Buy new:
$28.00$28.00
Arrives:
Monday, July 24
Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com
Buy used: $24.95
Other Sellers on Amazon
+ $4.99 shipping
86% positive over last 12 months
+ $4.99 shipping
82% positive over last 12 months
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Learn more
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Lessons from the Titans: What Companies in the New Economy Can Learn from the Great Industrial Giants to Drive Sustainable Success Hardcover – July 7, 2020
| Price | New from | Used from |
|
Audible Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry" |
$0.00
| Free with your Audible trial | |
- Kindle
$14.87 Read with Our Free App -
Audiobook
$0.00 Free with your Audible trial - Hardcover
$28.0013 Used from $16.88 18 New from $19.20
Purchase options and add-ons
Three top Wall Street analysts reveal enduring lessons in sustainable success from the great industrial titans―the high-tech companies of their day―to the disruptors that now dominate the economy.
Before Silicon Valley disrupted the world with new technologies and business models, America’s industrial giants paved the way. Companies like General Electric, United Technologies, and Caterpillar were the Google and Amazon of their day, setting gold standards in innovation, growth, and profitability. Today’s leaders can learn a great deal from their successes, as well as their missteps. In this essential guide, three veteran Wall Street analysts reveal timeless lessons from the titans of industry―and offer battle-tested survival tactics for an ever-changing world. You’ll learn:
- how GE became the largest company on earth―only for a culture of arrogance to set in motion the largest collapse in history
- how Boeing reassessed risks, raised profits―and tragically lost its balance
- how Danaher avoided the pitfalls of tremendous success―by continually reinventing itself
- how Honeywell experienced a near-fatal cultural breakdown―and executed a flawless turnaround
- how Caterpillar relied too much on forecasting, lost billions―and rallied by recommitting to the basics
Filled with illuminating case studies and brilliant in-depth analysis, this invaluable book provides a multitude of insights that will help you weather market upheavals, adapt to disruptions, and optimize your resources to your best advantage. You’ll learn hard-won lessons in innovation, growth, resilience, and operational excellence, as well as the time-proven fundamentals of continuous improvement for lasting success. In the end, you’ll have your own personal toolbox of useful takeaways from more than a century’s worth of data, experience, wisdom, and can-do spirit, courtesy of some of the greatest business enterprises of all time. This is how manufacturers survived the first disruptors of technology―and how today’s giants can survive and thrive during continuous cycles of disruption.
- Print length352 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherMcGraw Hill
- Publication dateJuly 7, 2020
- Dimensions6.25 x 1.25 x 9 inches
- ISBN-101260468399
- ISBN-13978-1260468397
Frequently bought together

4 stars and above
From the Publisher
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews
Review
“In every era, it is always tempting to believe that the fundamentals have somehow changed. This book provides perceptive analyses of the enduring lessons from some of the most important companies in our nation’s history. Leaders of today and tomorrow, across all industries, will do well to learn how to apply these fundamentals to their own time.”
—Wes Bush, former Chairman and CEO of Northrop Grumman and Director of General Motors and Cisco
“Highly instructive. Every business executive, investor, and student of leadership should read this book. Lessons from the Titans shows us that excellent CEOs lead organizations that win and thrive because they implement great processes around operational excellence.”
—Inge Thulin, former Chairman and CEO of 3M and Director of Merck
“An engrossing read with many lessons to mull over for senior executives and emerging managers alike. This book reminds us that sustainable success depends on operational and financial discipline.”
—Nick Santhanam, Senior Partner and Head of the Advanced Electronics and Industrials Practice at McKinsey & Company
“Few have the years of experience and insight into industrials that Scott, Carter, and Rob do. They’ve written the book on building great operating systems, disciplined capital deployment, and process capability to sustain long-term, consistent, top-quartile performance.”
—Kirk Hachigian, former Chairman and CEO of Cooper Industries and Director of NEE, PACCAR, and Allegion
“With credibility built over 60 years of collective industry experience, the authors bring a unique inside view of what it takes to succeed in business. Lessons from the Titans is a must-read about the importance of innovation, competitive edge, disciplined investment, and leadership.”
—Stephanie Link, Global Research Director and Portfolio Manager at Nuveen and CNBC contributor
“Business success still depends on keeping the organization focused on profitable growth through continuous operational improvement. Lessons from the Titans doesn’t just explain how; it shows you these principles in action.”
—Ed Breen, Executive Chairman and CEO of DuPont and Director of Comcast
From the Publisher
Scott Davis serves as Chairman and CEO of Melius Research, where he is also the lead research analyst covering the multi-industry sector. With 25 years of experience in industrials equity research, he has ranked in the top decile of Wall Street analysts, including being recognized as the number one multi-industry analyst by Institutional Investor six times. Davis also led elite research teams for more than two decades as Head of Global Industrials Research at both Morgan Stanley and Barclays.
Carter Copeland is the President of Melius Research, where he is also the lead research analyst covering the global aerospace and defense sector. He has 15 years of experience on Wall Street, is consistently ranked in Institutional Investor’s annual survey of top analysts, and was named the number one aerospace and defense analyst by Institutional Investor’s Alpha magazine. He previously served as Managing Director and senior analyst at Barclays and Lehman Brothers.
Rob Wertheimer is a founding partner of Melius Research, where he serves as the Director of Research and lead research analyst for the global machinery sector. He has two decades of equity research experience, and has been recognized as a top-three analyst by Institutional Investor. Prior to Melius, he led machinery coverage at Barclays, Vertical Research, and Morgan Stanley.
From the Back Cover
“In every era, it is always tempting to believe that the fundamentals have somehow changed. This book provides perceptive analyses of the enduring lessons from some of the most important companies in our nation’s history. Leaders of today and tomorrow, across all industries, will do well to learn how to apply these fundamentals to their own time.”
—Wes Bush, former Chairman and CEO of Northrop Grumman and Director of General Motors and Cisco
“Highly instructive. Every business executive, investor, and student of leadership should read this book. Lessons from the Titans shows us that excellent CEOs lead organizations that win and thrive because they implement great processes around operational excellence.”
—Inge Thulin, former Chairman and CEO of 3M and Director of Merck
“An engrossing read with many lessons to mull over for senior executives and emerging managers alike. This book reminds us that sustainable success depends on operational and financial discipline.”
—Nick Santhanam, Senior Partner and Head of the Advanced Electronics and Industrials Practice at McKinsey & Company
“Few have the years of experience and insight into industrials that Scott, Carter, and Rob do. They’ve written the book on building great operating systems, disciplined capital deployment, and process capability to sustain long-term, consistent, top-quartile performance.”
—Kirk Hachigian, former Chairman and CEO of Cooper Industries and Director of NEE, PACCAR, and Allegion
“With credibility built over 60 years of collective industry experience, the authors bring a unique inside view of what it takes to succeed in business. Lessons from the Titans is a must-read about the importance of innovation, competitive edge, disciplined investment, and leadership.”
—Stephanie Link, Global Research Director and Portfolio Manager at Nuveen and CNBC contributor
“Business success still depends on keeping the organization focused on profitable growth through continuous operational improvement. Lessons from the Titans doesn’t just explain how; it shows you these principles in action.”
—Ed Breen, Executive Chairman and CEO of DuPont and Director of Comcast
About the Author
Scott Davis serves as Chairman and CEO of Melius Research, where he is also the lead research analyst covering the multi-industry sector. With 25 years of experience in industrials equity research, he has ranked in the top decile of Wall Street analysts, including being recognized as the number one multi-industry analyst by Institutional Investor six times. Davis also led elite research teams for more than two decades as Head of Global Industrials Research at both Morgan Stanley and Barclays.
Carter Copeland is the President of Melius Research, where he is also the lead research analyst covering the global aerospace and defense sector. He has 15 years of experience on Wall Street, is consistently ranked in Institutional Investor’s annual survey of top analysts, and was named the number one aerospace and defense analyst by Institutional Investor’s Alpha magazine. He previously served as Managing Director and senior analyst at Barclays and Lehman Brothers.
Rob Wertheimer is a founding partner of Melius Research, where he serves as the Director of Research and lead research analyst for the global machinery sector. He has two decades of equity research experience, and has been recognized as a top-three analyst by Institutional Investor. Prior to Melius, he led machinery coverage at Barclays, Vertical Research, and Morgan Stanley.
Product details
- Publisher : McGraw Hill; 1st edition (July 7, 2020)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 352 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1260468399
- ISBN-13 : 978-1260468397
- Item Weight : 1.29 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.25 x 1.25 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #90,888 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #94 in Strategic Business Planning
- #148 in Systems & Planning
- #703 in Business Management (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Scott Davis serves as Chairman and CEO of Melius Research, where he is also the lead research analyst covering the multi-industry sector. He has 25 years of industrials equity research experience and has covered over 30 multi-industry names with an aggregated market capitalization of approximately $1 trillion.
Davis has led elite research teams for the past 20+ years, ranking in the top decile of all Wall Street analysts in nearly every time period. For the past 17 years, Institutional Investor magazine has recognized Davis as the number one ranked multi-industry analyst on six occasions and within the top three in most of the remaining years. Prior to Melius Research, Davis was a Managing Director and Head of the Global Industrials Research Group first at Morgan Stanley for 16 years then at Barclays Plc for 6 years. He and his work have been cited in hundreds of publications, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Forbes, and Fortune, and he appears regularly on CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox, and CNN.
Related products with free delivery on eligible orders Sponsored | Try Prime for unlimited fast, free shipping
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
The authors refer to General Electric as having been, at one point, the largest company in the world, which was never the case.
General Electric was at that point the most valuable company in the world, which is a different thing from "largest."
The largest companies, as defined for at least the last 80-90 years, are those with the largest sales (revenues). The Fortune 500 is the key list of largest companies and has been since the mid-1950s. This and other lists rank size based on sales, which is the best measure of the total economic activity of a company.
Most valuable is a very different thing, and often temporary.
I do not think any good analyst would say that Tesla is bigger than General Motors, Toyota, or Volkswagen, despite Tesla having a larger market capitalization (value). GM, Toyota, and VW make far more cars than Tesla, employ more people, and are far bigger in revenues.
Jeff Bezos is quick to point out that Walmart is a larger company than Amazon, in recent years about twice as big. Walmart is the first company on earth to reach a half trillion dollars in annual sales. Yet Amazon has a higher market capitalization. That market capitalization reflects the perceived future of the company, not its present size. Of course Amazon is gaining on Walmart and may in fact become larger, but not yet.
I realize I sound like a curmudgeon on this, but it is not helpful to understanding to use inaccurate or confusing language, or to abdicate the norms of company analysis and metrics.
I initially picked up this book thinking it was another 'management consultant' book; I was very happy to find that instead it was written by articulate former sell-side analysts with a unique take.
THIS BOOK IS ABOUT RISK MANAGEMENT.
It pervades each chapter. It discusses with some nuance the effect of corporate culture (and changes that occur either because of leadership change, mergers, or external financial pressure). It discusses incentive, and the effect that misaligned and/or unbalanced incentives can have on a firm. It emphasizes the need for process discipline and for rewarding 'continuous improvement' rather than 'heroics.'
If you are a CRO or a CFO, or aspire to these leadership positions, this is a terrific book with lessons to internalize.
While the case studies are from the Industrial world, the lessons can easily be applied to any other industry. It is also a reminder for those in modern day, fast growing tech companies still in early part of the s-curve, who think that the world has changed, that it is only a matter of time before many of the same principles of business will kick in and will define if their success is sustainable or ephemeral.
The story of Brian Jellison from Roper is particularly inspiring. What a high bar he leaves behind for others to emulate!
1) this one is exceptionally well-written. Writing simply about complicated or obscure topics is difficult but these authors make it look easy. Paragraphs vary in length, sentences are long and short, and the narratives are filled with interesting details and insightful observations. You'll practically glide through the book.
2) the narratives involve companies the authors followed in real-time. This one reminded me of highly regarded Thordike book 'The Outsiders' but better because these authors analyzed these stories and people in real-time, instead of merely looking at the past. As such, the authors candidly discuss their own changing viewpoints and how lessons can be applied both in a general business sense and when investing.
Bottom line - this one is top notch. You'll be sad after turning the last page.
Valuable lessons and context on what drives sustainable success and what can lead to the pitfalls of failure, the lessons are applicable to just about any industry. The case studies in the book (GE, Boeing, Danaher, Honeywell, United Technologies, Caterpillar, Roper, Transdigm, Stanley Black & Decker and United Rentals) were very well researched and give a fascinating behind the scenes look, from the factory floor to the boardroom, at how and why some of these companies found success and others found failure.
Top reviews from other countries
Nice if there were also some case studies of government organisations and perhaps retail.
The reader will gain an eye for characteristics such as lean manufacturing that drive margin expansion as well as external expansion through acquisition. There are also numerous signs when a company maybe faltering, such as by failing to adapt its choice of KPI to the current business context.




