The Ten Commandments for Business Failure
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
“After a lifetime in business, I’ve never been able to develop a set of rules or a step-by-step formula that will guarantee success in anything, much less in a field as dynamic and changing as business. What I can do, however, is talk about how to lose. I guarantee that anyone who follows my formula will be a highly successful loser.”
The Ten Commandments for Business Failure is a lighthearted cautionary bible for leaders from a hugely admired elder statesman who is sought out for advice by a wide circle of luminaries. Plenty of speakers and writers are happy to dispense advice on how to succeed in business. From football coaches to ex-CEOs to psychologists to preachers, success gurus are everywhere. But none of them can offer any guarantees; the true path to success can’t be laid out as a simple step-by-step plan. The same cannot be said of failure, however. Failure is easy. In fact, there are ten serious blunders companies and individuals make over and over again, leading to failure so consistently that the list ought to be written in stone. Don Keough, who has seen and heard a lot in his six decade career, calls them his Ten Commandments for Business Failure. They include such reliable bad advice as Quit Taking Risks, Be Inflexible, Assume Infallibility, Put All Your Faith in Experts, and Be Afraid of the Future.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A former president of the Coca-Cola Company, Keough has assembled an enviable Rolodex in his 81 years, and his book counts Bill Gates, Jack Welch and Warren Buffett among its champions. His lessons draw upon his long and varied career from his early days as a philosophy major to his first job as a TV sports announcer and employment at Butternut Coffee and Coca-Cola and comprise a list of tongue-in-cheek rules guaranteed to make the follower a true loser in business: from "quit taking risks" and "be inflexible" to "don't take time to think" and "be afraid of the future." Keough supports his commandments with stories of business mistakes and failures, both his own the roll-out of New Coke, for example and those of others namely, Schlitz beer and IBM. While the author's clear and encouraging tone and renown within the business community will likely garner his effort publicity, the unoriginality of the material all standard business-book fare simply phrased in the negative keeps this well-meaning book from standing out or offering original advice to business leaders in the market for a little self-improvement.
