Customer Reviews

Death to All Sacred Cows: How Successful Business People Put the Old Rules Out to Pasture

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This very funny and wise business book is based on the assumption that most middle managers today are intellectually lazy, making decisions based on the comfort of long established rules, formulas, actions, or as the authors charmingly refer to them; Sacred Cows. While initially useful, these Sacred Cows remain in place even though the company, the consumer or the market place have long since evolved.

Death to all Sacred Cows is a non-business book, business book. The authors intelligently and with a lot of humor advocate original thinking and reasonable questioning of the status quo as the only way to make a serious mark whether you are a company competing against a market leader or an individual trying to advance your career.

The authors have done a lot of research to back up their beliefs, using vivid global, current and historical examples of entrepreneurs, cultures or company's to back up their contention that Sacred Cows need to die.

A fun and worthwhile read. Would get 4-1/2 stars if Amazon allowed 1/2s.

Is it an oxymoron for a business book to be smart AND entertaining? Well, this is a funny AND intelligent business book, best described as The Harvard Business Review meets The Daily Report!

While I know I will benefit from reading business books, I usually avoid them. They tend to be dense or based on an idea that is impossible to execute. More spin than practical application.

Death to All Sacred Cows, like Tipping Point or more recently, Freakonomics is different. It advocates an approach versus a tedious and not believable "Ten steps to riches" formula. While I never remember the ten steps other business books lay out in excruciating detail, I certainly can remember, understand and apply an approach such as the one laid out in this memorable book.

This is an extremely entertaining and accessible business book that challenges the conventional thinking grazing lazily in the hallways of corporate America. Using clear and thought provoking examples, one by one, the authors slay the sacred cows upon which most business decisions are made.

"The customer is always right", died a humorous death as did "Teams create the best solutions" and "Internal competition Leads to Better Results" in chapter length explanations about why the sacred cow is dangerous and why it deserves to die.

Unlike most business books whose authors try to impress me with their intelligence, Death to All Sacred Cows wins me over with approachable charm and well-argued examples of why everything I thought was true is in fact false.

Well worth it.

As a business professional at a large, well-known company, I have always struggled with understanding why companies like mine become paralyzed by bureaucracy and fear new approaches. Despite our best attempts, we can't seem to innovate.

The authors of this intelligent and refreshing book give this phenomenon a name -Sacred Cows. And, with humorous insight, explain how to identify a Sacred Cow, why these lumbering beasts hinder innovative thinking and ultimately a company's growth.

To help the intrepid reader, they name 19 of businesses laziest sacred cows (and a number of lesser indiscretions which they humorous refer to as Sacred Veal) and in detail, explain how each limits creative thinking and needs to die.

What I found so refreshing about this book is that I have erroneously accepted many of their examples as gospel through out my career, but now realize my mistake and gleefully go about killing them at every opportunity.

Death to all Sacred Cows is book full of wisdom delivered with a wink.

Death to all Sacred cows is a business book that reads faster than a crime novel and gives you more laughs than a standup comedian. It covers everything from why the customer isn't always right to why we shouldn't always trust research. Hmm. You're doing research by reading my review, aren't you?? Which begs the question: should you believe me or not? Read a few pages and decide for yourself.

Well, not really but it is a breezy, fun, and useful book, not the usual 300 pager which is just an engorged zine article. They hit some worthwhile targets: don't trust research(as Henry Ford said, if I gave people what they said they wanted, they'd be getting a faster buggy); the customer is not always right; and are dead on with their human resources advice---don't always give people a second chance(after all, a bad fit is a bad fit); keep email to a minimum(must be read in 30 seconds or less and keep to the need to inform several people at once); and eschew the Enron(or GE) type culture of culling out the "bottom" since it only breeds fear and fear does not work long term. Good stuff.

REVIEW FOR: Death To All Sacred Cows

4.5 Stars

Five steps to a better this. Ten steps to a better that. Most new business books recycle the same garbage as the old business books. That's why Death to all Sacred Cows stands out. It doesn't give you steps to follow like I'm some kind of idiot. It tells you things you don't know. Or maybe wondered about, but never articulated. The premise is, there are things (Sacred Cows) we all accept as true, but aren't. Things like "it's okay to put up with jerks if they're talented" or "everyone deserves a second chance." Things we've all been conditioned to agree with. Well, this book gives you some compelling reasons to stop agreeing with them. A jerk can ruin your company and some people don't deserve a second chance. They'll only screw up a second time. Sure, the ad guys who wrote the book tell you how to identify sacred cows and how to go about killing them. But they don't oversimplify it into steps or rules. And I know why: Because that would be a Sacred Cow, too.

As I read this book, I found myself nodding in appreciative agreement at many of the authors' insights -- 'appreciative' because I was glad to learn I wasn't the only one harboring contrarian thoughts about conventional business wisdom. While the many humorous asides and digressions may irk some readers, I think most will find this book to be a collection of fun and quick reminders about business lessons you always knew but may have been afraid to tell.

This is a fast read filled with humor and also practical examples of why we don't always need to do things the same way we always have or why the customer isn't always right. I will probably go back to this for examples when I'm faced with a group of people who are trying to save sacred cows while I try to shoot them. :-) While it's been a few years since I read it, Who Moved My Cheese? comes to mind when I think of this book.

Conventional wisdom isn't always wise. In fact, cynics would say it never is, and an examination of history indicates that they have a good case. Ideas that were formerly so highly regarded that they weren't even open to question or criticism now seem wrong or even downright silly. For example, people no longer believe that the world is flat, that gods live on mountaintops and that the devil is the source of disease. In this engaging book, authors and marketing executives David Bernstein, Beau Fraser and Bill Schwab debunk similar grizzled concepts that the business world has long considered holy writ. getAbstract recommends this witty, perceptive book to anyone who is willing to look at old business dogma in new ways. Before you pick it up, check your old assumptions, tired verities and nutty nostrums at the front door.