The Timid Corporation: Why Business is Terrified of Taking Risk [Hardcover]

Benjamin Hunt (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0470843683 | ISBN-13: 978-0470843680 | Publication Date: May 7, 2003 | Edition: 1

This book looks at changing managerial styles in business and the predominance of risk aversion behavior over risk taking behavior. The author explores the various reasons (regulation and media scrutiny among them) that corporations are becoming more timid and analyzes the consequences this could have on the future of innovation and technological development in the business future.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"…Hunt’s book is recommended – and his rallying cry against risk aversion is attractively original…" (IT Week, 21 March 2003)

"…a penetrating new book…" (Morningstar, 17 April 2003)

"…Hunt does a good job of taking apart many of the assumptions that inform current business practice…" (Spiked-risk, 29 May 2003)

"…remarkable…contains some thought-provoking moments…" (Supply Management, 3 July 2003)

"…this book aims to provide reassurance…" (Gulf Business, August 2003)

"…Hunt has made a provocative case that business today is quite timid…" (Wall Street Journal, 27 August 2003)

"…Hunt is on to something: Most companies are shrinking back from bold moves…" (www.conference-board.org, September 2003)

"…Hunt has hit on a highly provocative theme.." (European Business Forum, Autum 2003)

"…Hunt is absolutely right…" (Ethical Consumer Magazine, October 2003)

From the Inside Flap

'Irrational pessimism' seems to characterize the business world in the new millennium. Corporate managers seem unsure of the future and afraid to take risk.

In this brilliant book, based on primary research, Benjamin Hunt argues that risk aversion is now institutionalised in business. The belief systems that used to drive business forward in the past have broken down, replaced by fear and anxiety about change and the future. Risk aversion has now become a more permanent mindset and mode of operation, existing even in periods of economic recovery.

The Timid Corporation shows that managers are on the defensive. Worried about appearing to be unethical, irresponsible, failing to manage risk, and inefficient with capital, managers have imposed a massive new raft of self-regulation on corporate behaviour - from ethical codes of conduct, to risk management procedures, corporate governance rules, sustainable development and corporate social responsibility regulation. At the same time, corporations have never been more defensive in their commercial behaviour. Today, corporations aim to get 'close to the customer' at all times, are obsessed with brand loyalty, only innovate in a safe fashion, and avoid bold investment.

The Timid Corporation throws down a challenge to this new risk aversion. Industry needs to adopt a far more critical attitude to self-regulation, and raise its aspirations when it comes to technological innovation and economic growth.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 264 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (May 7, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470843683
• ISBN-13: 978-0470843680
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,149,034 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:

4.0 out of 5 stars Insightful!, June 8, 2004

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Timid Corporation: Why Business is Terrified of Taking Risk (Hardcover)

This book offers a passionate and stupendously irreverent slap in the face to virtually every management orthodoxy and business shibboleth. Nothing escapes the scathing criticism of this corporate Jeremiad. Managing for shareholder value? Woe to you, sinner! Think the brand is important? Out with you, infidel! There's plenty to find fault with in author Benjamin Hurt's presentation of his case. He's vengefully biased, and never lets a silly fixation like "balance" get in the way of a good zinger. He's set himself to dig holes in the dikes that hold the wild waters of skepticism at bay. This book will make you mad, make you protest, may even make you throw it against the wall in disgust. But any book that makes you react that way has something going for it. At least, it's a bracingly different perspective from anything else you'll read about management, marketing or finance. With that caveat about balance firmly in mind,
We suggest reading this decidedly eccentric, provocative original, if you dare to take the risk.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A contrarian view, November 2, 2003

By 

Bill Godfrey (Mt Stuart, TAS Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Timid Corporation: Why Business is Terrified of Taking Risk (Hardcover)

A contrarian view of risk management that has overtones of 'the emperor has no clothes'. The author argues that business has become obsessed with risk and self-regulates to the point that genuine (and risky) innovation is stifled. He offers a lot of evidence that undue concern with risk, coupled with a desire (largely for safety) to 'offer customers what they want' and 'build customer loyalty' actually works against the best interest of customers and the business.

While it is clear that the author is against undue caution, he believes that this is affecting most business and makes a good case for his arguments, it is less clear what he is for. There is a risk (!) that the book will simply be used by those who are interested in preventing government regulation and ridiculing self-regulation. It is usefully provocative but ignores or ridicules some real risks that require careful management. The author's cavalier dismissal of environmental concerns is a good example of this.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This book needs a foundation of Ellsberg,Keynes,and Mandelbrot, July 14, 2005

By 

Michael Emmett Brady "mandmbrady" (Bellflower, California ,United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Timid Corporation: Why Business is Terrified of Taking Risk (Hardcover)

Hunt could have easily written a 5 star book by basing its major conclusions,the current dearth of both long run investment and innovation by most major corporations,on a foundation composed of the theoretical work of D.Ellsberg,J.M.Keynes, B.Mandelbrot ,and the mathematical modeling of Dixit and Pindyck's"real options"approach(see their 1993 book "Investment under Uncertainty") as a replacement for the badly flawed neoclassical EVA(economic value added) approach that essentially degenerates into a purely short run,short sighted,pennywise,poundfoolish labor cost cutting(a la "chainsaw"Al Dunlop)policy that ignores revenue generation through innovation in new products,services,technologies,industrial processes and/or improvements in current products,etc.The crucial distinction that Hunt tries to make between risk and REAL risk[ risk(mild risk) versus uncertainty , ambiguity,or wild risk] was made by Keynes in his A Treatise on Probability(1921)and in Chapter 12 of his 1936 General Theory,by Ellsberg in a 1961 Quarterly Journal of Economics article and his (2001) book,Risk,Ambiguity and Decision,and by Mandelbrot in a series of books and articles written since 1955[see his (2004)The (Mis)Behavior of Markets,with Hudson].Hunt is certaintly correct that the EVA rule"...is a frenzied attempt to formalize things that cannot easily be formalized..."(Hunt,p.116).Hunt needs to integrate the work of the thinkers pointed out in this review into the corpus of his book in a revised edition,probably an extended appendix.