Corporate Restructuring: Managing the Change Process from Within [Hardcover]

Gordon Donaldson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1994

"Corporate Restructuring" examines the impact of financial restructuring on corporate priorities and performance. Countering the notion that an actual or threatened hostile takeover is needed to induce managers to restructure their firms, Donaldson claims that many companies have successfully restructured voluntarily. Drawing on a series of field studies and close examinations of three companies - General Mills, Burlington Northern, and CPC International - Donaldson shows how firms have implemented radical change through an internal discipline. The factual evidence demonstrates why and how voluntary restructuring works just as well - indeed better - than hostile takeovers, without the trauma of external intervention and disruption to day-to-day operations. Challenging many assumptions of current financial literature on how firms achieve increased efficiency, this book is bound to provoke controversy.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the 1980s, the business world saw a number of gargantuan mergers and acquisitions featuring "white knights," convoluted "poison pill" and "PAC-Man" defenses and "barbarians at the gates" that transformed business. Donaldson ( Strategy of Financial Mobility ) meticulously explores resultant restructuring in this superb study. The author, an emeritus professor at Harvard Business School, views the last decade's changes in corporate restructuring in the context of the "evolution of financial strategy and structure since World War II." He examines the economic structure of the 1970s and 1980s, investor discontent, voluntary and involuntary corporate restructuring, board revolts and fundamental changes in managerial operations. Donaldson's extensive use of statistical data, case studies (General Mills, Burlington Northern and CPC International) offers a useful framework for his consideration of implications for corporations of the '90s
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Since 1984, Harvard Business School Press has been dedicated to publishing the most contemporary management thinking, written by authors and practitioners who are leading the way. Whether readers are seeking big-picture strategic thinking or tactical problem solving, advice in managing global corporations or for developing personal careers, HBS Press helps fuel the fire of innovative thought. HBS Press has earned a reputation as the springboard of thought for both established and emerging business leaders.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press (February 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0875843395
• ISBN-13: 978-0875843391
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,208,085 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars He is what he is, April 14, 2000

By 

Ibrahim Khalil "Patriot Expatriate" (Kuwait, Pakistan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Corporate Restructuring: Managing the Change Process from Within (Hardcover)

When we were studying corporate finance and policy, our teachers use to recommend us Gordon's articles and books; they called him father of finance. His articles were true classics; even after passage of few decades they remain as applicable as they were then.

Same is with this book. It dispels the myth that restructuring can only be from outside by giving you live examples. I would recommend it to anyone who is at the top seat or eyeing that position. Whether he/she is leading a successful organization or trying to turnaround a deteriorating bottom line, this is the book for him/her.