Customer Reviews

Management Mistakes and Successes

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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I had this book as an extra text for an intro to management class, and found myself referrng back to it for examples to reference for a number of classes after that. I found it one of the more useful and less expensive books for an MBA program. If one wanted more of a variety of cases to read, it would be possible to hunt down some older editions which had some different company examples. But even this one by itself contains a good range of mistake outcomes - from disastrous to complete recovery - showing the effects of different ways of handling mistakes in management.

If I were a Professor in Management, I would pick this as a textbook, or at least a reference book for cases studies, because of its 1) extensive covering of 22 real life big name cases on six major topics (change/crises, merger risk, planning, executing, controlling and entrepreneurship) 2) sufficient details and figures on individual cases 3) intelligent questions and exercises in the end of each case/chapter 4)analytical "What can be learnt?" sections in the end of each case/chapter, and a whole independent chapter in the end of the book.

However, as a professional who had read countless business books, I must say that there are some better alternatives, insight and writing skill wise, that help readers to learn more from other people's mistakes. In that respect, I would like to recommend "In Search of Stupidity: Over 20 Years of High-Tech Marketing Disasters by Merrill Rick Chapman" and "Will Your Next Mistake Be Fatal?: Avoiding the Chain of Mistakes That Can Destroy Your Organization by Robert Mittelstaedt".

p.s. As usual, below please find my two favorite passages for your reference:-

Where an organisation has become fat and inefficent with layers of bureaucracy, some pruning of personnel and operations is necessary. But how much is too much, and how much is not enough? Certainly those personnel who are not willing to accept change may have to be let go. Weak persons and operations that show little probability of improvement need to be cut, just as the athlete who cant perform up to expectations can hardly be carried. Still it is usually better to wait for sufficient information as the "why" of poor performance before assigning blame for unsatisfactory operational results. pg 120

In considering mistakes, three things are worth noting: 1) Even the most successful organizations make mistakes but survive as long as they maintain a good "batting average" of satisfactory decisions 2) mistakes should be effective teaching tools for avoiding similar errors in the future 3) firms can bounce back from adversity, and turnaround. pg 333

I purchased this book for a class I'm taking, and have been reading all the cases. THese are all very interesting and insightful, a good read.

describes from accurated point of view marketing cases that are very useful from pedagogical methods . students can learn a lot from this complete information.

Saved about 10 dollars by buying it on Amazon. Good quality book and came in about a week.