, is really beyond me. This is one for the ages and should be read in Business schools.
Book Description
Dr. Donald DePamphilis explains the real-world of mergers, acquisitions, and restructuring based on his academic knowledge and personal experiences with over 30 such deals himself. The 77 case studies span every industry and countries and regions worldwide show how deals are done rather than just the theory behind them, including cross-border transactions. The interactive CD is unique in enabling the user to download and customize content. It includes an Excel-based LBO model and an M&A Structuring and Valuation Model in which readers can insert their own data and modify the model to structure and value their own deals. New additions to the third edition: 17 new cases, with all 77 cases updated, Glossary, real options applications, projecting growth rates. Student Study Guide on CD contains practice problems/solutions, powerpoint slides outlining main points of each chapter, and selected case study solutions. An extensive on-line instructors manual contains powerpoint slides for lectures following each chapter, detailed syllabi for using the book for both undergraduate and graduate-level courses, and an exhaustive test bank with over 750 questions and answers (including true/false, multiple choice, essay questions, and computational problems).
*Practical, real-world approach with 77 case studies from around the globe
*CD has customized content and the latest models and forecasting tools
*Student Study Guide on CD has practice problems/solutions, powerpoint slides, and selected case study solutions
Customer Reviews:
Clearly a Home Run!!!.......2006-03-18
This is one of those books that I wish I had written. As an experienced deal maker, I know what works and what doesn't. This book explains from a highly practical perspective the "art and science" of the deal. The author clearly has done his share of transactions in terms of his ability to capture the dynamic nature of the deal structuring and acquisition process. The author, as the chess master, goes through the development of alternative deal structures and strategies designed to consummate the deal. The process of offers and counter-offers is illustrated in a delightful and comprehensive case study at the end of the book.
The book is written with a fluid style that brings what for most are very difficult concepts to life in a readily understandable yet rigorous way. The author's nummerous insights are documented through references to recent academic and practitioner studies and illustrated by using recent case studies. I find the author's frequent use of brief studies of transactions to illustrate his current point very enlightening.
This book is far more than a reference or textbook; it is the reader's ticket to learning how to do deals and implement corporate restructuring activities. The book abounds with numerical and non-numerical examples to illustrate how to do things. The CD included with the text is easily worth the price of the book in that it provides numerous complex deal structuring and valuation M&A and LBO models. The CD also contains a wealth of other information including question lists for conducting due diligence and solutions to case study questions and problems contained in the text.
Yes, I wish I had written this book. But, then, those things are best left to those who can.
A Refreshing New Approach to Learning.......2006-01-01
Many business books take a pedantic, ponderous approach to what could easily be characterized as a challenging subject. However, I found the lively writing in this book to be very helpful to keeping my attention and to making difficult material more understandable. While the book is exhaustive, I found each chapter to be largely self contained. This text is clearly the most useful I have read on this subject. The CD included with the book contains models, presentations, chapter outlines, problem sets with answers, etc., all of which make this book the best available on the market.
Great Book and Great CD.......2005-12-22
This book is a one-stop shop for those interested in M&A. It covers all the relevant topics from how to develop a rigorous business plan appropriate to undertake an acquisition, to identifying and approaching target firms, to succesful negotiation, to planning and performing due dilgence, to planning and implementing successful integration, to financing the transaction. The book also addresses how to design effective takeover tactics and defenses. I was most impressed with the extent of the explanations about how to design and implement acquisition plans from a real world perspective. The author also addresses how to design effective takeover tactics and defenses. I also found the material on the M&A implications for governance very valuable.
The book is also very well documented. The extensive list of publications is very helpful for locating more articles and books on this exciting subject. I found the glossary of M&A terms among the most useful I've seen. It could be published as an M&A dictionary. The numerous case studies sprinkled throughtout the book are very helpful in demystifying the subject.
The CD included with the books contains a wealth of material often available on the internet for hundreds of dollars. The detailed M&A models and leveraged buyout models and due diligence question lists are available for customizing to meet your specific circumstances. I found the buyer due diligence question list in electronic form to be very valuable when it came time to making changes for my own needs The chapter outlines, study guides, and presentations also included on the CD are very helpful in internalizing the material. The CD also contains ansewrs to many case study questions and chapter questions.
All things considered, this book is a must have for anyone serious about learning the subject.
Highly Student Friendly.......2005-11-25
I am currently using this book in an M&A class and have found it to be an excellent business book. The book is exceptionally well organized, intuitive, and well-written. The book's use of bold type, self-explanatory headings facilitates the overall organization of the material, finding subject matter, and understanding key points the author is trying to make. The book is rich in examples, something that is often lacking in many books. The case studies for the most part of current, instructive, and insightful. The book is full of helpful insights and practical advice.
The CD -rom included with the book contains a lot of very useful stuff including powerpoint slides for each chapter, study guides for each chapter including chapter outlines and sample test questions and anwers, as well as anwers to many of the case study questions and problems in the book. The merger, acquisition, leveraged buyout and real option software illustrates how the pros analyze and value businesses. There are no secrets as you are able to access the underlying excel instructions to see how the models tick and to change them to suit your needs.
Overall, I would give this book an A+ for insightfulness, openess, practicality, readability,and organization.
Superb!!!.......2005-11-16
As you can see, I am very impressed with this book. It is by far the best book I have read on the subject in terms of thoughtfulness, organization, documentation, and practicality. It is full of well explained examples that make would could be a daunting subject understandable. The book comes with a CD that is full of M&A and LBO valuation software and excel spreadsheets, as well as a lot of other good stuff including powerpoint presentations highlighting lecture notes, student study guides, and answers to practice problems. All things considered, I would give this book a resounding thumbs up for those wanting to use in in their personal libraries, professions, or in the class room.
Book Description
A collection of case studies illustrates real-world techniques, implementation, and strategies on corporate restructuring
Over the period 1981-1998, public companies with combined assets of over half a trillion dollars filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Over the same period, over 400 public companies underwent corporate spin-offs, divesting businesses valued at more than $250 billion. Each of these companies, and all of these dollars, were in some way or another involved in corporate restructuring. Gilson's cases studies have been used extensively in executive programs and are perfect tools to refer to when faced with real-world corporate restructuring issues.
Stuart C. Gilson (Boston, MA) is an Associate Professor at Harvard University and a widely acknowledged expert on corporate restructuring. He has studied and published on the intricacies of both domestic and international corporate restructuring.
Customer Reviews:
Finance with Negative Signs.......2004-01-23
Someone (perhaps it was I) has said that bankruptcy is corporate finance with negative signs. This has always been true but it is amazing how far mainstream finance has gone to try to resist the comparison. The resistance must be, must have been more cultural than economic, because it is axiomatic that anything is a bargain at the right price, and that there is no more or less money to be made in "distress investing" than in any other. Two generations ago, there seems to have been only one person in American that really understood this point - the late Max Heine, who made his grubstake by investing in out-of-favor railroad bonds in the Great Depression, and then riding the wave of prosperity that emerged in World War II. In the same vein, 40 years ago just about any bankruptcy judge would have looked on an "assigned claim" as some kind of monster.
Times have changed. Now everybody's an arbitrageur. The "vulture investors" have their conferences, their social clubs, and for all I know, their own softball team.
Stuart C. Gilson"s "Corporate Restructuring" symbolizes the sea change from the old attitude to the new. It adds the imprimatur of the Harvard Business School to the notion that vulture investing is just another way of making money. As others have noted, this isn't a work of high theory - indeed it has a kind of slapdash, direct-off-the-photocopier feel that is remarkably common in business publications. For fancy theory, you look elsewhere - in law to the likes of Douglas Baird or Lucian Arye Bebchuk; in finance to the developing lore of "real options." But the case studies are an excellent device for getting a sense of the texture and possibilities of vulture investing. It can be read with profit alongside Hilary Rosenberg's "The Vulture Investors." Ambitious students who want the full theoretical framework will match it with David G. Luenberger's "Investment Science." But Gilson's work has merit on its own as one kind of introduction to this revolution in investment thinking.
Only usefull for students.......2003-03-04
What a waiste of money.... The writer has not included any anlyses or real solutions to the cases that a provided. Unless you are a student in a class that use this book, this book gives you absolute nothing.
Good book but needs a companion text.......2003-02-18
This is a very good case book, complete with intricate case studies illustrating numerous aspects of challenges often faced in restructuring in bankruptcy. However, the book assumes a level of knowledge about M&A concepts that many readers may not have. Consequently, I would recommend using this book in conjunction with another excellent text by DePamphilis entitled Mergers and Acquisitions: Integrated Approach. There are two editions. The second edition is more complete and up to date. It also tackles some of the problems illustrated in this book.
Just a collection of old cases.......2003-01-30
This book is a complete waste of time. It is just a collection of case studies bundled together and resold. There is no analysis done. The cases are merely reprinted word for word from the original HBS cases. There are three short intros to the different sections, but once again nothing useful. Great marketing ploy, lousy book.
Corporate Restructuring: It's Not Just for Lawyers Anymore.......2002-12-05
You'd be surprised by how few business schools offer courses on bankruptcy and restructuring. I know that I was. I came to Wharton this year to teach "Advanced Corporate Finance" in the MBA program. In preliminary "due diligence," I discovered there were no finance electives on bankruptcy and restructuring. To bridge the gap, I decided to conclude my course with two modules, one on Corporate Restructuring and the other on Bankruptcy.
Material for both modules came straight from Gilson's book. Students relished the case studies. They fueled many of the most lively and engaging discussions we enjoyed all term. Students are worried about the economy. For the first time, many also sense career opportunities in the area of distressed debt. When I planned the course, I counted on both to spur interest in the modules.
What I didn't count on was how well Gilson's cases would frame virtually all other material that I covered. Key lessons resurfaced from all modules: Financial Analysis and Forecasting, Capital Structure Policy, Capital Budgeting, and Mergers and Acquisitions. In each case, revisiting the ideas in the context of bankruptcy and restructuring threw them into high relief. So much so that I was able to substitute restructuring cases for those I had intended as "comprehensive" case discussions.
As important for educators, Gilson's cases provide all necessary background information about how key legal and procedural aspects of the Bankruptcy Code influence managers' decisions. In Gilson's cases, the decisions featured are crucial to determining how to maximize value in distressed situations, as well as how to distribute it when all is said and done.
In the final analysis, aren't these *exactly* the issues that MBA courses in corporate finance should address? My students at Wharton this term sure thought so. In the spring, my two sections are also already full. I've been told the "buzz" is mostly due to Gilson's restructuring material. Hopefully, some value was created in the delivery. Nonetheless, I couldn't recommend any material more highly for anyone planning to teach a spring term corporate finance course.
Book Description
The definitive guide to successful corporate transformation
?The framework Bob Miles illustrates in his new book has been the key tool Symantec has used to start the shift from being a technology-driven to a customer-driven company. Business leaders facing a variety of corporate transformation challenges will benefit from this important executive briefing.? -- Gordon E. Eubanks, Jr., chief executive officer, Symantec Corporation
The distillation of a stellar twenty-year career, Leading Corporate Transformation is consultant Robert Miles's reply to executives who want to be able to rise to the most pervasive challenge facing them today: how to achieve fundamental transformation without exposing the organization to unacceptable risk. Here, in the form of an executive briefing, are the expert guidance and tools you need to meet a variety of corporate transformation challenges, whether you are trying to reposition a successful company, revitalize a failing one, merge different businesses and cultures, or manage a leadership succession process. These insights are relevant not only for senior executives, but also for managers at all levels of an organization undergoing fundamental transformation. If you are a leader who must effect organizational change, you will want to keep this book close at hand.
Customer Reviews:
"The Corporate Transformation Framework.".......2000-05-18
"Corporate transformation challenges come in many forms and confront executive leaders with an array of vexing questions: How can I help my company, which is at the top of its competitive game, sidestep complacency and energize people to redirect their efforts and reposition their organization? How can I lead my company, which has lost its way and greatly depleted its resources, to revitalize itself for competitive excellence? How can our recently merged companies or functions overcome business and cultural differences? Or, more simply, now that I am in a position to do so, how can I effectively take charge of my organization and help people develop a new agenda to lead us through the next phase of its development? These questions, and more, have found successful resolution through the framework for leading corporate transformation described in this book (R. H. Miles)."
In this context, in the first part of this book, Robert H. Miles offers a framework for leading corporate transformation. This framework, as stated by Miles, identifies the major/required tasks that a leader-indeed, that leaders at all leves in the organization-must perform to achieve successful transformation without exposing the corporation to unacceptable risk :
I. Generate Energy for Transformation
* Confront reality
* Create and reallocate resources
* Raise the bar
* Model desired behaviors
II. Develop a Vision and Business Success Model
* Develop a strategic vision
* Model business success
* Analyze the total system: current vs. vision states
* Identify the gaps
* Focus on a few transformation initiatives
III. Align the Organization
* Restructure
* Implement infrastructure
* Reshape the culture
* Build core competencies
IV. Create a Transformation Process Architecture
* Educate and involve
* Create coordination and feedback mechanisms
* Communicate progress
* Fill transformation skill gaps
According to R. H. Miles these elements of the framework provide not only a platform for launching a corporate transformation, but also for managing transitions from one phase of transformation to the next en route to the vision state.
I highly recommend.
Amazon.com
When Arthur C. Martinez moved from vice chairman of Saks Fifth Avenue to the top spot at Sears in 1992, his immediate duty was clear: use his outsider's perspective to remake a stodgy and floundering 19th-century retailer into one prepared for the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. The problems he uncovered ran deeply enough to require two complete transformations, sandwiched around corporate legal problems that led to millions in direct damages and an incalculable loss in consumer goodwill. The Hard Road to the Softer Side tells how Martinez went about this conversion during his eight- year reign, the book's title playing off the ad campaign central to his efforts to reposition the company from a dowdy purveyor of tools and appliances to a modern outlet for fashion and fun. The key was recognizing that Sears's primary customer had shifted over the years from the man of the family to the woman, and that everything from store design and brand selection to prices and marketing efforts had to reflect that reality. To effect these changes, he unflinchingly confronted a succession of sacred cows--the most notable of which, the venerable Sears catalog, was losing so much money he was reluctantly forced to kill it. He also closed dozens of unprofitable stores, shed longtime affiliates like Coldwell Banker and Allstate, oversaw a cautious entry into e-commerce, and even adopted some concepts used by aggressive competitors. The specifics won't apply to many companies unless they also do $40 billion-plus in annual sales, but the story of Sears has always been the story of American retailing, and the principles behind its 1990s resurgence (focus intently on the customer, keep a close eye on the competition, don't be afraid of change) are generally applicable to enterprises of other sizes and types as well. --Howard Rothman
Book Description
For the better part of a century, Sears, Roebuck and Company touched the lives of almost everyone in America. A stunning tale of marketing and savvy, the company started selling watches and quickly became an essential source of goods for the American home. Sears brought the Christmas dreams of distant children to life; introduced the American homemaker to a collection of appliances that stripped much of the drudgery from daily living; and put solid, dependable tools in the hands of strong, eager men. At the same time, it forged a solid relationship with its customers, earning that most valuable business asset of them all: loyalty.
And then, when it could least afford to, Sears lost its way. It gradually forgot about its customers. It no longer understood (or cared) who its competitors were. It shifted its focus inward, to the interests and needs of its huge bureaucracy, all at the expense of the customers who found themselves in declining, dismal stores. The greatest retailer in world history had become a company with a great past, a disappointing present, and a dismal future.
The Hard Road to the Softer Side: Lessons from the Transformation of Sears is the story of how Sears recovered from this downfall, told by the visionary who built the team that forged the company’s rebirth. When Arthur Martinez took charge at Sears in 1992, he found a once-great company facing a loss of $4 billion, with a Soviet-style bureaucracy, little idea of its target customer, and an army of 300,000 disheartened employees. Many experts thought Sears was too far gone to save.
But save it Martinez did, putting Sears in the black by 1994 and sailing on through 1997. It wasn’t easy. Almost everything the company had become needed to change. Fifty thousand jobs disappeared. The Sears catalog, which had become so much a part of the company’s mythology, was put to rest. More than 100 stores were closed. But what rose from all of that turmoil was a new commitment to customers and a strategy that should have been apparent: in the American family, the mother is the chief financial officer.
With a boldness and determination backed by billions of dollars in renovations, Sears revived its connection to its customers and, at the same time, brought its own people back to life. The advertising sent the message, the sales staff opened its arms, and the customers came back. The new Sears was keeping its eye on the marketplace, its focus on the customer, and its interests firmly connected to the financial health of its shareholders. Then Sears hit the wall again with new aggressive competitors, a huge ethics problem, a war for talent, and a slowdown in sales.
The story of how Martinez and his team worked their way through not one but two crises is compelling and highly instructive, especially for anyone working in a company with an entrenched corporate culture or a long tradition that needs to be updated in order to stay competitive.
Download Description
For the better part of a century, Sears, Roebuck and Company touched the lives of almost everyone in America. A stunning tale of marketing and savvy, the company started selling watches and quickly became an essential source of goods for the American home. Sears brought the Christmas dreams of distant children to life; introduced the American homemaker to a collection of appliances that stripped much of the drudgery from daily living; and put solid, dependable tools in the hands of strong, eager men. At the same time, it forged a solid relationship with its customers, earning that most valuable business asset of them all: loyalty.
And then, when it could least afford to, Sears lost its way. It gradually forgot about its customers. It no longer understood (or cared) who its competitors were. It shifted its focus inward, to the interests and needs of its huge bureaucracy, all at the expense of the customers who found themselves in declining, dismal stores. The greatest retailer in world history had become a company with a great past, a disappointing present, and a dismal future.
The Hard Road to the Softer Side: Lessons from the Transformation of Sears is the story of how Sears recovered from this downfall, told by the visionary who built the team that forged the company's rebirth. When Arthur Martinez took charge at Sears in 1992, he found a once-great company facing a loss of $4 billion, with a Soviet-style bureaucracy, little idea of its target customer, and an army of 300,000 disheartened employees. Many experts thought Sears was too far gone to save.
But save it Martinez did, putting Sears in the black by 1994 and sailing on through 1997. It wasn't easy. Almost everything the company had become needed to change. Fifty thousand jobs disappeared. The Sears catalog, which had become so much a part of the company's mythology, was put to rest. More than 100 stores were closed. But what rose from all of that turmoil was a new commitment to customers and a strategy that should have been apparent: in the American family, the mother is the chief financial officer.
With a boldness and determination backed by billions of dollars in renovations, Sears revived its connection to its customers and, at the same time, brought its own people back to life. The advertising sent the message, the sales staff opened its arms, and the customers came back. The new Sears was keeping its eye on the marketplace, its focus on the customer, and its interests firmly connected to the financial health of its shareholders. Then Sears hit the wall again with new aggressive competitors, a huge ethics problem, a war for talent, and a slowdown in sales.
The story of how Martinez and his team worked their way through not one but two crises is compelling and highly instructive, especially for anyone working in a company with an entrenched corporate culture or a long tradition that needs to be updated in order to stay competitive.
"Arthur Martinez provides us with a genuinely inspiring and challenging story of the great Sears turnaround of the 1990s. Learning this story will provide every manager and business leader with invaluable insights on how to build a stronger, more customer-centric business."
ADRIAN J. SLYWOTZKY, VICE PRESIDENT OF MERCER MANAGEMENT CONSULTING AND AUTHOR OF THE PROFIT ZONE AND HOW DIGITAL IS YOUR BUSINESS?
"Be warned. This is a story as gripping as a good novel, complete with easily absorbed wisdom and a hero. It's also an authentic blueprint of how the best managers in the best businesses in our country get the job done."
CHARLOTTE L. BEERS, FORMER CHAIRMAN AND CEO OF OGILVY & MATHER
"Honest and insightful, Arthur
Customer Reviews:
A Champion of Change.......2001-11-14
A fascinating and insightful look at the retailing business from a true champion of change- Mr. Arthur C. Martinez.
Not factual.......2001-11-05
There is a lot of misinformation in this book and the contents should not merely be accepted on face value.
Average customer rating:
- OK intro to HP, but stops short
- You will understand why she raised to the top and ...fell!
- CEO impact on lower-level managers needed in book
- Computer server business assessment needed in book
- Insightful!
|
Backfire: Carly Fiorina's High-Stakes Battle for the Soul of Hewlett-Packard
Peter Burrows
Manufacturer: Wiley
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Bill & Dave: How Hewlett and Packard Built the World's Greatest Company
ASIN: 0471267651 |
Book Description
An insider's look at the internal turmoil at one of the world's premier high-tech companies
This is the inside story of Hewlett-Packard Company's struggle to regain its former glory, and of the high-stakes battle between CEO Carly Fiorina and family scion Walter Hewlett over how best to achieve that goal. For decades, HP was admired not only for its innovative products and soaring stock price, but for its egalitarian corporate culture and father-knows-best integrity. Backfire explains how the company fell on hard times, recounts the historic decision that made Fiorina the world's top-ranking female executive, and brings to life the backlash that resulted when she tried to impose her charismatic salesmanship on the aging icon. Top BusinessWeek journalist Peter Burrows gives the dramatic blow-by-blow of Hewlett's effort to kill Fiorina's most controversial move of all, her $19 billion purchase of rival Compaq Computer. Fiorina won by a whisker, after the most expensive proxy fight in history and a dramatic lawsuit that accused the company of illegally fixing the vote. This gripping, ongoing story includes fascinating personalities and dramatic boardroom and courtroom drama.
Peter Burrows (Alameda, CA) has been a technology reporter for BusinessWeek for nine years and has covered the HP saga from the start. The department editor for BusinessWeek's computer coverage, he has been the principal chronicler of Fiorina's tenure at HP, and has written three cover stories on the subject. He has also written numerous other cover stories, including looks at Steve Jobs's Apple Computer and Sun Microsystems' Scott McNealy.
Customer Reviews:
OK intro to HP, but stops short.......2006-05-10
HP is a company in transition. For decades one of the fastest growing companies in history, it is now seen as a beleaguered giant, risk averse and unable to transform itself.
This book situates the company's crisis in the context of the ascension of Carly Fiorina to the position of CEO and her brutal fight to acquire Compaq while changing the company.
The origins of Hewlett-Packard have become the stuff of legend. During an electrical engineering class at Stanford in 1934, Bill Hewlett and David Packard began to formulate a vision for a company; their professor, Fred Terman, immediately recognized their talent and set about to mentor them. Four years later, in a rented garage with just $538, Hewlett and Packard, flipping a coin to decide whose name would come first, founded Hewlett-Packard. From the start, HP strove to create innovative technology products, predominantly in the instrumentation and measurement field. Their first big break came with the Disney company's purchase of an audio oscillator, which it used to fine tune the sound track for the experimental music film Fantasia. As the company grew, the founders articulated a series of objectives ("the HP Way"), which included the necessity to make a profit with a focus on innovation in the electronics field, but also an egalitarian culture that emphasized employee profit-sharing, career opportunities, and a contribution to the community.
According to many employees, the HP Way helped to create an exceptional work environment, in which individual opinions mattered and strong personal relationships of trust grew along with professional engagement. Many HP employees spent their entire careers at the company. According to David Packard, HP sought to balance entrepreneurship against insubordination: if an employee chose to continue to develop a product on his own after it was officially terminated, he often would be allowed to do so within limits. Time and again, Packard found, such entrepreneurship resulted in breakthrough instruments, such as oscillator viewer screens, that generated millions of dollars in revenues. To maintain this entrepreneurial spirit, as profitable groups grew within HP they were allowed to function as near-autonomous divisions. This was particularly well suited to the booming electronic instrument business: with a few hundred thousand dollars, a small group could develop a product for a unique area of need and then sell it on their own. For decades, this structure worked. From 1958 to 1998, the company grew an average of 20.2 percent per year, a record that no other company has surpassed.
As Burrows relates, during the late 1960s, HP began to develop computers and related product lines and technologies. This represented a major departure for the company, away from its core business of electronic instrumentation. While the move opened huge new areas of potential profit - from printers and personal computers to pocket calculators and specialized semiconductor processors - it vastly increased the complexity of the company. Not only did R&D often require millions of dollars over decades to develop competitive product lines, but by the end of the 1990s there were over 80 quasi-independent businesses under the HP umbrella; often operating in separate geographical regions, each of these groups had its own sales force, its own engineers and designers, and its own software developers. By 1997, when HP began to miss its financial targets for the first time, many in the company began to fear that it was losing its way, that its structure had become wasteful, unwieldy, and worst of all, risk averse. Furthermore, after having invested so heavily in computers, HP executives recognized that the industry was becoming increasingly commoditized. In the opinion of industry observers, the moment had arrived to shake up the company.
After a few attempts to transform the company from within, the HP board chose Carly Fiorina as the new CEO in 1999, an acknowledged high tech "rock star" who recently had headed sales at Lucent, the communications hardware giant that had spun off from the AT&T breakup. From the start, she was a controversial presence in the company. For example, her specialty was marketing, which automatically branded her as an outsider in an engineering company. Moreover, as a media darling, the personal publicity she attracted made many longtime HP executives uncomfortable. However, others argued that she was bringing a fresh perspective on where the company should go, that she could gain an overview that few insiders had and would formulate a new strategic direction. In particular, Fiorina argued that with the unmatched breadth of its product lines, HP might somehow combine them into a more coherent whole, perhaps by focusing on the internet. Nonetheless, this vision of strategic synthesis remained to be defined in detail.
So far so good. This background was extremely useful for me and covers to about 2004. But from this point, Burrows goes into excruciating detail about Fiorina's personality and style as well as adds several chapters on the civil war within the company that the acquisition of Compaq sparked. None of that interested me much, though this is the "intrigue" that many readers found most interesting. Then, the book ends as she obtains the acquisition, well short of the aftermath in which she was fired. So in addition to being too gossipy for me, it is already outdated.
Burrows is a good journalist and covers a lot here in a better way than I have found elsewhere, but it is not very deep and glosses over many of the others issues that Fiorina was concerned about, such as the creation of synergies between the 83 largely independent businesses that make up the company.
Recommended tepidly.
You will understand why she raised to the top and ...fell!.......2005-09-16
This book will give you some good understanding how Carly Fiorina got the top job at HP and how she reingineered the company before falling into disgrace after the merger with Compaq.
CEO impact on lower-level managers needed in book.......2004-08-05
This book contained a lot of good material concerning the interaction of Carly Fiorina and her highest-level executives. However, Burrows' coverage of her impact on lower level managers in critical positions was inadequate. The failures of such managers can have major impacts on HP for potentially decades and thus deserve scrutiny. A good example prior to the Fiorina era was when HP lost over 60 points of market share in the technical workstation market in the 1980s which also led over time to a weakened server market position, due to lost technical and financial leverage. The current value of this loss may be as high as 10 billion dollars in revenue yearly.
The keynote address by her Vice President for Linux at LinuxWorld yesterday illustrated well the huge risks HP is taking by having lower level executives like this VP adopt her approach. While this area is currently too small to register on the Board of Director's radar, critical market battles are currently being fought that will strongly influence HP financials for a long time. Carly Fiorina's bad influence was evident in VP Martin Fink's keynote address. This speech spent a lot of time promoting Linux, which customers can buy from many vendors, and virtually no time promoting HP's value-added. HP makes money whether it sells Linux or Windows-based machines. There is no real incentive to for HP to sell an HP-Linux machine instead of an HP-Windows machine, or vice versa.
Why is HP's Martin Fink wasting valuable time in front of a huge audience promoting one side of an issue that is a don't care situation (with respect to Windows) and potentially a losing proposition (with respect to HP_UX) to HP financially? Note that HP has no time to waste in this market, the market leader at present, due to earlier HP missteps, is Dell Computer, not HP.
What Martin Fink should have been promoting is why customers should buy HP Linux systems as opposed to IBM or Dell Linux systems, instead of arguing customers should buy Linux instead of other alternatives that HP also makes. Martin Fink's mistake yesterday is a typical Carly mistake, to get caught up in promoting what is fashionable, rather than what is best for HP. The lack of loyalty to HP implicit in his address has also been a familiar issue to Carly observers - that she is promoting herself far more than she promotes HP.
The central theme of this example, the appalling deviation from business basics that Carly inspires in her team, is one that was deserving of much more attention in Burrows book. Corporate marketing resources need to be focussed on beating the competition, not on taking market share from one HP division and transferring it to another, or promoting the next job for some executive, whether that executive is Fink or Fiorina. It seemed yesterday that Martin Fink was promoting himself for some more senior Linux position at some other firm, which would explain his lack of HP advocacy, something Fiorina is thought to do in promoting herself for political office using her HP soapbox. It is also a good demonstration why the point of view prevalent on some unengaged Boards, that a CEO as just a public relations representative is adequate, is so misguided.
Computer server business assessment needed in book.......2004-06-20
I enjoyed this book as it contained substantial original reporting that is not duplicative of the work that others have done. I would have liked to see more material concerning bottom line issues. The bottom line issue that has the most resonance for me is the Wall Street assessment, both now, and at the time of the merger, that HP's non-printing businesses have no value on the Street. In other words, if HP were to be bought by some other firm, the Wall Street consensus is that such an acquirer should simply eliminate the other businesses. HP's value is actually less as currently structured because eliminating these other businesses has closing costs associated with this shutdown activity.
The clear implication here is that Walter Hewlett was absolutely correct in opposing this merger, since the result clearly is that 20 billion dollars was completely wasted, and precious time is still being lost on ineffective strategies to revive these businesses. With the benefit of hindsight we can say that Walter Hewlett should have been given more credit than he received, even from Burrows, for opposing this capital and job destruction, even in the face of Fiorina's personal attacks.
This book should have pointed out that these at-risk businesses can still be saved, particularly the server and server-related businesses, with the appointment of proper management by the Board of Directors. What they need to be looking for this time is not someone whose picture has been on the cover of "Fortune" magazine, as was Carly's before she was hired, but someone with the knowledge and interest in saving HP. Carly not only does not have the engineering expertise, she simply creates the impression that she has no interest in HP's existing businesses, even printing, which she has left to wither on the vine in a new investment sense.
HP has had a computer server business for over 25 years. It is a big market, roughly 50 billion yearly and rising. HP has 27%, but has failed to gain any share at all from the collapse of Sun Microsystems. Instead, customers are transfering to IBM and Dell, which should be a big wake-up call for the Board. Dell Computer is number one in market position for the key Linux server business, perhaps because of HP's totally insular and uninformed approach to this market. A lot of hard work by HP employees went into building a formerly successful server business, it is senseless to discard this potentially excellent business because Carly is more interested in trying to sell MP3s at Starbucks, something that will never generate much profit.
I would have liked to have seen a clear statement in this book that if in the summer of 2004 if HP's non-printer businesses are still worth zero, that the HP Board of Directors needs hire a new CEO. Doubtless they prefer to have a charming dialogue with Carly about her boneheaded hipster ideas involving HP products in Starbucks rather than argue with some computer nerd about computer enterprise/service-provider product investments, but I would argue that being true to their responsibilities requires that they do the later, whether they like it or not. It would have been good for Burrows' book to say so.
Insightful!.......2004-06-09
Peter Burrows offers insights into high level business, where personality matters more than economics, as he explores the mammoth HP-Compaq merger. Most mergers fail to make money or to produce the promised "synergies" so, he asks, why - other than ego - do CEOs pursue them? Though stylistically somewhat trite, this book successfully explores the HP Board's decision to approve the merger, with Walter B. Hewlett's vote in favor, and his subsequent lonely, ultimately quixotic battle against it. The most contentious issues in contemporary business are all here: shareholder rights and value vs. CEO power; employee-oriented cultures vs. "re-engineering;" corporate integrity vs. sharp practice; and the interesting spectacle of a ruthless, hard-headed female CEO pitted against a sensitive, cello-playing man. The author says Hewlett-Packard executives were told not to speak with him after he quoted merger critics in Business Week, so there is an inevitable Walter Hewlett bias. We found this to be a very good read, even a must read, for corporate warriors.
Book Description
In 1982 Johns-Manville, a major asbestos manufacturer, declares itself insolvent to avoid paying claims resulting from exposure to its products. A year later, Continental Airlines, one of the top ten carriers in the United States, claims a deficit when the union resists plans to cut labor costs. Later still, oil powerhouse Texaco cries broke rather than pay damages resulting from a courtroom defeat by archrival Pennzoil.
Bankruptcy, once a term that sent shudders up a manager's spine, has now become a potent weapon in the corporate arsenal. In his timely and challenging study, Kevin Delaney explores this profound change in our legal landscape, where corporations with billions of dollars in assets employ bankruptcy to achieve specific political and organizational objectives. As a consequence, bankruptcy court is rapidly becoming an arena in which crucial social issues are resolved: How and when will people dying of asbestos poisoning be compensated? Can companies unilaterally break legally negotiated labor contracts? What are the ethical and legal rules of the corporate takeover game?
In probing the Chapter 11 bankruptcies of Johns-Manville, Frank Lorenzo's Continental Airlines, and Texaco, Delaney shows not only that bankruptcy is pursued by managers more and more as a strategy, but that it is becoming accepted by the business community as a viable option, and not just a last-ditch solution.
This searing exposé of current corporate practices will incite debate among corporate executives, lawyers, legislators, and policy makers.
Customer Reviews:
Don't Bother.......2004-02-27
The author should have stuck with sociology or at least taken an accounting class before writing this book. Overall, the book is what you would expect from a sociologist writing about business.
Corporate bankruptcy can be a STRATEGY!.......2003-06-05
I wanted to learn more about the asbestos problem and the bankruptcy filing of John-Mansville since I knew someone who had lung problems from asbestos. I heard about this book and got it. This is the first thing that I have read that really helped me to understand what happened when Mansville, the biggest asbestos company went bankrupt. The book is clear and explains complicated bankruptcy cases to the lay person. Now, I finally understand why people with asbestosis ended up going through years of delay in BANKRUPTCY court of all places! What is most amazing is how people who get asbestos end up being treated like "unsecured creditors" as if they lent their life to the corporation like a bank loan! Truly amazing.
Great book.......2003-02-13
I read this book for a college class. I expected it to be boring because it was about bankruptcy but instead it was really interesting... The cases do come alive and you realize bankruptcy means something different than you thought it did. This book has me interested in taking bankruptcy classes in law school, something I thought I'd never do!
The politics of corporate bankruptcy: top-rate.......2002-08-19
This book is not about the financial aspects of bankruptcy and it is not about how to turn around companies. It is about the politics of major corporate bankruptcies. It is clearly written and well documented. It is amazing how prescient the book is given what has happened at WorldCom and at Enron. For anyone that is interested in politics and the ways that Chapter 11 can be used as a strategy, this book is the best. If you want to understand why some huge companies might actually CHOOSE bankruptcy and gain some advantages by doing so, check out this book.
A Poor Use of Paper.......2002-08-14
This is without a doubt, the most uninsightful book I've ever laid eyes on. The book reads like a freshman term paper written in short order. It is clear the book was written without objectivity and any depth in understanding of finance. The book was also originally published in 1992 (or sooner). Save your money.
Book Description
Dove, Lipton, Knorr, Ben & Jerry's, and Slim*Fast are a few of the brands that are part of the $66 billion global empire known as Unilever. When the story opens, one of its divisions is in deep trouble— declining volume, eroding margins, critical quality problems— and is close to being sold off. Then Tex Gunning, its visionary new division chairman, takes the stage, an expanding circle of young leaders takes charge, and once-skeptical workers embrace a challenging message of growth. The result? The division grows by double digits, year in and year out, and energizes Unilever's path to thrive around the globe.
To the Desert and Back tells the inside story of the transformation in the words of the people in all quarters of the company who made it happen. It documents five years of personal soul-searching, teamwork, companywide learning conferences, memorable journeys to the mountains and desert, and inspired promotions that show how these efforts produced a remarkable top-to-bottom turnaround. This story delivers authentic and convincing proof that a revitalized business is about personal growth.
The lessons learned from this dramatic business turnaround provide unexpected insights and encouraging inspiration for other companies and leaders ready to embark on their own remarkable journey of transformation, growth, and success.
Customer Reviews:
An engaging narrative.......2005-02-08
Most books on change management describe concepts and principles with some examples. This one went several steps further and provided me with a story that was rich in details and lessons learned. I could appreciate the nuisance and subtleties involved in change and transformation because of the fineness with which the business case was narrated. The authors should be commended for unraveling for the benefit of both business and non-business readers what goes on at the top management and various levels in a mammoth organization as it tries to change with the times.
To the future and beyond..........2003-07-10
In you are interested in linking innovative methods and models to bottom-line results, seeing the view of an organiziation's story as it unfolds and with the perspective of time, experiencing the transformation from those who lived it, or just a good read; then TO THE DESERT AND BACK is for you.
I don't think it is exaggerating to say the organization time and again was faced with its very survival. And each time it set the goal higher and invented the means to accomplish it.
It is a tribute to the importance of leadership, vision, creativity, and participation. While not many organizations may have the resources to play out the metaphor on such a grand scale, every leader and organization can take away the impetus to aim high, think big, and see beyond.
Required Reading for Leaders.......2003-06-14
Mirvis, Ayas, and Roth make an exciting story accessible to a wide range of readers. Not only are the lessons of this story applicable to the business world, they carry over to relationships of all kinds. The dramatic story of Unilever's turn-around had this reader turning the pages. It is rare to come across a book with the potential to have such a far-reaching impact on organizations and the people in them. "To the Desert and Back" ought to be required reading for leaders young and old.
Average customer rating:
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Board Games: The Changing Shape of Corporate Power
Arthur Fleischer ,
Geoffrey C., Jr. Hazard , and
Miriam Z. Klipper
Manufacturer: Little Brown & Co (T)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Industrial
| Management & Leadership
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Production & Operations
| Management & Leadership
| Business & Investing
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General
| Industries & Professions
| Business & Investing
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ASIN: 0316285323 |
Book Description
This is a reprint of a previously published book. It analyzes the metamorphosis in the role of directors of major companies and the new level of responsibility assumed in the board room.
Average customer rating:
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Corporate Takeovers and Productivity
Frank R. Lichtenberg
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Popular Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
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Consolidation & Merger
| Management & Leadership
| Business & Investing
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General
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| Transportation
| Nonfiction
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General
| Transportation
| Nonfiction
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ASIN: 0262121646 |
Book Description
The 1980s saw explosive activity in the arena of corporate takeovers. In this revealing study Frank Lichtenberg uses Census Bureau and other data on hundreds of business transactions during the 1970s and 1980s to examine the effects of changes in corporate control on productivity. He concludes that the restructuring of the U.S. economy during the past decade has contributed to higher productivity and increased international competitiveness.
Corporate Takeovers and Productivity examines the effects of mergers and acquisitions, in general, and leveraged buyouts, in particular on a number of important, interrelated variables: on the productivity and market share of manufacturing plants, on fixed and R&D investment, on the employment and wages of both blue- and white-collar workers, and on corporate diversification.
Among Lichtenberg's findings are that the least productive plants are most likely to change owners - a change that tends to raise productivity performance; that takeovers significantly reduce the employment and wages of white-collar workers (except R&D personnel) but not of blue-collar workers; that industrial consolidation is one source of the productivity gains from takeovers; and that the U.S. LBOs and foreign mergers and acquisitions do not have the same effects as U.S. mergers and acquisitions.
Frank R. Lichtenberg is Associate Professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Books:
- Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco
- Building Better Boards: A Blueprint for Effective Governance
- Built from Scratch: How a Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion
- Business and Its Environment (5th Edition)
- Business and Society: Stakeholders, Ethics, Public Policy
- Business Plans Kit For Dummies (For Dummies (Business & Personal Finance))
- Business Process Execution Language for Web Services BPEL and BPEL4WS 2nd Edition
- Construction Project Management (2nd Edition)
- Contemporary Strategy Analysis: Concepts, Techniques, Applications (5th Edition)
- Crafting and Executing Strategy : The Quest for Competitive Advantage - Concepts and Cases (Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases)
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