A noted business historian presents captivating profiles of corporate blunders, with illuminating insights into the misguided motives that make promising concepts fail and industry giants crumble. Packard, E.J. Korvette, RCA, Drexel Burnham Lambert, Pabst, Schwinn. Once industry leaders, these companies all suffered devastating--and, in some cases, fatal--setbacks because of one pivotal mistake. A renowned writer and speaker who has traced the missteps of corporate America, Robert Sobel offers a fascinating look at 15 glaring and enlightening product flops and management foibles. Rather than call attention to corporate greed or foolishness, the author reveals surprisingly sound reasoning behind some of the worst moves in modern business history. Capturing tragic mistakes in the making, each chapter spotlights a key blunder committed by a onetime mover and shaker. Critical errors include: tinkering with winning products--or marketing "downscale" versions; getting blindsided by rivals or government regulations; striving to outdo a famed predecessor; fighting technology--or sheepishly following every innovation; and mistaking temporary industry changes for permanent ones--or vice versa. Lively and eye-opening, WHEN GIANTS STUMBLE explores a side of business history too seldom discussed, with valuable lessons for both thriving and floundering companies.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Over the years, Robert Sobel (Dangerous Dreamers, For Want of a Nail, Coolidge) has discovered that you can learn as much from analyzing a business's failure as its success. In When Giants Stumble: Classic Business Blunders and How to Avoid Them, the Hofstra University business-history professor zeroes in on 15 devastating failures that either severely damaged companies or spelled their doom. "After all, medical people study diseases in order to learn how to keep people healthy. Why not apply the same logic to the study of business blunders?" For example, in a chapter on E.J. Korvette, Sobel explains how founder Eugene Ferkauf created a discount-marketing Goliath that tallied an astounding $1 million in sales when it opened in 1948--only to spiral into bankruptcy by 1980 due to poor hiring practices, undercapitalization, and ill-planned expansion. Other companies that come under Sobel's microscope include Osborne Computer, Montgomery Ward, Pan American World Airways, Schwinn, Pabst, and the NYSE. What was common to all of these companies was that their failure was preceded by great success, which should give many of today's movers and shakers plenty to think about. Recommended. --Howard Rothman
From Library Journal
Sobel (Coolidge: An American Enigma, LJ 6/1/98), a business historian, educator, and columnist for Barron's, has created a well-written account of 15 former industry leaders, with chapter headings such as "E.J. Korvette: The Blunder of Hubris," "W.R. Grace: The Blunder of Nonstrategic Expansion," and "Drexel Burnham: The Blunder of Isolation." Each chapter begins with a brief history of the company and progresses to the events leading to its setback and/or decline. As Sobel demonstrates, there are important lessons to be learned from these errors. The roots of failure include inadequate funding, changing markets and technologies, competition, government regulations, lack of concern for customers, and too much idealism combined with a lack of expertise in a particular area. Sobel points out that although most of the companies do not still exist in their original forms today, some are still lingering in the shadows. Highly recommended for business leaders and upper-level academic business libraries.ABellinda Wise, Nassau Community Coll. Lib., Garden City, NY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Corporate Goliaths,
By
This review is from: When Giants Stumble (Hardcover)
How to explain "classic business blunders" by some of the world's most successful companies? How to avoid such blunders? Robert Sobel answers both questions in When Giants Stumble. Sobel is a highly esteemed business historian. In a separate chapter within When Giants Stumble, he examines each of these "giants" and the primary cause of their respective blunders:Osborne Computer (ineptitude) E.J. Korvette (hubris) Kaiser-Frazer (ignorance) RCA (nepotism) W.R. Grace (nonstrategic expansion) Packard (downward brand extension) Schlitz and Pabst (cutting corners) James Ling (fighting the government) Drexel Burnham Lambert (isolation) The Penn Central (mismatch) Montgomery Ward (stopped clock) American Tobacco (standing pat) The New York Stock Exchange (narrow view) Schwinn (multiple blunders) Robert Sobel's recent death denies all of us any additional contributions by him to a cohesive, comprehensive, and circumspect understanding of the business world. Those who read and learn from When Giants Stumble are forever in his debt.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must read for any American business person or student,
By A Customer
This review is from: When Giants Stumble (Hardcover)
A great read for anyone who needs to learn important lessons about business in America. Those in business who do not know the history of business failure are destined to repeat it. I am an executive in a large company and it was interesting to note the patterns of business failure that might be present in my own company. I passed my copy of the book around. Robert Sobel made some interesting picks of business failures. Hindsight is 20-20, but Sobel takes you through the history in a nonjudgmental evenhanded fashion. Also, I appreciated the fact that Sobel does not cram his point of view down that the reader's throat, instead letting the reader come to his or her own conclusions. Too often, writers have hidden agendas that are obvious. From a reading of this book, I still do not know Sobel's ideological/political views, and I respect him more for this fact.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fun, but a bit off-the-mark,
By A Customer
This review is from: When Giants Stumble (Hardcover)
The author selects some interesting case studies, and presents them in a comprehensive manner. Sometimes too comprehensive though, as the book can get bogged down in some arguably irrelevant history. There are quite a few typos, some of which are material. Additionally, the author fails to make many unique insights about the lessons to be learned, and sometimes has difficulty concluding a case with a moral (the "How to Avoid Them" part). While this book is an interesting read at times, and provides a good background of the nature of business failures, you will enjoy the book more if you do not expect too much.
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