Seduced by Success: How the Best Companies Survive the 9 Traps of Winning - Hardcover

Herbold, Robert J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0071481834 ISBN 13: 9780071481830

Publisher: McGraw-Hill, 2007

Synopsis

Don't let success put your company on the road to ruin

In Seduced by Success, Robert J. Herbold, the former Chief Operating Officer of Microsoft, shows you how to avoid the nine traps of success-the “legacy practices” that almost felled such giants as General Motors, Kodak and Sony. Herbold, a 26-year-veteran of Procter & Gamble who lived through each trap, gives you proven tactics for preventing arrogance, bloat, and neglect while capitalizing on your accomplishments, sustaining your momentum, and retaining your position in the marketplace.

The nine traps every successful organization must avoid are

• Neglect: Sticking with Yesterday's Business Model
• Pride: Allowing Your Products to Become Outdated
• Boredom: Clinging to Your Once-Successful Branding
• Complexity: Ignoring Your Business Processes
• Bloat: Rationalizing Your Loss of Speed and Agility
• Mediocrity: Letting Your Star Employees Languish
• Lethargy: Getting Lulled into a Culture of Comfort
• Timidity: Not Confronting Turf Wars and Obstructionists
• Confusion: Unwittingly Conducting Schizophrenic Communications

These mistakes cut your business legs off at the knees, destroying your ability to recognize and meet the need for change. Herbold shows you how to avoid these landmines by

• Continually revitalizing your brands and products
• Demanding new approaches to “proven” practices
• Maintaining speed and agility through strong leadership
• Making sure employees are empowered to achieve and not handicapped by bureaucracy
• Using an exciting new product to overhaul your culture

For each success trap, Herbold provides illuminating examples of top companies that were seduced by their success-as well as others that managed to maintain and even broaden their achievements. Seduced by Success is the best way to ensure your company sustains its success for the long term.

About this title

About the Author

Robert J. Herbold was hired by Bill Gates to be Chief Operating Officer of Microsoft Corporation. During his seven years as COO, from 1994 to 2001, Microsoft experienced a fourfold increase in revenue and a sevenfold increase in profits. Prior to Microsoft, Herbold spent 26 years at The Procter & Gamble Company, the last five years as Senior Vice President of Marketing. Herbold is now the Managing Director of Herbold Group, LLC. He is also a Senior Executive in Residence at INSEAD in Singapore, a member of President Bush's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and a director serving on several corporate boards.

From the Back Cover

Praise for

Seduced by Success

“Bob Herbold gets to the heart of why successful organizations and individuals often go into a tailspin, and how this can be avoided. His thorough reviews of specific companies we all know make this a very useful book, and I highly recommend it.”-Indra K.Nooyi, President & CEO, PepsiCo, Inc.

“This book rings painfully true….Bob Herbold demonstrates with clinical precision that a company's fall from grace can frequently be traced back to its time of greatest achievement. Before you get too depressed, however, take heart-he also gives you all the tools you need to avoid that ignominious fate.”-Sir Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive Officer, WPP Group PLC

“It's very instructive to read the detailed case studies showing how some successful companies lose their way, while others remain successful. Through these rich examples, Bob Herbold shows how to sustain success.”-Koh Boon Hwee, Chairman, DBS Group Holdings/DBS Bank, Asia

“Seldom do you find a book with as many powerful, useful reminders that help you face up to reality and deal with problems. I strongly urge you to read it.”-Grant L. Kelley, Principal & CEO, Colony Capital Asia

Reviews

Conversations about companies' "best practices" and "whodunitgood" have a flaw. There is more than a 50-50 chance that those companies cited as best-in-class won't make the list two years later. Herbold, former COO of Microsoft, is guilty not only of that issue but also of an overreliance on secondary research and an overfamiliarity with Microsoft and Procter & Gamble. Certainly, the latter is to be commended; P&G is a paragon of innovation, although Microsoft, insist a number of industry pundits, needs to overcome its 800-pound gorilla attitude. In essence, Herbold itemizes the nine deadliest sins of success, from neglect to confusion, and then evaluates antidotes and keys to sustainability. He points to Toyota and Fidelity, for instance, as leaders in reapplying what works, and to Southwest Airlines and GE as the masters of clarity, simplicity, and repetition. Other than some outdated examples, there's one more hitch: the author doesn't listen to his own advice to keep it simple. Barbara Jacobs
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Edition details

• Publisher: McGraw-Hill
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0071481834
• ISBN 13: 9780071481830
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288