Book Value

Greed and Corporate Failure: Lessons from Recent Disasters
By Stewart Hamilton and Alicia Micklethwait
Palgrave Macmillan Ltd., US$42.50; to order, visit palgrave.com

Stewart Hamilton and Alicia Micklethwait serve up a well-organized book on the most common reasons why companies implode. They boil down the examples to eight case studies from different industries spanning five countries.

Kickstarting the book, the authors zero in on what they've identified as the six main causes of corporate meltdowns: poor decisions, overexpansion, dominant CEOs, greed, hubris and a desire for power, failure of internal controls and ineffective boards.

No surprise, the examples include Enron, WorldCom, Swissair and Parmalat. While these companies have received extensive media coverage, the 198-page book gives a much deeper insight into the individuals and corporate culture that fostered their demise.

Concisely written with vivid stories, the book's objective is to make the lessons to be learned “accessible to a wide range of readers.” To this end, a short glossary is included at the back of the book.

A handy addition is a tidy wrap-up at the end of each chapter highlighting the key messages. And the Conclusions chapter is an excellent summary of the keen insights that the authors cover.

-- Diana Cawfield