The Alexander Complex [Hardcover]

Michael Meyer (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The Greeks described the drive that carried Alexander the Great to world conquest in his 30s as "divine restlessness." Newsweek editor Meyer finds that same quality in six of America's most famous 20th-century entrepreneurs, visionaries able to communicate their vision to a team that helps make it reality. He looks at Steven Jobs, founder of Apple Computers, now with a company called NeXT; H. Ross Perot of Electronic Data Processing, who reportedly lives by a series of copybook maxims; James Rouse, an urban planner who has revitalized several U.S. cities; Robert Swanson, head of Genentech, a leading bioengineering company; Ted Turner, communication mogul whose self-proclaimed new mission is to "save the world"; Daniel Ludwig, billionaire shipping magnate who lost half of his fortune in a land-grab of the Amazon rain forest. Each story emphasizes the tycoon's philosophy of life. Students of business should find these accounts stimulating.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In this book, Meyer, a business editor at Newsweek , highlights six business leaders who have the "Alexander complex," a vision of empire in the tradition of Alexander the Great. They are Steven Jobs, founder of Apple Computer and NeXT Computer; Ross Perot, founder of Electronic Data Systems; James Rouse, creator of the Columbia, Maryland town complex and other festival marketplaces; Robert Swanson, founder of Genentech; Ted Turner, founder of TBS and CNN TV; and Daniel Ludwig, who tried to plant "trees like corn" in the Amazon jungle. This work is not really a profile of these individuals, but rather a way of showing traits such as vision, leadership, willfulness, and focus--all factors beyond the desire for money--that are needed by great empire builders. Recommended for all but the smallest business collections.
- Michael D. Kathman, St. John's Univ., Collegeville, Minn.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 258 pages
• Publisher: Crown; 1st edition (September 2, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 081291662X
• ISBN-13: 978-0812916621
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,000,677 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Great Men wasting their time, April 10, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Alexander Complex (Hardcover)

This book is without doubt the worst business biography ever to disgrace the binding of a book. Included in the comparison is every paranoid conspiracy rag and company house publications. No where can a reader find such an aggravating waste of time of distinguished or at least well-known men as well as any reader mistaken drawn into reading this undiverting tome.

A comparable book would be a series of interviews with the leading anti-Communists (Vaclav Havel, Pope John Paul II and Lech Walensa) all done by Robin Leach. The shallow and undistinguished questioning and trivial treatment of each is depressing.

The book begins and ends with Mr. Meyers' self-indulgent chattiness. The book is more than half filled with his irrelevant observation and thoughts of the day. The background on any of the interviewees is no more extensive than reading the employing company's press packet and clipped articles in Fortune and Time. Combined with ignorant turns of phrases like "quantum-fold increases" (in context, it is supposed to mean REALLY BIG) and pedestrian comments, the reader can only cull a few observations, Steve Jobs is persuasive, Ross Perot is intense, Jim Clark is a rapid talker. This book is a definite must-miss for any one studying the particular business leaders interviewed.

If you need a book to buck up the self-esteem of an aspiring non-fiction author this is it. If this book can be published, any book can get published.