Tory Burch on Shopbop
Add Prime to get Fast, Free delivery
Amazon prime logo
$16.00
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Tuesday, January 7 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35. Order within 20 mins
In Stock
$$16.00 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$16.00
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
30-day refund/replacement
30-day refund/replacement
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Added to

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

List unavailable.
$15.20 with 5 percent savings
List Price: $16.00
FREE pickup Tuesday, January 7 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35. Order within 20 mins

1.76 mi | Ashburn 20147

How pickup works
Pick up from nearby pickup location
Step 1: Place Your Order
Select the “Pickup” option on the product page or during checkout.
Step 2: Receive Notification
Once your package is ready for pickup, you'll receive an email and app notification.
Step 3: Pick up
Bring your order ID or pickup code (if applicable) to your chosen pickup location to pick up your package.
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$16.00 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$16.00
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Returns
30-day refund/replacement
30-day refund/replacement
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the authors

Paul Carroll
Follow
Chunka Mui
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Billion Dollar Lessons: What You Can Learn from the Most Inexcusable Business Failures of the Last 25 Ye ars Paperback – August 25, 2009

by Paul B. Carroll (Author), Chunka Mui (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 215 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$16.00","priceAmount":16.00,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"16","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"00","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"pG%2F1GXdCAbcf6VgM8JrnhJr2e9g81mHs%2F8JjdM60Vo4nlMt94y66rBVl2CTt6S7nwYbL5PH0Q2TSzNgqKi8271CGUrnptLcJS%2FAmOqKY72sRINTDQgaQ75dELQI%2FjsJ0oasZ89L49Ts%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}],"desktop_buybox_group_2":[{"displayPrice":"$15.20","priceAmount":15.20,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"15","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"20","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"pG%2F1GXdCAbcf6VgM8JrnhJr2e9g81mHsgBYW8QOribGNJf95%2BHVOvTJV%2FnN8dJPvr7gCaCCWRBJH0C1Xg6afJ5J8fKE4BhDwFroGMR%2B%2FWt49lYQ85DAzqT2pQKzTSWPk41gI4gdwTpNXZLvMLuhd13cfmaO2CPhfVgm4ldxdQRoLNBHfrwxfx2xNO1xgqhDO","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"PICKUP","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":2}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

”This book is your chance to learn from others’ mistakes.”-- Entrepreneur

In the 1960s, IBM CEO Tom Watson called an executive into his office after his venture lost $10 million. The man assumed he was being fired. Watson told him, “Fired? Hell, I spent $10 million educating you. I just want to be sure you learned the right lessons.”

There are thousands of books about successful companies but virtually none about the lessons to be learned from those that crash and burn. Now Paul Carroll and Chunka Mui draw on research into more than 750 flameouts to reveal the seven biggest reasons for business failure.
Previous slide of product details
  1. Print length
    336 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Portfolio
  4. Publication date
    August 25, 2009
  5. Dimensions
    5.47 x 0.84 x 8.42 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1591842891
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1591842897
  8. See all details
Next slide of product details
Books%20with%20Buzz
Books with Buzz
Discover the latest buzz-worthy books, from mysteries and romance to humor and nonfiction. Explore more

Frequently bought together

Billion Dollar Lessons: What You Can Learn from the Most Inexcusable Business Failures of the Last 25 Ye ars
This item: Billion Dollar Lessons: What You Can Learn from the Most Inexcusable Business Failures of the Last 25 Ye ars
$15.20
Get it as soon as Friday, Jan 10
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Sold by Selling all the goods and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.
+
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
$17.05
Get it as soon as Monday, Jan 13
Only 10 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
$13.79
Get it as soon as Wednesday, Jan 8
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price: $00
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
spCSRF_Treatment
Some of these items ship sooner than the others.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
215 global ratings

Review this product

Share your thoughts with other customers
Write a customer review

Customers say

Customers find the book informative and easy to read, providing useful insights into strategic business mistakes. They appreciate the great research and interesting information about corporations that went through bankruptcy. The book is described as a solid and smart read for business owners who want to learn what not to do.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Select to learn more
InsightReadability
18 customers mention "Insight"16 positive2 negative

Customers find the book informative and interesting. They appreciate the research and analysis of business failures. The book provides valuable lessons from these failures and offers great coaching questions.

"...This book would be valuable for any business leader or executive." Read more

"...with success stories and how to be successful, this book relates stories of failures and advises how not to fail while making management decisions...." Read more

"...The stories are well told without being preachy. The research is good, and while I might want more in depth information, for the average corporate..." Read more

"There's often more to learn from failure than success, and the authors have provided terrific insight into massive failures that could have been..." Read more

14 customers mention "Readability"14 positive0 negative

Customers find the book readable and engaging. They say it's a good read for business owners who want to learn what not to do. The author does a good job of showing the right questions to ask.

"...This is a very interesting and absorbing book and is recommended to middle and senior levels of management and to directors of companies." Read more

"...A solid read, and one with a number of takeaways." Read more

"This book is very smart. Frankly, the majority of the book is dedicated to failures...." Read more

"...I really enjoyed reading the entire book and it engrossed me immediately. I did read this right after Killer Apps by the same authors...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Tom Armstrong
    5.0 out of 5 stars A fun and informative book
    Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    The authors did a phenomenal job of distilling years of distilling decades of case studies into a few fundamental lessons about strategic errors. This book would be valuable for any business leader or executive.
    Helpful
     Report
  • Nikhat
    4.0 out of 5 stars A Very Absorbing Book
    Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2010
    Verified Purchase
    The delivery of spectacular failures is the subject of this book. Whereas most management texts deal with success stories and how to be successful, this book relates stories of failures and advises how not to fail while making management decisions. The authors investigated 2500 failures for more than two years to form the basis for this book. They relate these stories in a very readable and absorbing manner, analyze them from various aspects and bring out learnable lessons.
    The first lesson learnt is that "it is not enough to just try to be more aware of potential pitfalls. Some outside mechanism needs to be applied as a safeguard to head off bad deals and bad strategies". What can this "outside mechanism" be? Proper Corporate Governance probably.

    Another lesson learnt is that "it is awfully hard to kill dangerous ideas when the need for earnings (and bonuses) is very real and short term while the potential problems are ephemeral or long-term". This is often because "once a strategy starts to build momentum it will steamroll any possible objections".

    A very valid fact brought out by the authors is that "boards can spot problems, but directors are sometimes reluctant to speak up because they don't have as much information as the CEO and seldom have as much background in the industry". They have also quoted case where directors were "outmaneuvered". Is having more knowledgeable and assertive directors the answer?
    The authors suggest that "failures tended to be associated with one of seven types of strategy. Failures could certainly happen for other reasons, but if a company followed one of these seven strategies it was far more likely to flop". These seven strategies are synergy, financial engineering, rollups, staying the course, adjacencies, riding technology and consolidation.
    "Part One" of the book is divided into chapters to deal with these seven strategies respectively.
    The authors quote a study that found that in 124 mergers only 30 percent generated synergies and even these were "even close to what the acquirer had predicted". The reason that they write for the failures in synergy is "that as companies are becoming more dependent on technology, achieving synergy targets is heavily dependent on the combined entity's ability to integrate their business platform and operate as one", but "the awareness of business platform integration issues is typically missing at all stages of planning".

    About "financial engineering" the authors write that "companies get sucked into the idea that they'll indulge in some creative accounting, but only briefly ... but the one or two quarters of aggressive accounting can become ... a way of life - until disaster strikes".
    Rollup, as defined by the authors, is the concept that "you can operate more efficiently by taking dozens, or even thousands of small businesses and combining them into one large one". The quote studies that suggest that "more than two-thirds of rollups fail to create any value for investors", but the "problem is not the concept but the execution".
    The authors say that executives, like pilots of a crashing aircraft, have warning signs that they are about to crash, but they do it anyway. They relate the interesting story of Kodak in this regard in detail.

    Expanding into adjacent markets has been a popular strategy for growth, but the authors find that a majority of such moves fail and that the problem lies mainly in the defining an "adjacent" market.

    A very interesting quote from this book is that "marketing is when you lie to your customers, marketing research research is when you lie to yourself". This assertion is supported by the interesting story of Iridium.

    The lesson that the authors teach regarding consolidation is that "simply because an industry will consolidate, it does not mean that you should be the buyer" to win. Examples quoted in the book do prove this advice.

    The chapter titled "The Devil's Advocate" is very interesting. The authors advise the dissent should be institutionalized to ensure rational decision-making.

    This is a very interesting and absorbing book and is recommended to middle and senior levels of management and to directors of companies.
    2 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Jerold Gafford
    5.0 out of 5 stars not poor execution, poor leaders
    Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    Main Idea: The study of failed business ventures may be more valuable than the study of successful businesses. Between 1981 and 2006, 423 major companies with combined assets totaling $1.5 trillion filed for bankruptcy. Even more took huge write-offs, discontinued major operations, or were acquired under duress.

    Carrol and Mui found that the number one cause of failure was misguided strategy, not poor execution, poor leaders, or bad luck. These strategies fall into seven categories:
    1. Illusions of Synergy
    2. Faulty Financial Engineering
    3. Deflated Rollups
    4. Staying the (Misguided) Course
    5. Misjudged Adjacencies
    6. Fumbling Technology
    7. Consolidation Blues

    While these strategies are not guaranteed failures they are, what Carroll and Mui call, “Danger Zones”. If you are pursuing one of these strategies, you need to be extremely alerts to what could go wrong, and be ready to react before your business starts flirting with disaster. In later chapters, Carroll and Muir explain several process were you can build disagreement into the formulation of these strategies. A Devil's advocate review is one of them, by bringing all disagreements and possibly objections to the strategy development you are able to consider the risks involved. Carroll and Mui emphasis this last point quite a bit, that there is a need to create a culture within your organization where constructive criticism is strongly encouraged. The authors go on to hypothesize that there were critical thinkers throughout the organizations studied who saw the dangers of the proposed strategy but were either too scared to speak up or their concerns were not properly heeded.

    Review:
    I thoroughly enjoyed Billion Dollar Lessons since it did not take the self-help style of other business books. The approach of outlining we're business people tend to make false assumptions and overestimate values is a much better approach. Also, by creating a culture that constructively criticizes strategy development it can create what some call “Weeble Stories”, like the toy weebles wobbles but they don't fall down. That's not to say that there won't be some unforeseen circumstance that takes your strategy and holds it down and doesn't allow it to succeed, but it puts it in the best position to succeed under the given circumstances.
    One person found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Henry E. Scholz
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great Cautionary Tales
    Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2010
    Verified Purchase
    If you are thinking about a merger, buyout, consolidation, roll-up or any of the cute names that corporate takeovers go by, read this first. While there are several examples of successful buyouts, this book contains a number examples of disasters.

    The stories are well told without being preachy. The research is good, and while I might want more in depth information, for the average corporate exec, the level of detail works.

    The part that sets this book apart is that it offers some great coaching questions should you be considering a buyout.

    A solid read, and one with a number of takeaways.
    3 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
  • Clemens Küfner
    5.0 out of 5 stars Lehrreiche Fehlentscheidungen bei Firmenzusammenschlüssen
    Reviewed in Germany on August 15, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    Merger, die weit höhere Kosten als erwartet produzieren und die meisten Beteiligten schädigen, sind allgemein bekannt (z.B.: der Daimler Chrysler Zusammenschluss). In diesem Buch sind die Gefahren dieser Zusammenschlüsse anschaulich erklärt. Die Autoren sind keine Gegner von Mergern, aber sie zeigen, warum eine sorgfältige Entscheidungsfindung notwendig ist. Dabei sind die Risiken drastisch und es besteht eine große Gefahr, dass sie ohne jedes Bewusstsein für das Risiko eingegangen werden.

    Aufbau:
    Im ersten Hauptteil erläutern die Autoren an Beispielen Risiken von sieben bekannten Merger-Strategien: Risiken aus einer falschen Abschätzung von Synergien, aus dem Financial Engineering, aus Rollups, d.h. dem Zusammenfügen von vielen gleichen Einzelgeschäften, aus dem Beharren auf dem eigenen Kurs trotz Warnsignalen, aus der Entscheidung zur Expansion in benachbarte Geschäftsbereiche, aus der Entscheidung für eine Schlüsseltechnologie und aus der Konsolidierung.
    Im zweiten, deutlich kürzeren Hauptteil legen die Autoren dar, warum auch gute Manager zur falschen Entscheidungen kommen und warum für gute Firmen das vergleichbare Risiko besteht. Danach wird dargestellt, wie Entscheidungsprozesse angepasst werden müssen, um die Risiken für Fehlentscheidungen erfolgreich zu verringern. Da das Problem nicht auf Merger begrenzt ist, sondern grundsätzlich auftritt, ist dieser Teil nur wenig auf die konkreten Beispiele des ersten Teils bezogen.

    Bewertung:
    Der erste Hauptteil ist aus meiner Sicht die klare Stärke des Buches. Viele Punkte fand ich direkt einleuchtend und halte es für wahrscheinlich, dass eine Vielzahl von Firmen vergleichbare Fehler machen würde, zum Beispiel, indem sie die Möglichkeiten von Synergien überschätzt oder fälschlich davon ausgeht, dass die Kunden einer Firma in einem Umbruch treu bleiben. Der zweite Hauptteil bietet eine Reihe von Standardthemen aus der Entscheidungstheorie. In diesem Bereich wechseln bekannte und viel zitierte Quellen (Irving L: Janis, Groupthink) mit für mich neuen und sehr spannenden Informationen ab. Wenn das Thema bekannt ist, kann der zweite Teil kursorisch gelesen werden.
    Obwohl der erste Teil deutlich informativer ist als der Zweite, ist das Buch absolut lesenswert. Es ist angenehm geschrieben und die hier besprochenen Themen beschäftigen sehr viele Firmen früher oder später. Die Schlüsse aus den Beispielen gehen alle Firmen an, auch wenn keine Merger geplant sind.
    Report
  • B Taylor
    5.0 out of 5 stars Really enjoyed this book
    Reviewed in Canada on December 29, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    Really enjoyed this book. Lots of great, easy to follow stories of lessons learned from failed acquisitions and the poor assumptions make to justify these acquisitions.
    Report
  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars I found brilliant tips in this book and actually quite an enjoyable ...
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 21, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    I found brilliant tips in this book and actually quite an enjoyable to read. An excellent book I would recommend it to anyoneinterested in the mistakes and business failures.
    Report
  • Michael Dean
    2.0 out of 5 stars they don't pull out the statistics which might have made this book useful.
    Reviewed in Australia on December 13, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    A fairly average collection of anecdotes. The examples don't support the conclusions that they draw so there's not much to learn. And though they mention a huge database of failures that they collected, they don't pull out the statistics which might have made this book useful.
    Report
  • Amazon Customer
    4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
    Reviewed in Canada on December 31, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Good book to spot the warning signs of impending doom based on actual history.
    Report