Download The Halo Effect: ...and the 8 Other Business Delusions That Deceive Managers AudioBook Free

Much of our business thinking is molded by delusions -- mistakes of reasoning and flawed judgments that distort our knowledge of the real known reasons for a company's performance. In an excellent and unconventional book, Phil Rosenzweig unmasks the delusions that are generally found in the organization world. These delusions have an effect on the business enterprise press and academics research, as well as much bestselling books that promise to disclose the secrets of success or the path to greatness. Such books lay claim to be predicated on strenuous thinking, but operate mainly at the level of storytelling. They offer comfort and inspiration, but deceive professionals about the real mother nature of business success.

One of the most pervasive delusion is the Halo Result. When a company's sales and profits are up, people often conclude that this has an excellent strategy, a visionary head, ready employees, and an excellent corporate culture. When performance falters, they conclude that the strategy was wrong, the leader became arrogant, the people were complacent, and the culture was stagnant. In fact, little may have modified -- company performance creates a Halo that figures just how we understand strategy, authority, people, culture, plus more.

Drawing on instances from leading companies including Cisco Systems, IBM, Nokia, and ABB, Rosenzweig shows how the Halo Result is widespread, undermining the usefulness of business bestsellers from In Search of Quality to Built to Last and Good to Great.

Rosenzweig identifies nine popular business delusions. Included in this:

• The Delusion of Absolute Performance: Company performance is relative to competition, not overall, which explains why following a formula can never ensure results. Success originates from doing things much better than rivals, which means that managers have to take risks.



• The Delusion of Rigorous Research: Many bestselling authors reward themselves for the great amount of data they may have gathered, but ignore that if the data aren't valid, it doesn't matter how much was obtained or how advanced the research methods look like. They trick the audience by substituting sizzle for compound.



• The Delusion of Single Explanations: Many studies show that a particular factor, such as corporate culture or cultural responsibility or customer focus, leads to improved upon performance. But since many of these factors are highly correlated, the effect of each the first is usually less than suggested.

In what guarantees to be always a landmark book, The Halo Result replaces mistaken pondering with a sharper knowledge of what drives business success and failing. The Halo Result is a guide for the thinking administrator, ways to detect errors running a business research and reach a clearer knowledge of what drives business success and failing.

Skeptical, excellent, iconoclastic, and mercifully free of business jargon, Rosenzweig's book is nevertheless deceased serious, making his quarrels about important issues within an unsparing and immediate way that will charm to a wide business audience. For professionals who want to separate fact from fiction in the world of business, The Halo Result is vital reading -- witty, often funny, and sharply argued, it's an antidote to so much of the conventional thinking that clutters business bookshelves.