Amazon.com: The Fiefdom Syndrome: The Turf Battles That Undermine Careers and Companies - And How to Overcome Them: Robert Herbold: Books

The Fiefdom Syndrome: The Turf Battles That Undermine Careers and Companies - And How to Overcome Them (Hardcover)

by Robert Herbold (Author) "THERE IS A potentially infectious condition inside virtually all organizations that can cause more damage than economic downturns, management upheavals, or global business shifts..." (more)
Key Phrases: fiefdoms tend, associate advertising manager, strong fiefdoms, Six Sigma, Bill Gates, Good Foods (more...)

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Amazon.com
Is your company threatened by turf battles, shut out of key data sources by territorial "lords," or ravaged by hundreds of "micro-companies?" If so, your organization may be suffering from a potentially crippling case of "Fiefdom Syndrome." Robert Herbold, former COO of Microsoft, presents a wealth of case studies from the usual (and always interesting) suspects--IBM, Proctor and Gamble, Microsoft, and Wal-Mart--to illustrate an affliction that affects for-profit and non-profit organizations alike.

Herbold identifies why fiefdoms are a problem, where they typically arise in companies--finance, HR, marketing, IT, virtually in most teams and departments--and offers solutions for preventing fiefdoms from cropping up and how to dissolve existing turf control. In an approachable manner, he demonstrates how discipline, creativity, and enforcement are keys to preventing the spread of fiefdoms: "The basic human tendency to want to control one's destiny or turf runs counter to discipline in an organization. If the CEO or the manager of a unit lets people act on their own, the company will soon fall into disarray."

Like headaches, fiefdoms can become a persistent problem and if left untreated, can send organizations into an endless loop of deteriorating health and repeated investigations into the cause. Prudent companies will take Herbold's advice and learn how to prevent and treat their little fiefdom problem. --E. Brooke Gilbert

From Publishers Weekly
Herbold, a corporate consultant and former COO for Microsoft, finds "fiefdoms"—individuals or groups who control the flow of information out of their offices as a way of gaining agency or power—one of the most dangerous problems a company can face, and he sees them everywhere. Even the collapse of Enron, he argues, can be attributed to the actions of a small cabal in the finance department. The insight isn't quite as groundbreaking as he makes it out to be, however, and the proposed solutions will likely strike readers with even a minimum of substantial work experience as equally obvious. Much of the advice is the sort of boilerplate ("continually strengthen the talent pool") that can be found in nearly all business books, though Herbold's enthusiasm for standardized reporting and evaluation practices is possibly more zealous than his peers'. Illustrative anecdotes drawn from his corporate background do liven things up somewhat, but they also create an emphasis on industries involving product sales. Tantalizing hints about the problems fiefdoms create in other fields, such as NGOs and government bureaucracies, are left largely unexplored, diminishing the potential for generating broader interest.
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