Ego Check: Why Executive Hubris is Wrecking Companies and Careers and How to Avoid the Trap [Hardcover]

Mathew Hayward (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2, 2007

No one executive is immune from that difficult-to-distinguish line that divides the self-confidence required of a successful CEO from the hubris seen at the root of so many corporate scandals today.  We can count Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs, Martha Stewart, and Jack Welch among the business leaders who have been infected with hubris at various stages of their careers – and seen their lives and companies suffer as a result.  Every executive is vulnerable to hubris when they become dependent on wealth, status, and other extrinsic rewards for their sense of worth; when they embark on ventures that cross beyond their capabilities; when they unduly rely on the advice and input of others to execute their vision; and when they simply assume that their plans for the future will be realized without obstacle.  Understanding these four key dynamics and the mistakes made as a result of falling prey to them will pave the road for business professionals to understand how they can guard against their own hubris while still building upon their unparalleled will to reach even greater levels of success.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Matthew Hayward started his career at Accenture and has worked as an investment banker with UBS Warburg and as a venture capital investor with AusAsean Ventures.  He left the corporate world for academia in 1992 to pursue a PhD in organizations and strategy at Columbia University.  Since 2003, he has been an assistant professor at Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado.  He is considered among the leading academic researchers on hubris, with work published in top tier academic outlets.  He also consults with companies such as Dell, Ericsson, Intel, and Pearson on leadership and management issues.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Kaplan Publishing (January 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1419535358
• ISBN-13: 978-1419535352
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #827,283 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Review of Ego Check, February 7, 2007

By 

Victor Niederhoffer - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ego Check: Why Executive Hubris is Wrecking Companies and Careers and How to Avoid the Trap (Hardcover)

The book Ego Check, by Mathew Hayward, seems like it was written exactly for me. It's about the tendency towards overconfidence in striving individuals. The four major hallmarks of same are: excessive pride and boastfulness; failure to listen to foils who tell you when you're wrong; refusal to get feedback about the outcome of your activities; and not planning for problems, consequences, and corrective measures in advance.

The author gives case studies that show how these four faults led to disaster in the case of mountain climber Rob Hall, business executives Jean Messiers, Meg Whitman, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Dean Kamen, Merck in the Vioxx disaster, NASA in the Challenger and Columbia disasters, and The National Kidney program.

The only problem with the book is that it relies mainly anecdotal methodology to prove its points. It includes numerous cases where pride was very successful, such as Apple and Dell, where the same executive was guilty of hubris and of perfectly rational overconfidence. It espouses people like Jack Welch and Warren Buffet as role models for how not to let hubris get the better of their organization. But anyone who seriously studies these executives' activities might conclude, as I do, that these are sanctimonious scoundrels who are masterful at retrofitting their personae into a form that the media will love and whose judgment is superior to the free market.

As I read the book, I found myself thinking about my hobby, electric circuits. So many of them go into short circuits and uncontrollable output because the output is tied to the input in a positive feedback loop rather than a negative one that dampens the volatility and controls the output. Anyone who plays with op amps or amplifier circuits will know exactly how important is the dampening influence of monitoring the output and then controlling it when it gets out of a range.

A bit of modeling with economic, electrical, or game theoretic concepts like this would have helped to put many of the points in a more systematic form for me and would have led to many more testable hypotheses. And yet, Hayward is a Columbia PhD who collaborated on Harvard works, and professor of psychology at Colorado University, who has interviewed many of the actors in the case studies that he writes about. I find him particularly insightful. And I agree with his point that hubris is the key fault that leads to great disaster in striving individuals.

To his credit, Hayward realized that the mantra espoused by Collins in Good to Great, i.e., that the successful executive should be meek and humble and prudent at all times, is retrospective mumbo jumbo not suitable for the risks and leadership role successful executives must take in today's dynamic and uncertain world. The problem is how to differentiate the overconfidence that has a positive expectation, from the ones that will lead to disaster.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great reading for everyone, January 21, 2007

By 

Kai Larsen - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ego Check: Why Executive Hubris is Wrecking Companies and Careers and How to Avoid the Trap (Hardcover)

I took this book with me on vacation to Mexico, mostly because I figured I might get tired of the award-winning sci-fi book I brought. What I didn't realize was that the moment I opened Ego Check I would be hooked by the author's incisive writing and great case stories about many of the world's most celebrated CEOs. As I read about these CEOs and their successes as they gained confidence in their abilities, it was hard not to feel their pain as they fell from grace through their following over-confidence.

As I was reading, I felt that even though I have little or no power myself, I could learn much from this book as the author explained how to apply his principles to everyday situations. I ended up reading this book by the pool (I have the pictures to prove it -- my wife was not happy ;) and finished it in two days in between scuba diving).

Conclusion: Definitely a great read for anyone in a position of authority, or anyone working for someone in a position of authority (that should cover about 95% of the population over the age of 18). Highly recommended!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Carefully documented study of hubris gone wrong, July 11, 2008

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ego Check: Why Executive Hubris is Wrecking Companies and Careers and How to Avoid the Trap (Hardcover)

Mathew Hayward's unusual book draws upon mythology to establish a major business premise and then proves it statistically. The premise is that hubris (CEO arrogance) is usually the source of illogical corporate mistakes, such as overpayment for acquisitions. The author draws heavily upon his research and other studies about "behavioral decision theory" to back up the concept that great pride often brings on a great fall. This profundity is basic to the philosophy of Greek tragedy, Dante, Shakespeare and Milton. The author used this concept to analyze more than 100 corporate mergers. He found that CEOs were usually the decision makers behind substantial overpayments for acquisitions. He concludes that egomania and narcissism, but not courage and conviction, must be "checked at the door." getAbstract recommends this interesting, thoughtful book.