Customer Reviews

Dealers, Healers, Brutes & Saviors: Eight Winning Styles for Solving Giant Business Crises

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The most popular social figures of any age are characterized by being very effective one-on-one and in small groups. Their methods are often lost when translated into writing, because a great deal of their effectiveness depends on a state of mind, demeanor, style, and body language that are hard to capture when you haven't seen them.

Drawing on personal observations and interrogations in MBA classes, Gerald Meyers has created leadership style categories in this interesting book that are sometimes hard to grasp by those who have not yet met the leaders the co-authors outline. Although he shares many interesting case histories, the case histories are a little too brief in some cases to reveal much about the underlying person and what he (these are all men) does as a leader. That was why I had to grade the book down one star.

Some of the categories were instantly recognizable to me, such as Sizzle Sellers (the perennial salesman as CEO), Healers (those who bind together capable people after a major fiasco by the previous CEO), Saviors (those who follow a major fiasco that leaves the company devastated, and with few choices), and Dealmakers (finding common ground that expands value for the company, while creating a win for the person being negotiated with). I could name my own examples of these.

I had more trouble understanding Unorthodox Operators (which seemed to me to be a question of strategy orientation rather than style), Peacemakers (this seems like a variation on healers, with a negotiating issue at hand), and Brilliant Brutes (these may simply be smart leaders who like to zing their staffs and operating people -- it's a style, but is it worth memorializing?). You'll have to decide for yourself. These categories may have meaning for you based on meeting other executives than I have.

These are obviously not the only styles there are. Other styles including those for avoiding crises, styles for turning crises to advantage, and styles for containing crises. Those styles are beyond the scope of the book. However, I would commend to you reading Built to Last, which addresses style elements that are at odds with many of the ideas here and which help avoid crises in the first place.

I, too, meet lots of top CEOs, and there are other styles of crisis-solving that one can find. A style that I find particularly compelling is that of changing the business model by encouraging innovation in that area. I think that style will be a dominant one in the future. Another will be the person who can develop an organization that generates strategies that work in any business environment. So don't let your thinking be too limited by these style types. Better ones may be emerging.

The typology will be especially useful to boards of directors as they consider what kind of a CEO they want to lead the company next, and what sort of leadership team should be developed.

After you have considered these styles, ask yourself these questions: (1) Which style (if one of these) do you use? (2) What are the drawbacks of that style in crisis and noncrisis situations? (3) What style would work better? (4) Why? (5) What style would you most like to have others apply to you?

Too many of us are not conscious enough about our own styles. Some of the people in the profiles seemed quite surprised by how they are perceived by others. That's perhaps the greatest vulnerability you can have in employing a style.

As an MBA student who will soon be returning to the working world, I must say that all business schools around the country should mandate a class in crisis management. Gerry Meyers' first-hand, real world, and in-your-face analysis of major corporate crises encountered at some of the most respected companies in the U.S. is the most useful text I have found to prepare me for the sometimes not so perfect world. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has aspirations of leading a business organization and wants to see what life is really like at the top when the xxxx hits the fan!

This book pierces the corporate veil. The author takes you inside the executive suite.

Clearly written, precise accounts showing how today's top executives apply their individual attributes and personalities in solving and avoiding business crises. The book demonstrates that managing is 4 parts art and 1 part management theory.

This book is both entertaining and insightful. It held my attention like few other business texts.

Dealers, Healers, Brutes and Saviors is an essential read for rising and aspiring executives. It gives you a fly-on-the-wall perspective from behind the scenes through inside stories of executives who rescued their companies. It provides a useful framework for incorporating eight management styles of leadership worth considering during times of rapid and radical change. Don't miss it.

It is unlikely that there ever was a senior executive who has not had to face a crisis. It comes with the territory. But how he handles and resolves the challenge determines his fate.

Gerald Meyers understands crises. As the former chief executive of American Motors and now University of Michigan professor, he speaks from experience, which lends credibility to his 8 crises-solving management styles.

Professor Meyers presents the reader with insights from his guests lecturers, a group of former chief executives each of whom have faced major crises in running their businesses. Given Meyers background, one would think that he would pontificate about the pros and cons of the decisions these executives made, but he doesn't. Instead, he let's them speak for themselves, giving us their perspective on the challenges they dealt with. Yet, even though it's a one-sided account, the reader walks away with an appreciation of the enormity of the task that these chief executives faced, and the style they used to bring their companies out of the crises.

A great read before you find yourself in a hole.

This book is insightful and energizing. I particularly liked the sections on Andy Grove and Robert Crandall.

Gerry Meyers teaches one of the most popular classes in Michigan MBA. The class brings CEOs that help the students role play different crisis. The action and learning in these classes is physical, aggressive and full of conflict. The students suffer the slings and arrows of being on the spot with a major crisis- be it Exxon, Intel or the Detroit News.

This book brings the class room action to life giving the reader a glimpse of the attributes and strategies that have made the featured executives successful.

Dealers, Healers is a smart, incisive read about successful management styles. I'd recommend the book to anyone who has ever longed for a delicious glimpse behind the "business crisis" headlines. I especially enjoyed the chapter on the Harley-Davidson turnaround.

Very worthwhile. Takes you behind the scenes. Fresh commentary from the CEOs makes the stories come to life. I recommend this book to anyone on the way up.

This book is a must read! Don't consider yourself ready for a business crisis until you read this book! The best insider information on leadership straight from the leaders themselves! No media middlemen...no sugar coated sound bites- detailed descriptions from the "men at the top" brought to you by a crisismanagement expert, Gerald C. Meyers. An enlightening and exciting format. Gerald C. Meyers does it again, bringing us the best of the best answers to the age old question, "How'd they do that?". You've seen businesses come and go...don't let yours be one of them! Get this book - I did, and it's now my bible for survival in the business world.