The Synergy Myth: And Other Ailments of Business Today

by Harold Geneen and Brent Bowers

The business genius who turned a few small corporations into the $22 billion industrial empire known as ITT shares his observations about what is wrong with American companies today and how every... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312147244
• ISBN13: 9780312147242
• Release Date: March 1997
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Leadership's Famous Quotes

1. In business, words are words; explanations are explanations, promises are promises, but only performance is reality.2. Leadership is the very heart and soul of business management3. In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later. 4. The worst disease which can afflict executives in their work is not, as popularly supposed, alcoholism; it's egotism. 5. The best way to inspire people to superior performance is to convince them by everything you do and by your everyday attitude that you are wholeheartedly supporting them. 6. Performance stands out like a ton of diamonds. Non performance can always be explained away. 7. It is much more difficult to measure non performance than performance. 8. Do you want my one-word secret of happiness? It's growth - mental, financial, you name it. 9. We must not be hampered by yesterday's myths in concentrating on today's needs. 10. Performance is your reality. Forget everything else. 11. Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions. 12. You read a book from beginning to end. You run a business the opposite way. You start with the end, and then you do everything you must to reach it13. Uncertainty Will Always Be Part Of The Taking Charge ProcessMr Geneen was about eighty six years old when he wrote "The Synergy Myth: And Other Ailments of Business Today". Mr Geneen stressed the importance of having fun build a business and taking smart risks. He says, "There is no secret, no magic formula. Just the old-fashioned virtues of hard work, honesty and risk-taking". Living off of bread and taff during the great depression, Mr Geneen learned to put himself in the spotlight and risk take, a lesson he said lasted for life. Mr Geneen took ITT moving the company from 700 million dollar to 28 billion dollars. Mr. Geneen talks about how to select a CEO, the optimum role and size of the board of directors, getting out in the spot light, and fighting against failure. Mr Geneen talks about making sure "Democratic Principles" are supported within the company. Decision may not be accept, but the individual should always have a say. So of the fads, Mr Geneen attacks are Reengineering, Synergy, and long term planning. He talks critical and pragmatically about the insufficiencies of each of the topics. His arguments are more his personal biases than concrete arguments. Its more like board room talk about new technology. Under Mr Geneen, ITT made 250 acquisitions. The goal was to achieve 10 percent growth in profitability per quarter. All that matter was the profits, companies like: well-known businesses such as the Sheraton hotel chain, Wonder bread maker Continental Baking, the insurer Hartford and Avis Rent-a-Car. Mr Geneen was very proud of the brake part expansion and profits. The ABC buyout fustrated Mr Geneen as the Justice Department rejection on concerns of monopoly, at the same time the FCC

Read between the lines, this is sa subtle business mind

Global business, never mind American business has been damaged by the idiocies of "big for bigness sake", dumbsizing, business process engineering and the like. By turning his elderly, but still gimlet eye on the fads, fallacies and foul-ups instigated by the business bodice rippers aimed only at making a fortune for their authors and at the sheeplike behavior of boards of directors who aimlessly follow the trend hyped by people who have rarely had a real job, Geneen does us all a favor. Certainly he is egotistical, but he has a track record to back it. You don't have to read this book, but if if lead a major business and feel a sudden urge to follow the herd it is a good investment. (and if you don't go for this iconoclast, try Michael Moore wqho says the same things from the opposite side of the tracks. Tom Lambert - Author High Income Consulting etc......