Table of Contents
About the Author
Publisher's acknowledgements
Introduction: The monkey story
1: Management happens
Forced to be stupid
Collective inertia - if you don’t join them, you can beat them!
Pharma - the devil is in the detailing
The Abilene Paradox
Same same but different
"Selection bias"
Numbers and strategy - do they mix?
Inebriated cyclists
Deciding stuff - that’s the easy bit
How well do you know your company? (My guess is not very well at all…)
How to make a compelling corporate strategy in six easy steps
Wanna play strategy? Get a board game
"Framing contests": What really happens in strategy meetings
It looks like we don’t have a strategy…
2: The Success trap (and some ideas how to get out of it)
Why good companies go bad
The Icarus paradox
Tunnel vision - "in the end, there is only flux"
Operation Market Garden
Mental models – let’s all think within the same box
A creosote bush: how "exploitation" drives out "exploration"
A bitter pill
Framing something as a threat or an opportunity dramatically alters what we choose
In a downturn, manage your revenues, not your costs
In a crisis, innovate
Is your company brave enough to survive?
3: The urge to conquer
How big is your yam? (not that it matters)
Deal-eager executives - tribal instincts
CEOs, marriage, mergers, geriatric millionaires, and blushing brides
When acquisitions take over
"Time compression diseconomies" - too much, too fast
Seeds and fertilizer - how to build a firm
"I've won... I've won"
Most acquisitions fail - really!
"Heerlijk, helder, Heineken"
Toads and acquisitions - where does CEO "hubris" come from?
4: Gods and villains
The heroes of our time
Narcissus versus humble bloke - and the winner is?
Are overconfident CEOs born or made?
Hang the hero
Celebrity CEOs and the burden of expectation
Successful managers - incompetent for sure
Executives: superhuman after all…
"Over the hill and far away, top managers are here to stay"
Chief story teller
Managers and leaders: are they different?
Women on top
5: Liaisons and intrigues
Fact over fiction
Analysts, astrologers, and lemmings - three of a kind?
Conflicts of interest - do analysts rate their bank's clients' stock more favorably?
Banks' blurry categorizations - have your cake and eat it too
Analysts rule the waves (whether we like it or not)
Sirens and investment bankers – birds of a feather
How to tame an analyst
Advice or influence? Why firms ask government officials to be directors
Boards of directors: cliques and elites
Board-cloning - a rewarding habit
Boardroom friends
CEOs and their stock options (oh please)
Stock options, risk, and manipulations
Too hot to handle: explaining excessive top management remuneration
How to justify paying top managers too much
CEOs do seek advice – if you pay them for it
Dirty laundry: who is hiding the bad stuff?
6: Myths in management
No stranger than fiction
Say you will - that'll do
Right again! Managers and their self-fulfilling prophecies
Your expectations manage you
"Reverse causality" - sorry, but life's not that simple
Eating Uncle Ed - don’t worry, its called downsizing
Does downsizing ever work?
Who can downsize without detriment?
What management bandwagons bring
Remember this one: "total quality management"?
ISO 9000 makes you reliable, myopi
