Why Smart Executives Fail: And What You Can Learn from Their Mistakes

This book was required as part of graduate level coursework for a program I was in. I was skeptical at first that it was just another half-hearted business text with some fun stories, but ultimately no transferable knowledge. I was certainly wrong. All of the stories are entertaining and Finkelstein does well tying lessons into packages that would transfer well to most organizations.

A great book to read to understand the type of people you don't want to give you or your pension/insurance/foundation/endowment's money to. The mistakes listed here are fun to match with those mistakes one reads about prominent hedge funds in the newspapers.

I am working on a manuscript for a book that explores an array of mismanagement practices and attempts to highlight the mistakes that managers make that result in such problems. I purchased this book as one of my many resources to support views that I will express in my writing. I find the book to be very good, its content still holds true and it is on a subject that needs more study. Jack Risewick

i don't see the flow of context is consistent. It is good if you like to read about failure stories of companies. But does it tell why executives fail, I don't think so.

Had to purchase this book for a class. I think it was like a lot of other executive books that I have read about why their companies fail. If you haven't read other books that evaluated why executives and their companies fail or about leadership, then it is a good book to get.

This was an excellent set of case studies and I felt the author mostly kept it readable - though on some occasions, it got a bit slow/boring. But certainly a good read for those of us who try to understand the pitfalls of power. I particularly enjoyed the section on "7 habits of highly unsuccessful people".

In Why Smart Executives Fail, Finkelstein has assembled a collection of the largest failures in business history over the last 20 years. Through interviews with current and former chief executives from companies like Motorola, J&J and Samsung, he paints a picture of the critical mistakes organizations make in management and makes recommendation of how they could have avoid these disasters. In addition to great source material, Finkelstein's style is succinct and highly readable.

This book is well put together. Thought-provoking information aside, the author follows a format that presents stories, then provides the analyses in a way that is amazingly easy to read and grasp. I felt like it ran a little bit long, but I would have bought it for the first half.

Good read

El libro ya tiene sus años, pero el tiempo ha servido para darle la razón en casi todo.Tras leerlo, puede uno reírse de las explicaciones que suelen dar en los noticiarios sobre la caída de tal o cual empresa.Pero es que sus enseñanzas son aplicables más allá del ámbito profesional, porque no olvidemos que las empresas las forman personas.¡Que aproveche!

One of those books you never hear about that is highly readable and amazingly informative. get the inside scoop on why Motorola lost the lead in cell phones, history of Samsung, and many other items. Priceless perspective.

Excellent book ...