Good Spirits [Hardcover]

Edgar M. Bronfman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 23, 1998

"There was never any doubt in my mind as to what my life's work would be. I started with Seagram the day I was born." It wasn't the easiest thing imaginable to work for a famously irascible father and with a sometimes disputatious extended family of siblings, cousins, in-laws, and, later, sons, but Edgar M. Bronfman not only survived, he triumphed, to help build one of the most distinguished companies in the world. Good Spirits is filled with anecdotes about both the making of a businessman and the making of a business, as Bronfman learned Seagram from the ground up and discovered, sometimes the hard way, just what worked and what didn't. With wisdom and humor, he distills a lifetime of business lessons into a highly readable memoir, and furnishes us with stories both illuminating and cautionary about how to recognize opportunity, delegate wisely, analyze properly, keep cool in a crisis, gain credibility (both inside and outside the company), and, especially, how to achieve balance - in one's business and in one's life. It is an inside look at innovative leadership for this generation - and the next.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Memoirs of business tycoons often smack of self-importance and egotism. Not Good Spirits. This is instead a charming and modest memoir of Edgar Bronfman, one of America's foremost business leaders and chairman of the Seagram Company. Bronfman speaks openly and candidly of his childhood, which he describes as an "endurance test" in which he was groomed by an autocratic father in preparation for inheriting a great business empire. With business sense etched into his psyche, Edgar quickly rose among the ranks at Seagram, stepping out of his father's shadow, and proving himself to be an energetic and gutsy worker.

The memoir traverses between business adventures and family sagas. Edgar speaks openly of his long marriage record (he has been married four times), and the story of his son's kidnapping is particularly touching. A master of anecdotes, Bronfman shares a lifetime of stories both inspirational and illuminating.

From Library Journal

Seagram, Dupont, MGM, MCA, Universal, Chivas Regal, Mumm, Glenlivet, Martell, and Sandeman?a veritable who's who of company and brand names all bearing the Seagram imprimatur with its corporate motto of Integrity, Craftsmanship, Tradition. This well-written, unvarnished book looks at the other side, the human side, which describes how the author was able to overcome a privileged but dysfunctional family life to oversee the transition of Seagram from a family-owned, strongman founder-dominated business to a multinational corporation. Of greatest value here are the last chapter and epilog, in which Bronfman provides practical advice for anyone in business or life in general, eloquently describes his efforts with the World Jewish Restitution Organization to "get Swiss banks to give the relatives of [Holocaust] survivors what is rightfully theirs," and details Seagram's recent expansion into the Chinese market. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries looking to add substance to their business collections.?Norman B. Hutcherson, Beale Memorial Lib., Bakersfield, Cal.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 248 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult (February 23, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399143742
• ISBN-13: 978-0399143748
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,341,296 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Strange but maybe true, April 2, 1999

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[e-mail] (London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Good Spirits (Hardcover)

This is a strange but informative book. Seagram and Universal's problems in Hollywood are well known but you would think everything is sweetness and light from reading this book. For instance praise is heaped upon the skills of Universal ceo Frank Biondi now departed and blamed (rightly) for many of the problems. That casts problems of the credibility of the rest of the book. In it Edgar Bronfman is portrayed as a good common sense businessman who has done wonders for Seagram. This is probably true but had he been a little more honest about the Universal problems then the rest of the book would have stood up a lot better. Well worth reading however for the insider insights it contains.