Customer Reviews

The Power of Many: Values for Success in Business and in Life

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"The Power of Many" has distinguished itself in two ways for me. First, it is the first business biography book that I've labored hard to go through each page, looking in vain for an insight that never arrived. Second it is the first biography where I've had a lower opinion of the author after I've finished the book.

I'm an avid reader of business leader biographies and I've always found useful take-aways or feelings of being inspired from this genre of books. Michael Moritz's account of Apple and Steve Jobs in "Return to the Little Kingdom" convinced me that anything is possible if you follow your heart and dreams. Jack Welch's "Winning" reinforced the notion that leadership involves making tough decisions and choosing the right people. Unfortunately, in "The Power of Many", the only thing I've found is my sheer determination to finish every page. It was 274 pages of pain.

I think there are several problems with this book that made it unreadable. First, the story of eBay and what made it successful are already well known. Ms. Whitman failed to provide any additional insight or behind the scene account of eBay that wasn't already publicized. Grouping eBay's success factors under the what she coined as "Power of Many" felt contrived and unconvincing.

Second, the book is over littered with cliches - and to make things worse, Ms. Whitman had to explain every cliche that she used, such as "bias to action", "network effect", and "flame". It made me cringe when she spent an entire paragraph explaining "key metrics", and exclaimed "...I am very focused on what are called key metrics". I've got news for you, Ms. Whitman - so do millions of other middle layer managers.

Third, this is too much of a self-touting book. While Ms. Whitman made a few attempts at self-deprecating humor, they did not come across as sincere. Each self-deprecating remark was immediately followed by another that showed her as having the upper hand. It would have been much better had she just openly gloated about herself and her achievements.

Finally, I think eBay is no longer looked upon as an innovative or exciting company, which made this book lose a lot of its appeal. I was actually more interested in the "Stride Rite" experience that Ms. Whitman wrote about. Although she positioned that as a turnaround experience, unfortunately the only thing she wrote about how she did it was contained in a single sentence, that she "expanded [her] attention beyond marketing and figured out how to lower the prices on shoes." Hardly satisfying.

Interestingly several books ago I read a brief account about Ms. Whitman in "Ahead of the Curve" by Philip Delves Broughton, former Paris bureau chief for London Daily Telegraph, who left his job to go to HBS. Mr. Broughton alluded to Ms. Whitman as a hypocrite, as when asked about the advice that she would give to HBS students, she said to spend more time with family. It was advice that she would not have taken herself. If I were Ms. Whitman, I would have skipped the chapter on authenticity.

Maybe I'm the wrong audience for this book. Perhaps it was written for the voting public. As a business reader I feel that this is a dumbed down book and I sure hope that Ms. Whitman has far more political savviness than how she portrayed herself in this book.

Although I am sure Meg Whitman wrote this book in part for political reasons I read it for the same reasons I read other leadership books...to remind me of the fundamental truths and hopefully pick up some new perspectives. This book did not disappoint!

This book does a great job of mixing in personal and business stories to illustrate some key leadership points. Her description of the growth and challenges of eBay was compelling. She shares what worked for her as well as admitting to mistakes. This was refreshing. She also points out where she does not agree with the traditional mindset or popular thought.

For example she states "Trying is important. But trying is not the same as achieving success. I diverge from the philosophers and poets here; to me, success is not about the quality of your experience in striving for your goal. To me, the journey is not the reward. The journey can be fantastic; my journey at eBay was fantastic. But what matters is whether or not you accomplish your mission."

I had eight pages of highlights in my Kindle. Here are 16 of the excerpts I found particularly important.


1. "When it comes to new product development or certain kinds of marketing where parameters are fluid, I very deliberately do not ask people to be perfect. In fact, I'm more inclined to say that in these realms perfect is the enemy of good enough...If we wait to try to anticipate all the problems in advance, the cost of that delay will be too high. We will learn much faster from trying it out."

2. "You can make a big goal feel small by breaking it down, but you can't make a small goal feel big."

3. "Never be afraid to borrow a good idea. Pay for it by giving credit. In fact, share credit as liberally as you can...Too many business people have an unquenchable thirst for credit, or an ego problem that prevents them from reaching out in a sincere and effective way to people who can help them."

4. "It was a strong reminder that it isn't enough to ask questions and listen carefully to the answers if you don't ask the right questions."

5. "The way I usually put it is the price of inaction is far greater than the cost of making a mistake. You do not have to be perfect to be an effective leader, but you cannot be timid."

6. "I usually learned lessons from failures that would become valuable in my later successes."

7. "The process of letting go of yesterday's pet projects and activities can be difficult. But if you can't do that, you can't scale. You can't take refuge in the comfortable and familiar; you have to grow with the job...another aspect to managing scale through your team is to periodically taking responsibilities away from talented people and bringing in the right people from outside the organization."

8. "When you are inventing something from the ground up, a bias toward action and an understanding of how to use iteration to learn more, faster, is crucial."

9. "The difference between a competent executive and a superstar often boils down to the willingness to decide to move forward, even when the path is not crystal clear."

10. "There is a myth-at least I believe it's a myth-that great success demands that we give up, or at least fudge, our relationship to what most of us recognize as decent, commonsense values...But just talking values doesn't mean anything...What seems to surprise people is that..the hard-nosed business values and the "softer" ethical values-were complementary."

11. "I have been asked so many times about being a woman in a man's world, and about how I dealt with sexism in the workplace. My short answer is mostly I just focus on delivering results."

12. "My response as a manager is that it's important to cut until you get that reaction. By forcing people to justify what they are doing and what they're spending on it, you're instilling a healthy discipline. Some will be able to justify what they spend; others will not, and they deserve to see their budgets trimmed."

13. "Being open and honest is easy to advocate but harder in practice."

14. "There is nothing more important than finding the right person for the right job at the right time. People forget that last element. What we needed yesterday is not what we need today."

15. "I can't abide yes-people. I feel energized by other people with new and different perspectives from my own, not an echo chamber."

16. "All success in life demands constant reinvention. If you cannot scale you will fail."

As someone who has dedicated their life to teaching, researching and consulting in the field of project management I agreed with and was thankful she stated a truth I have found... "Project management skills are surprisingly rare in business, even though they are possibly the most important skills needed to be a good operating executive."

A lot of CEO books come dripping with ego. This book provided sound leadership advice with a strong since of humility. That is the way leaders are supposed to be but it often seems rare to find.

Dr. James T. Brown, Author, The Handbook of Program Management - McGraw-Hill

Having read excellent reviews about Meg Whitman's The Power of Many - I was excited to find the book available for check out in my local library. This is where I would suggest that readers obtain the book. Once you have read it and if you determine that it is dynamic enough for your personal library, then purchase the book.

I struggled with the book from the very first page. Even though each chapter appeared, in theory, to discuss a "value" - it was very difficult for me to make the connection. Most of the book appears to be an autobiographical, name dropping account of Ms. Whitman's business career.

For example, Chapter 4 - Be Frugal - Conserve Resources. Though she started off the chapter with the sentence, "I really hate waste..." The book quickly turned into a discussion about her son's concern for environmental issues, her life as a child and their week long trips to the Virgin Islands. After 4 pages of childhood memories, she finally talks about finding it "fun to ferret out waste." She talks about her experiences at ebay.

I found the book to be an endless source of musings from the author. Any valuable information is buried so deep into her reflections, that it is quick to lose the reader's interest (unless they are interested in her autobiography).

I went through this book quickly. It was easy to read- it's very interesting, with lots on fascinating information about how eBay worked during her 10 year tenure there. However, I did go in it expecting to learn some really insightful business principles, and in that sense, it didn't really deliver. Her biggest lessons were pretty simple- "be authentic," "be frugal," "have a bias for action." Most of it was basically common sense, and she could be pretty repetitive pushing those points. Despite how I felt the book fell flat in explaining some fundamental business principles, the stories of her time at eBay still make it worth the read.

This book was struggle to read even though it was easy to read. Ms. Whitman comes across as a fine person, employee-centric, collaborative, well-schooled in corporate America, good with her family. What is missing from this tale is any semblance of passion. "Milk toast" is what I call this. There are few, if any "Aha!" moments.

Very much about blocking and tackling, "Meg's way", and that is fine. She employs techniques and a style that can work in many environments. She comes across as an effective but somewhat bland manager, rather than a driven leader.

If she campaigned for California Governor with the same enthusiasm and it appeared to she gave to this book I can she how she failed to get to Sacramento.

Meg Whitman could certainly assert that she's been a success in life, and it's on the paramount value of individual success, defined her way, that she is basing her attempt to buy the governorship of California. So it seems fair to look at her record of 'success' -- both what she reveals in this book and what is revealed in her life -- to discover what her way of success really amounts to.

Meg Whitman has made a game of downsizing workers and outsourcing their
jobs, and walking away with a very real fortune for herself in the process.
The record shows that Whitman is a one-person weapon of mass job
destruction. By attempting to buy the California Governor's Office, Whitman
wants to take her game to the next level, but we can't forget there are
real lives at stake with every jobs she cuts, outsources or downsizes.

While Whitman touts her business savvy as her primary qualification to
become governor, a closer look at Whitman's corporate background reveals a
troubling portrait of someone who got rich at the expense of her own
employees. Whitman is a career corporate executive who built a personal
fortune by eliminating and outsourcing jobs and slashing workers' benefits.
Everywhere she's been, she's made out with lucrative bonuses, stock options
and other compensation. And workers have suffered hardships as a result.

Whitman's pattern of mass job destruction is clear:
* While Whitman served as an executive at Stride Rite from 1992-1995,
the company closed two manufacturing plants in Massachusetts and fired 450
workers -- and Whitman collected $568,000 in compensation and stock
options. The Wall Street Journal reported that during and prior to
Whitman's tenure, the company closed 15 US plants, moving manufacturing to
"low-cost Asian countries." During Whitman's time at Stride Rite, the
company cut its unionized workforce by half.
* While Whitman served as president and CEO of Florist Transworld
Delivery (FTD) from 1995-1997, the company eliminated 475 jobs and gutted
retirement benefits for workers -- and Whitman collected $1.2 million in
compensation and stock options.
* While Whitman served as an executive at Hasbro from 1997-1998, the
company cut the workforce by 23%, laid off 500 U.S. workers and sent
manufacturing jobs to Mexico.
* While Whitman served on the board of directors at Gap Inc from
2003-2006, the company closed down a distribution facility in Maryland,
outsourced dozens of merchandising jobs and fired 100 tech workers in
California.
* While Whitman was CEO of eBay(1998-2007), the number of overseas
workers at the company increased by 666%. By 2007, nearly 40% of eBay's
jobs were outsourced. Whitman also ordered layoffs during her tenure,
claiming that the company had "fat that could be trimmed." By 2008, the
company had laid off more than 10% of its workforce. Under Whitman, while
laying off workers, eBay repeatedly lobbied for increasing H-1B visas to
foreign workers, who are often paid less and have fewer rights than workers
hired in America. During her time at eBay, Whitman received about $500
million in compensation and stock options and charged the company and its
shareholders nearly $3.2 million for the use of a company jet.
* While serving on the board of directors at Goldman Sachs (2001-2002),
where she was on the executive compensation committee, she doled out $79
million in executive bonuses and participated in decision-making on a range
of issues relating to the firm. Goldman is now under investigation by the
US Department of Justice for its role in the mortgage crisis that led to
millions of home foreclosures. While at Goldman, she received more than a
half a million dollars in compensation, along with insider access to new
hot stocks worth millions, a practice called "spinning," which is now
illegal.

At no point in Whitman's extensive corporate career did she prove that she
could create and sustain good jobs here in the U.S. With a track record
like this, we're left wondering what exactly Whitman has to gain by
becoming Governor... and we don't have to look too far to find the answer.
Whitman's proposal to eliminate the capital gains tax would benefit
millionaires and billionaires - taking money away from schools, public
safety and programs for the elderly and people with disabilities. And
that's just one in a laundry list of tax breaks, giveaways and sweetheart
deals she has in store for California's biggest companies and wealthiest
individuals, without regard for how that loss of revenue would affect our
already cash-strapped state.

When you connect the dots of her corporate career, it's crystal clear her
priority has always been profits, at any cost, above people. Based on her
proposals for California - like cutting 40,000 state jobs, opposing the
job-creating high-speed rail project and scaling back workers' overtime pay
and meal breaks - it's evident that she would bring the same corporate
agenda she's advocated throughout her career to the governor's office. That
spells disaster for California.

But her opposition to the building of the high-speed rail from southern to
northern cities of california is just plain foolish,
as is her eagerness to suspend green house gas regulation and any other
environmental protections she can possibly trash.

Whitman's corporate mentality would lead to higher unemployment, lower
wages and fewer benefits for workers - in both the public and private
sector. In fact, the only group that would benefit from a Whitman
governorship is the exclusive club of large corporations and millionaires
and billionaires from which she comes.

Politics is the "Art of the Compromise," something misguided corporate communists like meg whitman know nothing about. Having never served the public, nor ever having to deal with the politics of change and progressive growth, she is only used to getting public money to spend on private ventures.

She is, in fact, the personification of corporate communism. Sad, embarrassing, and wrong.

As soon as I received this book, I couldnt hold my self togather im start reading this book. The Power of Many: Values for Success in Business and in Life its really the book of the year.

I really enjoyed Meg Whitman's book and think she makes a lot of great points about what makes a successful leader and work enviroment. She does a good job of not only discussing good decisions she made, but also bad decisions and what she learned from each decision.

From the moment Ms. Whitman tells the board of E-Bay "I Meg to Differ," this reader was hooked, and loved every word of this very personal look into the passions and pecadilloes of the Silicon Valley set. The book bounced back and forth nicely from anecdotes of Ms. Whitman's climb in the business world to personal stories about her journey to "find herself." Whitman's harrowing accounts of her compulsive shoplifting were fascinating, as was her ultimate conversion from Latter Day Saints to "American Paganism." And now, as she is propelled into the world of politics, Ms. Whitman has come up with some very intriguing ideas to present to the voters, such as replacing the current monetary system with an array of seasonal fruits.

Though her personal habits are definitely on the quirky side (she showers only on Mondays, collects human hair, and sleeps upside down), Ms. Whitman is a force to be reckoned with, and quite possibly, California's next governor.