The New Imperialists [Hardcover]

Mark Leibovich (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2002

Up close and personal with the New Economy’s business tycoons

Microsoft’s Bill Gates, AOL-Time Warner’s Steve Case, Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos, Oracle’s Larry Ellison, Cisco’s John Chambers–they’re business titans of the 21st century. We know their names well enough, but what do we really know about these men beyond the multitudes of short-hand mythologies and soundbites that currently exist. How were they able to muster the savvy and confidence to create such empires of wealth and power? What do the paths they took say about the economic realm they came to conquer? Were they true visionaries or creations of a unique moment in time? Drawing from his Pulitzer Prize-nominated series of articles in The Washington Post, Mark Leibovich provides particularly personal and in-depth profiles on these larger-than-life moguls. Presenting five whirlwind tours through five gale-force lives, this extraordinary book traces the formative events and influences in each man’s early life to explain how they came to dominate in this bizarre, revolutionary world. In addition to unprecedented access to each man himself (a privilege afforded very few reporters), Leibovich interviewed over 400 friends, childhood mentors, family members, former bosses, classmates, colleagues, and rivals who have known these uniquely driven souls at various stages of their lives.

Exclusive facts and details: • Gates spoke of breaking into tears during a Microsoft board meeting at the height of the anti-trust trial • Ellison showed the author the $100 million Japanese-style compound he’s building in Silicon Valley (no journalist had ever seen it) • A friend of Case described him boasting about his long-sought takeover of Time-Warner • Cisco Chairman John Morgridge complained that Chambers was spending too much time hobnobbing with politicians and not enough time tending to his struggling company

Topics rarely--if ever--discussed: • Gates speaking about the pain of losing his childhood best friend • Ellison reflecting on the recurring scorn he received from his father • Bezos talking about never knowing his natural father • Chambers explaining the pain of his childhood dyslexia • Case speaking about his rivalry with his AOL co-founder

After it’s all broken down, from the dazzle of the new technology to the titillation of overnight wealth and cautionary tales of subsequent loss, the New Economy can be distilled to these five cults of personality. Sure to be the season’s most compulsive read, this comprehensive work gives readers the most definitive look ever into the lives of the New Economy’s signature pioneers.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you use a personal computer or automated teller machine, make purchases online, or consume media of any kind, your life is directly impacted by the five digital-age visionaries profiled in The New Imperialists. Reams have already been written, of course, about Microsoft's Bill Gates, AOL-Time Warner's Steve Case, Oracle's Larry Ellison, Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos, and Cisco's John Chambers. But Mark Leibovich, national technology reporter for The Washington Post, digs deeper here to present insightful individual portraits of these "generals of the networked world's ruling empires" that reveal what has really driven them to the leading edge of today's business universe. Based on some 400 interviews with relatives, friends, associates, and adversaries, in addition to one-on-one sessions with its usually more reticent subjects, the book offers a very readable account of key formative events and subsequent reactions that are not typically part of such titans' shared résumés. From the personal experiences that helped shape their generally serene youth--Ellison "had difficulty telling the truth," for example, while Chambers "battled dyslexia and for a time believed he was stupid"--to the public manifestations that now affect millions, Leibovich presents eye-opening accounts recommended for anyone drawn to the human stories behind our day's most ubiquitous corporate names. --Howard Rothman

From Publishers Weekly

Leibovich, a technology reporter for the Washington Post, sets out to explain the phenomenal success of five of technology's brightest luminaries AOL Time Warner's Steve Case, Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos, Cisco's John Chambers, Oracle's Larry Ellison and, naturally, Microsoft's Bill Gates. Leibovich assumes, rightly, that these men's ruthless drive must stem from childhood, and by the time readers finish the fifth profile, it's a predictable pattern: Some adolescent trauma (dyslexia, adoption) is followed by an inexorable rise through the high tech ranks. All but one of the five grew up affluent, and Ellison's middle-class urban upbringing only seems deprived compared with the suburban private schools and six-figure start-up money the other four families provided. Some of the most telling characterizations are in the margins: here is perhaps the best insight into the symbiotic relationship between Gates and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer; and then there's the sad story of Monte Davidoff, a Microsoft start-up employee who was left behind, a tale known within geek circles but not by the general public. Leibovich does not provide the close first-person access to principals that Michael Lewis did for Jim Clark for The New New Thing, and he acknowledges that corporate flaks were on hand for interviews and copied on e-mails. Yet all five profiles essentially updated versions of Leibovich's work for the Post are rife with juicy anecdotes that should please technophiles. And the time seems ripe for highlighting the human frailties of marquee high tech CEOs, who have lost their Midas touch reputation with investors. Photos not seen by PW. (Jan.)Forecast: Hardcore techies might be disappointed with the choice of these five men to represent the digital age, since three of them are actually salesmen and marketers. But this mix should please readers interested in business, technology and corporate culture.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall Press; 1st edition (January 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735203172
• ISBN-13: 978-0735203174
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,356,761 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Virtually Impossible To Put Down, January 7, 2002

By 

Theodore H. Sutton (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The New Imperialists (Hardcover)

Move over "Citizen Kane," and make way for "The New Imperialists." Both have a lot in common. They're compelling, brilliant portraits of tycoons and the age they live in. They're psychological but free of cant and reductionism. They tell stories rather then spew facts and platitudes. And luckily for us, they're a lot of fun.
This book is impossible to put down, and I don't usually go for business or technology books. This one, however, reads like a novel. The reader feels he's there with Leibovich as he's peering inside Larry Ellison's Mercedes and spotting a hairbrush on the passenger seat, or listening to Jeff Bezos proudly proclaim how wannabe Amazon executives have to first submit their SAT scores. I learned how much I have in common with Bill Gates (we're lousy shavers) and how much I don't (he reads 30 books on his vacations, writes notes in the margins and sends the books back to the authors).
Leibovich tells us what makes these men who they are, what has driven them along the way and brings us along for the ride. He's a delightful, sardonic New Age Boswell and this, his first book, is a virtual romp.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Could not put it down!, March 14, 2002

By 

K. Ranabargar (Pasadena, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The New Imperialists (Hardcover)

This book offers great insights into the minds of todays business leaders. The diversity of this group is amazing and compelling reading. Each has a different style, beliefs, and background that have shaped their lives. I'm not a big reader, but I could not put this one down. Highly recommended.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Emperors and Empires Sill "Under Construction", April 5, 2002

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The New Imperialists (Hardcover)

Leibovich's use of the word "imperialist" is apt to the extent that each of the five "restless kids" (Case, Chambers, Bezos, Gates, and Ellison) grew up to "virtually rule the world" and now preside over the 21st century's equivalent of an empire. Thus each can be viewed as a modern-day emperor. In that sense, they are (at least for now) among the "royalty" of the contemporary business world. Frankly, I find them much more interesting as ordinary human beings in most respects but who do indeed possess a few extraordinary talents which help to explain why each has achieved so much thus far.

Leibovich organizes her excellent material with five chapters, each dedicated to one of the "new imperialists." Having just read Florence Stone's The Oracle of Oracle: The Story of Volatile CEO Larry Ellison and the Strategies Behind His Company's Phenomenal Success, I was already well-prepared for the first chapter. Stone's comments about Ellison are remarkably;y consistent with Leibovich's, both agreeing that Ellison is one of the most complicated, sometimes contradictory, and on occasion infuriating people they have as yet encountered. Consider Leibovich's account of a conversation with Adda Quinn, to whom Ellison was once married, years before the founding of Oracle: "Quinn calls Ellison the most charming, brilliant, and non-boring man she has ever known. He also gave her an ulcer, she says, with his deceptions, darting interests, and changing moods....He had an explosive temper and Quinn said she feared for her safety as their marriage was ending. The couple kept guns in the house -- they lived in a rough part of Oakland and had been burglarize -- and she thought that Ellison was becoming increasingly erratic." There are many other similar comments by whose who had direct and frequent contact with Ellison. Obviously, Ellison is an exceptionally intelligent man but also "volatile" and, when it serves his purposes ruthless.

The chapter which interested me the most is the one devoted to John Chambers. He and the other four "achieved their dominance seemingly overnight. and to a degree that has exploded any previous notion of commercial scope and scale. Moreover their wired age goals go beyond mere geographic expansion; they incorporate a kind of lifestyle imperialism in which traditional lines of media and commerce are constantly being pushed." However, to a much greater extent than any of the others, Chambers has helped Cisco Systems to achieve its dominance through aggressive M&A initiatives and strategic partnerships. His preferred approach is collegial rather than confrontational. I also find it significant that Chambers' personality and leadership style are far less flamboyant than those of Ellison, Bezos, and Case. Also, based on the information provided, he conducts himself in a manner which suggests that he is much less competitive than Gates. However, it is important to remember that this may well be a skillfully cultivated perception rather than a reality.

What we have here are mini-biographies, albeit more substantial than "portraits," of five uncommon men, all of whom are distinguished by "their quest for social ubiquity, a sense of manifest destiny that is captured in America Online's corporate mantra, `AOL Anywhere.' It's a poignant statement, not just of one company's voracious aims, but of the kinds of boundless goals that the networked economy now allows for." Thanks to Leibovich, we have in a single volume what will help us to understand "one of the most transforming and tumultuous eras in American history." Leibovich has rigorously examined where five of its greatest leaders came from and "what they've grown up to be"...at least so far.