Don't Fear Change., 19 Oct 2007
A fantastic book on how to make necessary change in an organization by overcoming the inertia of "doing things the way they've always been done." I constantly run through the 8 steps in my mind when I am thinking about ways to help all of us continue to align our people to new ideas or more effective field strategies.

A good start, just the beginning, 03 Oct 2007
How many change initiatives have gone horribly wrong, most according to research. This book is a start, a good start into the field and a very big field indeed. It is still contemporary, easy to read and digest and doesn't try to get into the minutia, the eight stage strategy should be taken as a plausible logical approach which has a higher chance of working than most efforts we see. Don't do what many managers do and come running back from corporate leadership seminars all fired up thinking this book will solve everthing.

Of at least of one thing we can be sure of, Change Management is incredibly difficult (Kanter et al 1992) to make sense of. Always challenging and impossibly confusing though paradoxically now with many elements well researched by agents buried in the strata of academia, consultancy and change. And yet, frequently more than fifty percent (Kotter 1996) of all change initiatives fail.

Go on to read stuff from Hope-Hailey, Senge, Kanter, Schein & Beer and Noria and then the complexities begin to show.


Insight into the world of Change, 27 May 2007
One of the best books on strategic change resistance and gaining sponsorship you will ever read. I have used and continue to use the eight step framework for all my change programmes.

Well written, easy to read and practical.

Packed with Knowledge!, 24 Jun 2005
The picture on the cover of John P. Kotter's book tells it all: a group of penguins are shuffling their feet nervously on an icy precipice, while one brave bird leaps for the water below. The question is, which penguin are you? In too many organizations, executives shy away from the precipice, while someone lower down in the pecking order jumps in to test the landing conditions. Kotter says managers and leaders are quite different. A manager, he explains, is trained to think in a linear, one-two-three, risk-limiting way. Transformational change, however, can only be attained when true leaders push forward on several fronts at once - eight of them to be exact. Every successful change initiative begins with a coalition of leaders who create a sense of urgency. Kotter's book stems from a 1995 Harvard Business Review article titled, "Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail." It will probably sound hauntingly familiar to managers who have watched change initiatives begin in the front courtyard with a marching band and end a few months later, ushered out the back door like a diner who can't pay the tab. If you want to know why your last change initiative fizzled, we say read this book. Better yet, study it to ensure that your next leap of faith is a flying success.

The leading change process model, 12 Jan 2005
Organisations need change. We all know that. But how can an organisation adopt great ideas, tools, and methods, absorbing them in a way to stimulate change and get superior results?

Harvard-professor John P. Kotter has been observing this process for almost 30 years. What intrigues him is why some leaders are able to take these tools and methods and get their organizations to change dramatically - while most do not.

How many times have we not seen somebody get very excited about some new tool (CRM, e-business, etc.)? Yet two years later there is no performance improvement at all. Often because most of the organisation has rejected the change needed to make it happen.

When people need to make big changes significantly and effectively, Kotter finds that there are generally eight basic things that must happen:

1. INSTILL A SENSE OF URGENCY. Identifying existing or potential crises or opportunities. Confronting reality, in the words of Execution-authors, Charan and Bossidy.

2. PICK A GOOD TEAM. Assembling a strong guiding coalition with enough power to lead the change effort. And make them work as a team, not a committee!

3. CREATE A VISION AND SUPPORTING STRATEGIES. We need a clear sense of purpose and direction. In less successful situations you generally find plans and budgets, but no vision and strategy; or the strategies are so superficial that they have no credibility.

4. COMMUNICATE. As many people as possible need to hear the mandate for change loud and clear, with messages sent out consistently and often. Forget the boring memos that nobody reads! Try using videos, speeches, kick-off meetings, workshops in small units, etc. Also important is the teaching of new behaviours by the example of the guiding coalition

5. REMOVE OBSTACLES. Get rid of anything blocking change, like bosses stuck in the old ways or lack of information systems. Encourage risk-taking and non-traditional ideas, activities, and actions. Empowerment is moving obstacles out of peoples' way so they can make something happen, once they've got the vision clear in their heads.

6. CHANGE FAST. Little quick wins are essential for creating momentum and providing sufficient credibility to pat the hard-working people on the back and to diffuse the cynics. Remember to recognize and reward employees involved in the improvements.

7. KEEP ON CHANGING. After change organizations get rolling and have some wins, they don't stop there. They go back and make wave after wave of other actions necessary for long-term, significant change. Successful change leaders don't drop the sense of urgency. On top of that, they are very systematic about figuring out all of the pieces they need to have in place before they declare victory.

8. MAKE CHANGE STICK. The last big step is nailing big change to the floor and making sure it sticks. And the way things stick is through culture. If you can create a totally new culture around some new way of managing, it will stay. It won't live on if it is dependent on one boss or a couple of enthusiastic people who will eventually move on.

We can divide these eight steps in three main processes. The first four steps focus on de-freezing the organization. The next three steps make change happen. The last step re-freezes the organization on the next rung on the ladder.

I've personally used Kotter's change process in several e-business projects. It has helped me a lot. I highly recommend that you buy this easy-to-read and affordable book. Alternatively, read his Harvard Business Review article from Mar/Apr 1995 on the same subject.

Peter Leerskov,
MSc in International Business (Marketing & Management) and Graduate Diploma in E-business

Don't Fear Change., 19 Oct 2007
A fantastic book on how to make necessary change in an organization by overcoming the inertia of "doing things the way they've always been done." I constantly run through the 8 steps in my mind when I am thinking about ways to help all of us continue to align our people to new ideas or more effective field strategies.

A good start, just the beginning, 03 Oct 2007
How many change initiatives have gone horribly wrong, most according to research. This book is a start, a good start into the field and a very big field indeed. It is still contemporary, easy to read and digest and doesn't try to get into the minutia, the eight stage strategy should be taken as a plausible logical approach which has a higher chance of working than most efforts we see. Don't do what many managers do and come running back from corporate leadership seminars all fired up thinking this book will solve everthing.

Of at least of one thing we can be sure of, Change Management is incredibly difficult (Kanter et al 1992) to make sense of. Always challenging and impossibly confusing though paradoxically now with many elements well researched by agents buried in the strata of academia, consultancy and change. And yet, frequently more than fifty percent (Kotter 1996) of all change initiatives fail.

Go on to read stuff from Hope-Hailey, Senge, Kanter, Schein & Beer and Noria and then the complexities begin to show.


Insight into the world of Change, 27 May 2007
One of the best books on strategic change resistance and gaining sponsorship you will ever read. I have used and continue to use the eight step framework for all my change programmes.

Well written, easy to read and practical.

Packed with Knowledge!, 24 Jun 2005
The picture on the cover of John P. Kotter's book tells it all: a group of penguins are shuffling their feet nervously on an icy precipice, while one brave bird leaps for the water below. The question is, which penguin are you? In too many organizations, executives shy away from the precipice, while someone lower down in the pecking order jumps in to test the landing conditions. Kotter says managers and leaders are quite different. A manager, he explains, is trained to think in a linear, one-two-three, risk-limiting way. Transformational change, however, can only be attained when true leaders push forward on several fronts at once - eight of them to be exact. Every successful change initiative begins with a coalition of leaders who create a sense of urgency. Kotter's book stems from a 1995 Harvard Business Review article titled, "Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail." It will probably sound hauntingly familiar to managers who have watched change initiatives begin in the front courtyard with a marching band and end a few months later, ushered out the back door like a diner who can't pay the tab. If you want to know why your last change initiative fizzled, we say read this book. Better yet, study it to ensure that your next leap of faith is a flying success.

The leading change process model, 12 Jan 2005
Organisations need change. We all know that. But how can an organisation adopt great ideas, tools, and methods, absorbing them in a way to stimulate change and get superior results?

Harvard-professor John P. Kotter has been observing this process for almost 30 years. What intrigues him is why some leaders are able to take these tools and methods and get their organizations to change dramatically - while most do not.

How many times have we not seen somebody get very excited about some new tool (CRM, e-business, etc.)? Yet two years later there is no performance improvement at all. Often because most of the organisation has rejected the change needed to make it happen.

When people need to make big changes significantly and effectively, Kotter finds that there are generally eight basic things that must happen:

1. INSTILL A SENSE OF URGENCY. Identifying existing or potential crises or opportunities. Confronting reality, in the words of Execution-authors, Charan and Bossidy.

2. PICK A GOOD TEAM. Assembling a strong guiding coalition with enough power to lead the change effort. And make them work as a team, not a committee!

3. CREATE A VISION AND SUPPORTING STRATEGIES. We need a clear sense of purpose and direction. In less successful situations you generally find plans and budgets, but no vision and strategy; or the strategies are so superficial that they have no credibility.

4. COMMUNICATE. As many people as possible need to hear the mandate for change loud and clear, with messages sent out consistently and often. Forget the boring memos that nobody reads! Try using videos, speeches, kick-off meetings, workshops in small units, etc. Also important is the teaching of new behaviours by the example of the guiding coalition

5. REMOVE OBSTACLES. Get rid of anything blocking change, like bosses stuck in the old ways or lack of information systems. Encourage risk-taking and non-traditional ideas, activities, and actions. Empowerment is moving obstacles out of peoples' way so they can make something happen, once they've got the vision clear in their heads.

6. CHANGE FAST. Little quick wins are essential for creating momentum and providing sufficient credibility to pat the hard-working people on the back and to diffuse the cynics. Remember to recognize and reward employees involved in the improvements.

7. KEEP ON CHANGING. After change organizations get rolling and have some wins, they don't stop there. They go back and make wave after wave of other actions necessary for long-term, significant change. Successful change leaders don't drop the sense of urgency. On top of that, they are very systematic about figuring out all of the pieces they need to have in place before they declare victory.

8. MAKE CHANGE STICK. The last big step is nailing big change to the floor and making sure it sticks. And the way things stick is through culture. If you can create a totally new culture around some new way of managing, it will stay. It won't live on if it is dependent on one boss or a couple of enthusiastic people who will eventually move on.

We can divide these eight steps in three main processes. The first four steps focus on de-freezing the organization. The next three steps make change happen. The last step re-freezes the organization on the next rung on the ladder.

I've personally used Kotter's change process in several e-business projects. It has helped me a lot. I highly recommend that you buy this easy-to-read and affordable book. Alternatively, read his Harvard Business Review article from Mar/Apr 1995 on the same subject.

Peter Leerskov,
MSc in International Business (Marketing & Management) and Graduate Diploma in E-business

Simply Brilliant - a must read if the collapse of Enron interests you, 22 Sep 2008
As someone from the media industry, when the Enron scandal was among us, I noted with unhinged irony how books, literature and exposés on the failed giant were simply mushrooming as the subject itself was in ruins. I wondered if there would ever be a book we could describe as the complete package. I am positively delighted to observe that this book is it.

The authors Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind read between the lines, probed and told the story with the sort of brevity and authoritative panache that few Enron insiders have managed, let alone mainstream observers. It would be prudent to remember that McLean, as a reporter, first asked the question about what makes Enron tick; something which had been troubling analysts in certain quarters for a while back in 2001.

Her probing mind and objective treatment of the subject is well reflected in this exceptional account following Enron's collapse. The authors promised to chart the "amazing rise and scandalous fall or Enron", and I feel that they have delivered.

This book is not one-dimensional, it is multi-layered. Whistle-blowing, leaked emails, hidden trading fiascos, evoking of the Fifth Amendment by Enron executives, overseas misadventures, deception, a culture of greed and human tragedy have all been treated at length. Fragile egos of its executives, traders' cockiness and even idiosyncrasies of the egregious Jeff Skilling (CEO of Enron) have been described in considerable detail. The brilliance of this work is that authors' insight into the minds of the Enron executives against a backdrop of the company's wider culture helps the reader understand what ultimately triggered its downfall.

I am inclined to think that Smartest Guys in the Room, is the best and the most definitive book on the Enron fiasco till date and it would take some Herculean effort to better it. It's a must read if the Enron scandal interests you, hit you or intrigues you. If you wish to know about the episode for the very first time, look no further than this riveting account.

Thoroughly engaging, 16 Jul 2008
I found this book to be extremely engaging. I knew nothing in advance of the details of the downfall of Enron but found the balance between the technical aspects and the personalities involved easy to follow and extremely interesting. A great read and a good warning of egos riding roughshod over reality.

Barbarians in the Accounting Department, 03 Mar 2007
This is a great book about a truly remarkable part of our economic history. I have a minor physical complaint I might as well get off my chest: In their desire to make sure readers get bang for buck (fear not: you do), the publishers have elected to set this book in miniscule type, meaning firstly that you may need reading glasses if not before then after reading it, and secondly that while this looks like a 400 page book, if it were ordinarily typeset it would have the heft of an MM Kaye novel.

On the other hand, if over-length in a business book is the sort of thing that dissuades you, don't let it: this is one of the most riveting books on the history of finance you'll read, and it gets more and more addictive the further you go on.

As a number of reviewers have noted, it is simply staggering that Enron can have ever got where it got to at all, let alone stayed there for the best part of a decade, with all the ostenisble checks and balances that sophisticated capital markets provide. Staggering. In checks and balances I don't mean regulators, who will always be the last ones to find out where market-based moral turpitude is concerned, but investors, stock analysts, brokers, lenders, rating agencies and fund managers: people who don't just earn huge remuneration, but stake their reputations on being sceptical in the face of unconvincing bluster.

But as McLean and Elkind make clear in chapter after chapter, barely disguised and unconvinving bluster was, in large part, all Enron was. For all the "black box" accounting, it is simply inconceivable that Enron's true internal wiring could be kept anything like properly secret, since far too many people had to know about it. Internal and external to Enron there must have been junior lawyers, accountants, auditors, traders and marketers who all had to know what was going on, and people *do* talk: they gossip, they change jobs, they make inappropriate remarks. What's more, the existence (if not the detail) of many of the more toxic situations - the LJM Partnerships, the prepay contracts - were on the public record, so the burning question to my mind, which McLean and Elkind do not address, isn't so much how people could have been so greedy and deceitful (that's not hard to understand at all), but what sociological and psychological factors caused everyone else, collectively, to entirely suspend the critical faculties which they used to evaluate risks in the market. This is no idle query: accurately calibrating and understanding risk is the very key to making money on Wall Street: it's hardly an incidental oversight.

Making a pejorative moral assessment of the acts of the Skillings and Lays with the benefit of hindsight is futile, self-serving, and actually unjust: our moral view of corporate behaviour *today* is conditioned and informed by the example of Enron; before Enron, our moral view was ipso facto different - if it hadn't been, Enron couldn't have happened.

If we assume that, in the context of the markets, "moral consensus" is aimed at making sure people don't needlessly mislead, deceive or unfairly disadvantage each other, the far more interesting question is *how could the prevailing moral framework have failed so badly*? Why was it so inadequate at dealing with outcomes of actions we can now see (with the benefit of hindsight and our newly adjusted moral binoculars) are transparently odious?

And that prompts a deeper question yet: what could it be about *our* prevailing economic mores which could allow a disaster on a similar scale to happen again?

Had Elkind and MacLean ventured into that territory this would have been an outstanding book (it is still worth 5 stars in my view): as it was - and with an admirable absence of judgmental prurience - the writers stick to pure reportage, to the point where the epilogue ends rather abruptly without so much as a conclusion.

But that's small beer: this is a fascinating, rewarding read.

Olly Buxton

You must read this astounding book, 27 Jan 2007
I knew a little of the Enron story but the hard facts are absolutely astonishing. The book shines a very harsh light on the world of high finance and exposes the shenanigans. This is a story of venal greed and corruption on an almost Biblical scale. Any confidence one might have in the investment industry is just swept away by this book.

It reads like a thriller and is a real 'page turner' although sometimes it takes a couple of reads before I vaguely understand some of the financial scams (maybe it's just me). I would recommend this book whole heartedly.

If you have a pension, be afraid, be very afraid, 19 Jul 2006
This book does exactly what it says on the cover - it charts the amazing rise and scandalous fall of Enron. It is well written, lucid, and chronicles the trail of havoc and destruction left by a gang of greedy and corrupt men. From the outset the company recruited as its executives only people of above average intellegence, and virtually to a man they used that intellegence to lie, cheat, and steal. Cynically, it was the very regulations put in place to prevent fraud that Enron and its collaborators used as inspiration to cheat their shareholders and employees. Their accomplices, the accounting firms, law firms, and investment banks, were all complicit. As long as the fees kept rolling in, everything was just fine.
But ironically, as zealous prophets of a free market, it was the free market that eventually brought Enron down. It wasn't the regulators, or conscience-stricken advisors, that sounded the company's death-knell - it was short sellers.
The frightening thing is that even after a few exemplary jail terms and fines, they are all still out there - managing your money. You would get a better, more honest, more open, bargain from a drug dealer than you would from the investment community. Be afraid, be very afraid - and if you are not, buy the book, because you will be after you've read it.

Don't Fear Change., 19 Oct 2007
A fantastic book on how to make necessary change in an organization by overcoming the inertia of "doing things the way they've always been done." I constantly run through the 8 steps in my mind when I am thinking about ways to help all of us continue to align our people to new ideas or more effective field strategies.

A good start, just the beginning, 03 Oct 2007
How many change initiatives have gone horribly wrong, most according to research. This book is a start, a good start into the field and a very big field indeed. It is still contemporary, easy to read and digest and doesn't try to get into the minutia, the eight stage strategy should be taken as a plausible logical approach which has a higher chance of working than most efforts we see. Don't do what many managers do and come running back from corporate leadership seminars all fired up thinking this book will solve everthing.

Of at least of one thing we can be sure of, Change Management is incredibly difficult (Kanter et al 1992) to make sense of. Always challenging and impossibly confusing though paradoxically now with many elements well researched by agents buried in the strata of academia, consultancy and change. And yet, frequently more than fifty percent (Kotter 1996) of all change initiatives fail.

Go on to read stuff from Hope-Hailey, Senge, Kanter, Schein & Beer and Noria and then the complexities begin to show.


Insight into the world of Change, 27 May 2007
One of the best books on strategic change resistance and gaining sponsorship you will ever read. I have used and continue to use the eight step framework for all my change programmes.

Well written, easy to read and practical.

Packed with Knowledge!, 24 Jun 2005
The picture on the cover of John P. Kotter's book tells it all: a group of penguins are shuffling their feet nervously on an icy precipice, while one brave bird leaps for the water below. The question is, which penguin are you? In too many organizations, executives shy away from the precipice, while someone lower down in the pecking order jumps in to test the landing conditions. Kotter says managers and leaders are quite different. A manager, he explains, is trained to think in a linear, one-two-three, risk-limiting way. Transformational change, however, can only be attained when true leaders push forward on several fronts at once - eight of them to be exact. Every successful change initiative begins with a coalition of leaders who create a sense of urgency. Kotter's book stems from a 1995 Harvard Business Review article titled, "Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail." It will probably sound hauntingly familiar to managers who have watched change initiatives begin in the front courtyard with a marching band and end a few months later, ushered out the back door like a diner who can't pay the tab. If you want to know why your last change initiative fizzled, we say read this book. Better yet, study it to ensure that your next leap of faith is a flying success.

The leading change process model, 12 Jan 2005
Organisations need change. We all know that. But how can an organisation adopt great ideas, tools, and methods, absorbing them in a way to stimulate change and get superior results?

Harvard-professor John P. Kotter has been observing this process for almost 30 years. What intrigues him is why some leaders are able to take these tools and methods and get their organizations to change dramatically - while most do not.

How many times have we not seen somebody get very excited about some new tool (CRM, e-business, etc.)? Yet two years later there is no performance improvement at all. Often because most of the organisation has rejected the change needed to make it happen.

When people need to make big changes significantly and effectively, Kotter finds that there are generally eight basic things that must happen:

1. INSTILL A SENSE OF URGENCY. Identifying existing or potential crises or opportunities. Confronting reality, in the words of Execution-authors, Charan and Bossidy.

2. PICK A GOOD TEAM. Assembling a strong guiding coalition with enough power to lead the change effort. And make them work as a team, not a committee!

3. CREATE A VISION AND SUPPORTING STRATEGIES. We need a clear sense of purpose and direction. In less successful situations you generally find plans and budgets, but no vision and strategy; or the strategies are so superficial that they have no credibility.

4. COMMUNICATE. As many people as possible need to hear the mandate for change loud and clear, with messages sent out consistently and often. Forget the boring memos that nobody reads! Try using videos, speeches, kick-off meetings, workshops in small units, etc. Also important is the teaching of new behaviours by the example of the guiding coalition

5. REMOVE OBSTACLES. Get rid of anything blocking change, like bosses stuck in the old ways or lack of information systems. Encourage risk-taking and non-traditional ideas, activities, and actions. Empowerment is moving obstacles out of peoples' way so they can make something happen, once they've got the vision clear in their heads.

6. CHANGE FAST. Little quick wins are essential for creating momentum and providing sufficient credibility to pat the hard-working people on the back and to diffuse the cynics. Remember to recognize and reward employees involved in the improvements.

7. KEEP ON CHANGING. After change organizations get rolling and have some wins, they don't stop there. They go back and make wave after wave of other actions necessary for long-term, significant change. Successful change leaders don't drop the sense of urgency. On top of that, they are very systematic about figuring out all of the pieces they need to have in place before they declare victory.

8. MAKE CHANGE STICK. The last big step is nailing big change to the floor and making sure it sticks. And the way things stick is through culture. If you can create a totally new culture around some new way of managing, it will stay. It won't live on if it is dependent on one boss or a couple of enthusiastic people who will eventually move on.

We can divide these eight steps in three main processes. The first four steps focus on de-freezing the organization. The next three steps make change happen. The last step re-freezes the organization on the next rung on the ladder.

I've personally used Kotter's change process in several e-business projects. It has helped me a lot. I highly recommend that you buy this easy-to-read and affordable book. Alternatively, read his Harvard Business Review article from Mar/Apr 1995 on the same subject.

Peter Leerskov,
MSc in International Business (Marketing & Management) and Graduate Diploma in E-business

Simply Brilliant - a must read if the collapse of Enron interests you, 22 Sep 2008
As someone from the media industry, when the Enron scandal was among us, I noted with unhinged irony how books, literature and exposés on the failed giant were simply mushrooming as the subject itself was in ruins. I wondered if there would ever be a book we could describe as the complete package. I am positively delighted to observe that this book is it.

The authors Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind read between the lines, probed and told the story with the sort of brevity and authoritative panache that few Enron insiders have managed, let alone mainstream observers. It would be prudent to remember that McLean, as a reporter, first asked the question about what makes Enron tick; something which had been troubling analysts in certain quarters for a while back in 2001.

Her probing mind and objective treatment of the subject is well reflected in this exceptional account following Enron's collapse. The authors promised to chart the "amazing rise and scandalous fall or Enron", and I feel that they have delivered.

This book is not one-dimensional, it is multi-layered. Whistle-blowing, leaked emails, hidden trading fiascos, evoking of the Fifth Amendment by Enron executives, overseas misadventures, deception, a culture of greed and human tragedy have all been treated at length. Fragile egos of its executives, traders' cockiness and even idiosyncrasies of the egregious Jeff Skilling (CEO of Enron) have been described in considerable detail. The brilliance of this work is that authors' insight into the minds of the Enron executives against a backdrop of the company's wider culture helps the reader understand what ultimately triggered its downfall.

I am inclined to think that Smartest Guys in the Room, is the best and the most definitive book on the Enron fiasco till date and it would take some Herculean effort to better it. It's a must read if the Enron scandal interests you, hit you or intrigues you. If you wish to know about the episode for the very first time, look no further than this riveting account.

Thoroughly engaging, 16 Jul 2008
I found this book to be extremely engaging. I knew nothing in advance of the details of the downfall of Enron but found the balance between the technical aspects and the personalities involved easy to follow and extremely interesting. A great read and a good warning of egos riding roughshod over reality.

Barbarians in the Accounting Department, 03 Mar 2007
This is a great book about a truly remarkable part of our economic history. I have a minor physical complaint I might as well get off my chest: In their desire to make sure readers get bang for buck (fear not: you do), the publishers have elected to set this book in miniscule type, meaning firstly that you may need reading glasses if not before then after reading it, and secondly that while this looks like a 400 page book, if it were ordinarily typeset it would have the heft of an MM Kaye novel.

On the other hand, if over-length in a business book is the sort of thing that dissuades you, don't let it: this is one of the most riveting books on the history of finance you'll read, and it gets more and more addictive the further you go on.

As a number of reviewers have noted, it is simply staggering that Enron can have ever got where it got to at all, let alone stayed there for the best part of a decade, with all the ostenisble checks and balances that sophisticated capital markets provide. Staggering. In checks and balances I don't mean regulators, who will always be the last ones to find out where market-based moral turpitude is concerned, but investors, stock analysts, brokers, lenders, rating agencies and fund managers: people who don't just earn huge remuneration, but stake their reputations on being sceptical in the face of unconvincing bluster.

But as McLean and Elkind make clear in chapter after chapter, barely disguised and unconvinving bluster was, in large part, all Enron was. For all the "black box" accounting, it is simply inconceivable that Enron's true internal wiring could be kept anything like properly secret, since far too many people had to know about it. Internal and external to Enron there must have been junior lawyers, accountants, auditors, traders and marketers who all had to know what was going on, and people *do* talk: they gossip, they change jobs, they make inappropriate remarks. What's more, the existence (if not the detail) of many of the more toxic situations - the LJM Partnerships, the prepay contracts - were on the public record, so the burning question to my mind, which McLean and Elkind do not address, isn't so much how people could have been so greedy and deceitful (that's not hard to understand at all), but what sociological and psychological factors caused everyone else, collectively, to entirely suspend the critical faculties which they used to evaluate risks in the market. This is no idle query: accurately calibrating and understanding risk is the very key to making money on Wall Street: it's hardly an incidental oversight.

Making a pejorative moral assessment of the acts of the Skillings and Lays with the benefit of hindsight is futile, self-serving, and actually unjust: our moral view of corporate behaviour *today* is conditioned and informed by the example of Enron; before Enron, our moral view was ipso facto different - if it hadn't been, Enron couldn't have happened.

If we assume that, in the context of the markets, "moral consensus" is aimed at making sure people don't needlessly mislead, deceive or unfairly disadvantage each other, the far more interesting question is *how could the prevailing moral framework have failed so badly*? Why was it so inadequate at dealing with outcomes of actions we can now see (with the benefit of hindsight and our newly adjusted moral binoculars) are transparently odious?

And that prompts a deeper question yet: what could it be about *our* prevailing economic mores which could allow a disaster on a similar scale to happen again?

Had Elkind and MacLean ventured into that territory this would have been an outstanding book (it is still worth 5 stars in my view): as it was - and with an admirable absence of judgmental prurience - the writers stick to pure reportage, to the point where the epilogue ends rather abruptly without so much as a conclusion.

But that's small beer: this is a fascinating, rewarding read.

Olly Buxton

You must read this astounding book, 27 Jan 2007
I knew a little of the Enron story but the hard facts are absolutely astonishing. The book shines a very harsh light on the world of high finance and exposes the shenanigans. This is a story of venal greed and corruption on an almost Biblical scale. Any confidence one might have in the investment industry is just swept away by this book.

It reads like a thriller and is a real 'page turner' although sometimes it takes a couple of reads before I vaguely understand some of the financial scams (maybe it's just me). I would recommend this book whole heartedly.

If you have a pension, be afraid, be very afraid, 19 Jul 2006
This book does exactly what it says on the cover - it charts the amazing rise and scandalous fall of Enron. It is well written, lucid, and chronicles the trail of havoc and destruction left by a gang of greedy and corrupt men. From the outset the company recruited as its executives only people of above average intellegence, and virtually to a man they used that intellegence to lie, cheat, and steal. Cynically, it was the very regulations put in place to prevent fraud that Enron and its collaborators used as inspiration to cheat their shareholders and employees. Their accomplices, the accounting firms, law firms, and investment banks, were all complicit. As long as the fees kept rolling in, everything was just fine.
But ironically, as zealous prophets of a free market, it was the free market that eventually brought Enron down. It wasn't the regulators, or conscience-stricken advisors, that sounded the company's death-knell - it was short sellers.
The frightening thing is that even after a few exemplary jail terms and fines, they are all still out there - managing your money. You would get a better, more honest, more open, bargain from a drug dealer than you would from the investment community. Be afraid, be very afraid - and if you are not, buy the book, because you will be after you've read it.

Boring Book, 12 Nov 2008
This book begins with a claim that it will establish yet another framework for setting a winning strategy. The authors then lose themselves in telling several anecdotes most of them where already told, in a better way, in other similar books.

The book fails to meet the expectations it raises in the first pages: no framework, just well-known stories written in a tedious style.


Four stars for the idea, two for the execution, 23 Sep 2008
In "Blue Ocean Strategy", Professors Kim and Mauborgne expound an excellent strategic concept for innovation in the spirit of "Disruption" or "Thinking out of the box". Where "Blue Ocean Strategy" diverges from the idea of rather vague "Blue Skies Thinking" is that the philosophy is firmly rooted in reality with a well thought-through strategic sequence for working with the concept and tips on the nitty-gritty of actually implementing this throughout the organisation.

In addition, the authors make the point that innovation must not always depend on a technological breakthrough and the idea of "Value innovation" is central to the concept.

The examples used are super - as well as the "usual suspects" such as Starbucks and Co. (yawn!) - there are some terrific case histories from outside the field of consumer goods and services, from the NYPD to Cirque du Soleil to the US Forces' Joint Strike Fighter.

Where the book falls down for me is in its structure and style. The writing is not particularly good and often falls into unintentional humour: "The challenge is to successfully identify, out of the haystack of possibilities that exist, commercially compelling blue ocean opportunities." What pictures does this mixed metaphor conjure up? The structure, as other reviewers have pointed out, leads to a lot of dull repetition, which is a shame as the overall concept is a good one.

One of the Most Important Works on Innovation, 04 Sep 2008
This is a highly influential and important book in the field of innovation and business strategy. Most markets are crowded with me-too companies fighting each other with cut-throat discounts and special offers. Kim and Mauborgne show how you can move out of this bloody 'red ocean' into a different and more profitable 'blue ocean.' I found the most useful part of the book was the description of company 'value curves' which compare the values that you offer in different aspects of your product or service with those of your competitors. It is an invaluable starting point in searching for ways to gain competitive advantage through innovation. There are some good case studies and examples. The later parts of the book on implementing the strategy are a little weaker but overall it is highly recommended.

Eye-opening, 06 Jun 2007
This is a very well thought through and researched piece of work. It is a must -read for any CEO who wants his company to operate in a space different from the beaten track.

The book puts together a pack of simple yet powerful tools to conceptualize the new space, define it in detail, craft a profit strategy, and actualize its implementation.

The examples used are penetratively insightful, and liberal in number for the point(s) to be driven home.

Although primarily geared more for B2C businesses, the broad principles can be extrapolated for any type of business.

I was pleasantly intrigued to find that on the back of this book someone has actually created a service offering and started a boutique consulting firm. That is very impressive indeed.



Read the first half of the book - excellent. 2nd half- dull, 27 Jan 2006
I have been reading their reviews over the years and its good to see a summary book of their principles of value innovation. Their contextual examples really emphasise their thoughts well and for any practising marketeer, the strategic canvass section is an excellent tool in developing genuine new market space. By identifying key qualities in a market, or consumer need, and then reducing, eliminating, increasing or creating qualities, new market space is found. The end of the book is filler and offers no more insight than many other books on similar subjects - but then at least you only have to read half the book to gets it true value.

Don't Fear Change., 19 Oct 2007
A fantastic book on how to make necessary change in an organization by overcoming the inertia of "doing things the way they've always been done." I constantly run through the 8 steps in my mind when I am thinking about ways to help all of us continue to align our people to new ideas or more effective field strategies.

A good start, just the beginning, 03 Oct 2007
How many change initiatives have gone horribly wrong, most according to research. This book is a start, a good start into the field and a very big field indeed. It is still contemporary, easy to read and digest and doesn't try to get into the minutia, the eight stage strategy should be taken as a plausible logical approach which has a higher chance of working than most efforts we see. Don't do what many managers do and come running back from corporate leadership seminars all fired up thinking this book will solve everthing.

Of at least of one thing we can be sure of, Change Management is incredibly difficult (Kanter et al 1992) to make sense of. Always challenging and impossibly confusing though paradoxically now with many elements well researched by agents buried in the strata of academia, consultancy and change. And yet, frequently more than fifty percent (Kotter 1996) of all change initiatives fail.

Go on to read stuff from Hope-Hailey, Senge, Kanter, Schein & Beer and Noria and then the complexities begin to show.


Insight into the world of Change, 27 May 2007
One of the best books on strategic change resistance and gaining sponsorship you will ever read. I have used and continue to use the eight step framework for all my change programmes.

Well written, easy to read and practical.

Packed with Knowledge!, 24 Jun 2005
The picture on the cover of John P. Kotter's book tells it all: a group of penguins are shuffling their feet nervously on an icy precipice, while one brave bird leaps for the water below. The question is, which penguin are you? In too many organizations, executives shy away from the precipice, while someone lower down in the pecking order jumps in to test the landing conditions. Kotter says managers and leaders are quite different. A manager, he explains, is trained to think in a linear, one-two-three, risk-limiting way. Transformational change, however, can only be attained when true leaders push forward on several fronts at once - eight of them to be exact. Every successful change initiative begins with a coalition of leaders who create a sense of urgency. Kotter's book stems from a 1995 Harvard Business Review article titled, "Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail." It will probably sound hauntingly familiar to managers who have watched change initiatives begin in the front courtyard with a marching band and end a few months later, ushered out the back door like a diner who can't pay the tab. If you want to know why your last change initiative fizzled, we say read this book. Better yet, study it to ensure that your next leap of faith is a flying success.

The leading change process model, 12 Jan 2005
Organisations need change. We all know that. But how can an organisation adopt great ideas, tools, and methods, absorbing them in a way to stimulate change and get superior results?

Harvard-professor John P. Kotter has been observing this process for almost 30 years. What intrigues him is why some leaders are able to take these tools and methods and get their organizations to change dramatically - while most do not.

How many times have we not seen somebody get very excited about some new tool (CRM, e-business, etc.)? Yet two years later there is no performance improvement at all. Often because most of the organisation has rejected the change needed to make it happen.

When people need to make big changes significantly and effectively, Kotter finds that there are generally eight basic things that must happen:

1. INSTILL A SENSE OF URGENCY. Identifying existing or potential crises or opportunities. Confronting reality, in the words of Execution-authors, Charan and Bossidy.

2. PICK A GOOD TEAM. Assembling a strong guiding coalition with enough power to lead the change effort. And make them work as a team, not a committee!

3. CREATE A VISION AND SUPPORTING STRATEGIES. We need a clear sense of purpose and direction. In less successful situations you generally find plans and budgets, but no vision and strategy; or the strategies are so superficial that they have no credibility.

4. COMMUNICATE. As many people as possible need to hear the mandate for change loud and clear, with messages sent out consistently and often. Forget the boring memos that nobody reads! Try using videos, speeches, kick-off meetings, workshops in small units, etc. Also important is the teaching of new behaviours by the example of the guiding coalition

5. REMOVE OBSTACLES. Get rid of anything blocking change, like bosses stuck in the old ways or lack of information systems. Encourage risk-taking and non-traditional ideas, activities, and actions. Empowerment is moving obstacles out of peoples' way so they can make something happen, once they've got the vision clear in their heads.

6. CHANGE FAST. Little quick wins are essential for creating momentum and providing sufficient credibility to pat the hard-working people on the back and to diffuse the cynics. Remember to recognize and reward employees involved in the improvements.

7. KEEP ON CHANGING. After change organizations get rolling and have some wins, they don't stop there. They go back and make wave after wave of other actions necessary for long-term, significant change. Successful change leaders don't drop the sense of urgency. On top of that, they are very systematic about figuring out all of the pieces they need to have in place before they declare victory.

8. MAKE CHANGE STICK. The last big step is nailing big change to the floor and making sure it sticks. And the way things stick is through culture. If you can create a totally new culture around some new way of managing, it will stay. It won't live on if it is dependent on one boss or a couple of enthusiastic people who will eventually move on.

We can divide these eight steps in three main processes. The first four steps focus on de-freezing the organization. The next three steps make change happen. The last step re-freezes the organization on the next rung on the ladder.

I've personally used Kotter's change process in several e-business projects. It has helped me a lot. I highly recommend that you buy this easy-to-read and affordable book. Alternatively, read his Harvard Business Review article from Mar/Apr 1995 on the same subject.

Peter Leerskov,
MSc in International Business (Marketing & Management) and Graduate Diploma in E-business

Simply Brilliant - a must read if the collapse of Enron interests you, 22 Sep 2008
As someone from the media industry, when the Enron scandal was among us, I noted with unhinged irony how books, literature and exposés on the failed giant were simply mushrooming as the subject itself was in ruins. I wondered if there would ever be a book we could describe as the complete package. I am positively delighted to observe that this book is it.

The authors Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind read between the lines, probed and told the story with the sort of brevity and authoritative panache that few Enron insiders have managed, let alone mainstream observers. It would be prudent to remember that McLean, as a reporter, first asked the question about what makes Enron tick; something which had been troubling analysts in certain quarters for a while back in 2001.

Her probing mind and objective treatment of the subject is well reflected in this exceptional account following Enron's collapse. The authors promised to chart the "amazing rise and scandalous fall or Enron", and I feel that they have delivered.

This book is not one-dimensional, it is multi-layered. Whistle-blowing, leaked emails, hidden trading fiascos, evoking of the Fifth Amendment by Enron executives, overseas misadventures, deception, a culture of greed and human tragedy have all been treated at length. Fragile egos of its executives, traders' cockiness and even idiosyncrasies of the egregious Jeff Skilling (CEO of Enron) have been described in considerable detail. The brilliance of this work is that authors' insight into the minds of the Enron executives against a backdrop of the company's wider culture helps the reader understand what ultimately triggered its downfall.

I am inclined to think that Smartest Guys in the Room, is the best and the most definitive book on the Enron fiasco till date and it would take some Herculean effort to better it. It's a must read if the Enron scandal interests you, hit you or intrigues you. If you wish to know about the episode for the very first time, look no further than this riveting account.

Thoroughly engaging, 16 Jul 2008
I found this book to be extremely engaging. I knew nothing in advance of the details of the downfall of Enron but found the balance between the technical aspects and the personalities involved easy to follow and extremely interesting. A great read and a good warning of egos riding roughshod over reality.

Barbarians in the Accounting Department, 03 Mar 2007
This is a great book about a truly remarkable part of our economic history. I have a minor physical complaint I might as well get off my chest: In their desire to make sure readers get bang for buck (fear not: you do), the publishers have elected to set this book in miniscule type, meaning firstly that you may need reading glasses if not before then after reading it, and secondly that while this looks like a 400 page book, if it were ordinarily typeset it would have the heft of an MM Kaye novel.

On the other hand, if over-length in a business book is the sort of thing that dissuades you, don't let it: this is one of the most riveting books on the history of finance you'll read, and it gets more and more addictive the further you go on.

As a number of reviewers have noted, it is simply staggering that Enron can have ever got where it got to at all, let alone stayed there for the best part of a decade, with all the ostenisble checks and balances that sophisticated capital markets provide. Staggering. In checks and balances I don't mean regulators, who will always be the last ones to find out where market-based moral turpitude is concerned, but investors, stock analysts, brokers, lenders, rating agencies and fund managers: people who don't just earn huge remuneration, but stake their reputations on being sceptical in the face of unconvincing bluster.

But as McLean and Elkind make clear in chapter after chapter, barely disguised and unconvinving bluster was, in large part, all Enron was. For all the "black box" accounting, it is simply inconceivable that Enron's true internal wiring could be kept anything like properly secret, since far too many people had to know about it. Internal and external to Enron there must have been junior lawyers, accountants, auditors, traders and marketers who all had to know what was going on, and people *do* talk: they gossip, they change jobs, they make inappropriate remarks. What's more, the existence (if not the detail) of many of the more toxic situations - the LJM Partnerships, the prepay contracts - were on the public record, so the burning question to my mind, which McLean and Elkind do not address, isn't so much how people could have been so greedy and deceitful (that's not hard to understand at all), but what sociological and psychological factors caused everyone else, collectively, to entirely suspend the critical faculties which they used to evaluate risks in the market. This is no idle query: accurately calibrating and understanding risk is the very key to making money on Wall Street: it's hardly an incidental oversight.

Making a pejorative moral assessment of the acts of the Skillings and Lays with the benefit of hindsight is futile, self-serving, and actually unjust: our moral view of corporate behaviour *today* is conditioned and informed by the example of Enron; before Enron, our moral view was ipso facto different - if it hadn't been, Enron couldn't have happened.

If we assume that, in the context of the markets, "moral consensus" is aimed at making sure people don't needlessly mislead, deceive or unfairly disadvantage each other, the far more interesting question is *how could the prevailing moral framework have failed so badly*? Why was it so inadequate at dealing with outcomes of actions we can now see (with the benefit of hindsight and our newly adjusted moral binoculars) are transparently odious?

And that prompts a deeper question yet: what could it be about *our* prevailing economic mores which could allow a disaster on a similar scale to happen again?

Had Elkind and MacLean ventured into that territory this would have been an outstanding book (it is still worth 5 stars in my view): as it was - and with an admirable absence of judgmental prurience - the writers stick to pure reportage, to the point where the epilogue ends rather abruptly without so much as a conclusion.

But that's small beer: this is a fascinating, rewarding read.

Olly Buxton

You must read this astounding book, 27 Jan 2007
I knew a little of the Enron story but the hard facts are absolutely astonishing. The book shines a very harsh light on the world of high finance and exposes the shenanigans. This is a story of venal greed and corruption on an almost Biblical scale. Any confidence one might have in the investment industry is just swept away by this book.

It reads like a thriller and is a real 'page turner' although sometimes it takes a couple of reads before I vaguely understand some of the financial scams (maybe it's just me). I would recommend this book whole heartedly.

If you have a pension, be afraid, be very afraid, 19 Jul 2006
This book does exactly what it says on the cover - it charts the amazing rise and scandalous fall of Enron. It is well written, lucid, and chronicles the trail of havoc and destruction left by a gang of greedy and corrupt men. From the outset the company recruited as its executives only people of above average intellegence, and virtually to a man they used that intellegence to lie, cheat, and steal. Cynically, it was the very regulations put in place to prevent fraud that Enron and its collaborators used as inspiration to cheat their shareholders and employees. Their accomplices, the accounting firms, law firms, and investment banks, were all complicit. As long as the fees kept rolling in, everything was just fine.
But ironically, as zealous prophets of a free market, it was the free market that eventually brought Enron down. It wasn't the regulators, or conscience-stricken advisors, that sounded the company's death-knell - it was short sellers.
The frightening thing is that even after a few exemplary jail terms and fines, they are all still out there - managing your money. You would get a better, more honest, more open, bargain from a drug dealer than you would from the investment community. Be afraid, be very afraid - and if you are not, buy the book, because you will be after you've read it.

Boring Book, 12 Nov 2008
This book begins with a claim that it will establish yet another framework for setting a winning strategy. The authors then lose themselves in telling several anecdotes most of them where already told, in a better way, in other similar books.

The book fails to meet the expectations it raises in the first pages: no framework, just well-known stories written in a tedious style.


Four stars for the idea, two for the execution, 23 Sep 2008
In "Blue Ocean Strategy", Professors Kim and Mauborgne expound an excellent strategic concept for innovation in the spirit of "Disruption" or "Thinking out of the box". Where "Blue Ocean Strategy" diverges from the idea of rather vague "Blue Skies Thinking" is that the philosophy is firmly rooted in reality with a well thought-through strategic sequence for working with the concept and tips on the nitty-gritty of actually implementing this throughout the organisation.

In addition, the authors make the point that innovation must not always depend on a technological breakthrough and the idea of "Value innovation" is central to the concept.

The examples used are super - as well as the "usual suspects" such as Starbucks and Co. (yawn!) - there are some terrific case histories from outside the field of consumer goods and services, from the NYPD to Cirque du Soleil to the US Forces' Joint Strike Fighter.

Where the book falls down for me is in its structure and style. The writing is not particularly good and often falls into unintentional humour: "The challenge is to successfully identify, out of the haystack of possibilities that exist, commercially compelling blue ocean opportunities." What pictures does this mixed metaphor conjure up? The structure, as other reviewers have pointed out, leads to a lot of dull repetition, which is a shame as the overall concept is a good one.

One of the Most Important Works on Innovation, 04 Sep 2008
This is a highly influential and important book in the field of innovation and business strategy. Most markets are crowded with me-too companies fighting each other with cut-throat discounts and special offers. Kim and Mauborgne show how you can move out of this bloody 'red ocean' into a different and more profitable 'blue ocean.' I found the most useful part of the book was the description of company 'value curves' which compare the values that you offer in different aspects of your product or service with those of your competitors. It is an invaluable starting point in searching for ways to gain competitive advantage through innovation. There are some good case studies and examples. The later parts of the book on implementing the strategy are a little weaker but overall it is highly recommended.

Eye-opening, 06 Jun 2007
This is a very well thought through and researched piece of work. It is a must -read for any CEO who wants his company to operate in a space different from the beaten track.

The book puts together a pack of simple yet powerful tools to conceptualize the new space, define it in detail, craft a profit strategy, and actualize its implementation.

The examples used are penetratively insightful, and liberal in number for the point(s) to be driven home.

Although primarily geared more for B2C businesses, the broad principles can be extrapolated for any type of business.

I was pleasantly intrigued to find that on the back of this book someone has actually created a service offering and started a boutique consulting firm. That is very impressive indeed.



Read the first half of the book - excellent. 2nd half- dull, 27 Jan 2006
I have been reading their reviews over the years and its good to see a summary book of their principles of value innovation. Their contextual examples really emphasise their thoughts well and for any practising marketeer, the strategic canvass section is an excellent tool in developing genuine new market space. By identifying key qualities in a market, or consumer need, and then reducing, eliminating, increasing or creating qualities, new market space is found. The end of the book is filler and offers no more insight than many other books on similar subjects - but then at least you only have to read half the book to gets it true value.

Very good book for 'Business Strategy' students, 16 Oct 2008
I bought this book only for one reason - to pass an upcoming June 2008 ACCA Paper P3 'Business Strategy' exam. And I did! I had only 9 days allocated for this paper so my only hope was this book. Its language is very understandable, though sometimes I felt that material is too much detailed (maybe because I hadn't much time).

With the book you receive access to an online content. At that time the content was incomplete and was partly lacking business case scenarios, but the tests module was perfect. For every chapter you have many multiple-choice questions and all your answers and results are being recorded. So you can easily see where an improvement required. Also you have an option to download mp3's summarizing the content of the book. You have also 'Interactive key concepts', 'Flashcards', 'Glossary', etc.

Highly recommended!

Great book, but terrible online content, 10 Sep 2008
I ordered this book as part of my Masters in Business Administration course. The book is neatly structured, mainly separating subjects in three main parts: Strategic Positioning, Strategic Choices and Strategy in Action.

I also found the case studies presented in this book to be of great help when studying for the Business Environment module of my MBA. A matrix table presents a guide for each case study in the book and what are their main focus. For example, if you want a case study that focus on Porter's five forces, then read the TUI case study on page 619, and so on.

The book also comes with an "student access kit" to access further content online, and claims that users would have access to more than 30 "classic case studies" within the companion website.

The book is good but I must say the so called online content is a joke. You can only find the case studies that came with the book, and there are no further "classic case studies" to be found. I was particularly interested on a given business case which is mentioned in the book as available in the companion website for my dissertation, and I can't help but to feel cheated about it.

I emailed support asking for advice but I never got an answer, and I tried to call Pearson's support line but I have never received a call back or a proper answer to my query.

The experience I had with Pearson's student access kit was terrible that comes with this book, and I would warn anyone who is thinking to buy one of their books or a standalone student access kit to stay away from them.

Don't Fear Change., 19 Oct 2007
A fantastic book on how to make necessary change in an organization by overcoming the inertia of "doing things the way they've always been done." I constantly run through the 8 steps in my mind when I am thinking about ways to help all of us continue to align our people to new ideas or more effective field strategies.

A good start, just the beginning, 03 Oct 2007
How many change initiatives have gone horribly wrong, most according to research. This book is a start, a good start into the field and a very big field indeed. It is still contemporary, easy to read and digest and doesn't try to get into the minutia, the eight stage strategy should be taken as a plausible logical approach which has a higher chance of working than most efforts we see. Don't do what many managers do and come running back from corporate leadership seminars all fired up thinking this book will solve everthing.

Of at least of one thing we can be sure of, Change Management is incredibly difficult (Kanter et al 1992) to make sense of. Always challenging and impossibly confusing though paradoxically now with many elements well researched by agents buried in the strata of academia, consultancy and change. And yet, frequently more than fifty percent (Kotter 1996) of all change initiatives fail.

Go on to read stuff from Hope-Hailey, Senge, Kanter, Schein & Beer and Noria and then the complexities begin to show.


Insight into the world of Change, 27 May 2007
One of the best books on strategic change resistance and gaining sponsorship you will ever read. I have used and continue to use the eight step framework for all my change programmes.

Well written, easy to read and practical.

Packed with Knowledge!, 24 Jun 2005
The picture on the cover of John P. Kotter's book tells it all: a group of penguins are shuffling their feet nervously on an icy precipice, while one brave bird leaps for the water below. The question is, which penguin are you? In too many organizations, executives shy away from the precipice, while someone lower down in the pecking order jumps in to test the landing conditions. Kotter says managers and leaders are quite different. A manager, he explains, is trained to think in a linear, one-two-three, risk-limiting way. Transformational change, however, can only be attained when true leaders push forward on several fronts at once - eight of them to be exact. Every successful change initiative begins with a coalition of leaders who create a sense of urgency. Kotter's book stems from a 1995 Harvard Business Review article titled, "Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail." It will probably sound hauntingly familiar to managers who have watched change initiatives begin in the front courtyard with a marching band and end a few months later, ushered out the back door like a diner who can't pay the tab. If you want to know why your last change initiative fizzled, we say read this book. Better yet, study it to ensure that your next leap of faith is a flying success.

The leading change process model, 12 Jan 2005
Organisations need change. We all know that. But how can an organisation adopt great ideas, tools, and methods, absorbing them in a way to stimulate change and get superior results?

Harvard-professor John P. Kotter has been observing this process for almost 30 years. What intrigues him is why some leaders are able to take these tools and methods and get their organizations to change dramatically - while most do not.

How many times have we not seen somebody get very excited about some new tool (CRM, e-business, etc.)? Yet two years later there is no performance improvement at all. Often because most of the organisation has rejected the change needed to make it happen.

When people need to make big changes significantly and effectively, Kotter finds that there are generally eight basic things that must happen:

1. INSTILL A SENSE OF URGENCY. Identifying existing or potential crises or opportunities. Confronting reality, in the words of Execution-authors, Charan and Bossidy.

2. PICK A GOOD TEAM. Assembling a strong guiding coalition with enough power to lead the change effort. And make them work as a team, not a committee!

3. CREATE A VISION AND SUPPORTING STRATEGIES. We need a clear sense of purpose and direction. In less successful situations you generally find plans and budgets, but no vision and strategy; or the strategies are so superficial that they have no credibility.

4. COMMUNICATE. As many people as possible need to hear the mandate for change loud and clear, with messages sent out consistently and often. Forget the boring memos that nobody reads! Try using videos, speeches, kick-off meetings, workshops in small units, etc. Also important is the teaching of new behaviours by the example of the guiding coalition

5. REMOVE OBSTACLES. Get rid of anything blocking change, like bosses stuck in the old ways or lack of information systems. Encourage risk-taking and non-traditional ideas, activities, and actions. Empowerment is moving obstacles out of peoples' way so they can make something happen, once they've got the vision clear in their heads.

6. CHANGE FAST. Little quick wins are essential for creating momentum and providing sufficient credibility to pat the hard-working people on the back and to diffuse the cynics. Remember to recognize and reward employees involved in the improvements.

7. KEEP ON CHANGING. After change organizations get rolling and have some wins, they don't stop there. They go back and make wave after wave of other actions necessary for long-term, significant change. Successful change leaders don't drop the sense of urgency. On top of that, they are very systematic about figuring out all of the pieces they need to have in place before they declare victory.

8. MAKE CHANGE STICK. The last big step is nailing big change to the floor and making sure it sticks. And the way things stick is through culture. If you can create a totally new culture around some new way of managing, it will stay. It won't live on if it is dependent on one boss or a couple of enthusiastic people who will eventually move on.

We can divide these eight steps in three main processes. The first four steps focus on de-freezing the organization. The next three steps make change happen. The last step re-freezes the organization on the next rung on the ladder.

I've personally used Kotter's change process in several e-business projects. It has helped me a lot. I highly recommend that you buy this easy-to-read and affordable book. Alternatively, read his Harvard Business Review article from Mar/Apr 1995 on the same subject.

Peter Leerskov,
MSc in International Business (Marketing & Management) and Graduate Diploma in E-business

Simply Brilliant - a must read if the collapse of Enron interests you, 22 Sep 2008
As someone from the media industry, when the Enron scandal was among us, I noted with unhinged irony how books, literature and exposés on the failed giant were simply mushrooming as the subject itself was in ruins. I wondered if there would ever be a book we could describe as the complete package. I am positively delighted to observe that this book is it.

The authors Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind read between the lines, probed and told the story with the sort of brevity and authoritative panache that few Enron insiders have managed, let alone mainstream observers. It would be prudent to remember that McLean, as a reporter, first asked the question about what makes Enron tick; something which had been troubling analysts in certain quarters for a while back in 2001.

Her probing mind and objective treatment of the subject is well reflected in this exceptional account following Enron's collapse. The authors promised to chart the "amazing rise and scandalous fall or Enron", and I feel that they have delivered.

This book is not one-dimensional, it is multi-layered. Whistle-blowing, leaked emails, hidden trading fiascos, evoking of the Fifth Amendment by Enron executives, overseas misadventures, deception, a culture of greed and human tragedy have all been treated at length. Fragile egos of its executives, traders' cockiness and even idiosyncrasies of the egregious Jeff Skilling (CEO of Enron) have been described in considerable detail. The brilliance of this work is that authors' insight into the minds of the Enron executives against a backdrop of the company's wider culture helps the reader understand what ultimately triggered its downfall.

I am inclined to think that Smartest Guys in the Room, is the best and the most definitive book on the Enron fiasco till date and it would take some Herculean effort to better it. It's a must read if the Enron scandal interests you, hit you or intrigues you. If you wish to know about the episode for the very first time, look no further than this riveting account.

Thoroughly engaging, 16 Jul 2008
I found this book to be extremely engaging. I knew nothing in advance of the details of the downfall of Enron but found the balance between the technical aspects and the personalities involved easy to follow and extremely interesting. A great read and a good warning of egos riding roughshod over reality.

Barbarians in the Accounting Department, 03 Mar 2007
This is a great book about a truly remarkable part of our economic history. I have a minor physical complaint I might as well get off my chest: In their desire to make sure readers get bang for buck (fear not: you do), the publishers have elected to set this book in miniscule type, meaning firstly that you may need reading glasses if not before then after reading it, and secondly that while this looks like a 400 page book, if it were ordinarily typeset it would have the heft of an MM Kaye novel.

On the other hand, if over-length in a business book is the sort of thing that dissuades you, don't let it: this is one of the most riveting books on the history of finance you'll read, and it gets more and more addictive the further you go on.

As a number of reviewers have noted, it is simply staggering that Enron can have ever got where it got to at all, let alone stayed there for the best part of a decade, with all the ostenisble checks and balances that sophisticated capital markets provide. Staggering. In checks and balances I don't mean regulators, who will always be the last ones to find out where market-based moral turpitude is concerned, but investors, stock analysts, brokers, lenders, rating agencies and fund managers: people who don't just earn huge remuneration, but stake their reputations on being sceptical in the face of unconvincing bluster.

But as McLean and Elkind make clear in chapter after chapter, barely disguised and unconvinving bluster was, in large part, all Enron was. For all the "black box" accounting, it is simply inconceivable that Enron's true internal wiring could be kept anything like properly secret, since far too many people had to know about it. Internal and external to Enron there must have been junior lawyers, accountants, auditors, traders and marketers who all had to know what was going on, and people *do* talk: they gossip, they change jobs, they make inappropriate remarks. What's more, the existence (if not the detail) of many of the more toxic situations - the LJM Partnerships, the prepay contracts - were on the public record, so the burning question to my mind, which McLean and Elkind do not address, isn't so much how people could have been so greedy and deceitful (that's not hard to understand at all), but what sociological and psychological factors caused everyone else, collectively, to entirely suspend the critical faculties which they used to evaluate risks in the market. This is no idle query: accurately calibrating and understanding risk is the very key to making money on Wall Street: it's hardly an incidental oversight.

Making a pejorative moral assessment of the acts of the Skillings and Lays with the benefit of hindsight is futile, self-serving, and actually unjust: our moral view of corporate behaviour *today* is conditioned and informed by the example of Enron; before Enron, our moral view was ipso facto different - if it hadn't been, Enron couldn't have happened.

If we assume that, in the context of the markets, "moral consensus" is aimed at making sure people don't needlessly mislead, deceive or unfairly disadvantage each other, the far more interesting question is *how could the prevailing moral framework have failed so badly*? Why was it so inadequate at dealing with outcomes of actions we can now see (with the benefit of hindsight and our newly adjusted moral binoculars) are transparently odious?

And that prompts a deeper question yet: what could it be about *our* prevailing economic mores which could allow a disaster on a similar scale to happen again?

Had Elkind and MacLean ventured into that territory this would have been an outstanding book (it is still worth 5 stars in my view): as it was - and with an admirable absence of judgmental prurience - the writers stick to pure reportage, to the point where the epilogue ends rather abruptly without so much as a conclusion.

But that's small beer: this is a fascinating, rewarding read.

Olly Buxton

You must read this astounding book, 27 Jan 2007
I knew a little of the Enron story but the hard facts are absolutely astonishing. The book shines a very harsh light on the world of high finance and exposes the shenanigans. This is a story of venal greed and corruption on an almost Biblical scale. Any confidence one might have in the investment industry is just swept away by this book.

It reads like a thriller and is a real 'page turner' although sometimes it takes a couple of reads before I vaguely understand some of the financial scams (maybe it's just me). I would recommend this book whole heartedly.

If you have a pension, be afraid, be very afraid, 19 Jul 2006
This book does exactly what it says on the cover - it charts the amazing rise and scandalous fall of Enron. It is well written, lucid, and chronicles the trail of havoc and destruction left by a gang of greedy and corrupt men. From the outset the company recruited as its executives only people of above average intellegence, and virtually to a man they used that intellegence to lie, cheat, and steal. Cynically, it was the very regulations put in place to prevent fraud that Enron and its collaborators used as inspiration to cheat their shareholders and employees. Their accomplices, the accounting firms, law firms, and investment banks, were all complicit. As long as the fees kept rolling in, everything was just fine.
But ironically, as zealous prophets of a free market, it was the free market that eventually brought Enron down. It wasn't the regulators, or conscience-stricken advisors, that sounded the company's death-knell - it was short sellers.
The frightening thing is that even after a few exemplary jail terms and fines, they are all still out there - managing your money. You would get a better, more honest, more open, bargain from a drug dealer than you would from the investment community. Be afraid, be very afraid - and if you are not, buy the book, because you will be after you've read it.

Boring Book, 12 Nov 2008
This book begins with a claim that it will establish yet another framework for setting a winning strategy. The authors then lose themselves in telling several anecdotes most of them where already told, in a better way, in other similar books.

The book fails to meet the expectations it raises in the first pages: no framework, just well-known stories written in a tedious style.


Four stars for the idea, two for the execution, 23 Sep 2008
In "Blue Ocean Strategy", Professors Kim and Mauborgne expound an excellent strategic concept for innovation in the spirit of "Disruption" or "Thinking out of the box". Where "Blue Ocean Strategy" diverges from the idea of rather vague "Blue Skies Thinking" is that the philosophy is firmly rooted in reality with a well thought-through strategic sequence for working with the concept and tips on the nitty-gritty of actually implementing this throughout the organisation.

In addition, the authors make the point that innovation must not always depend on a technological breakthrough and the idea of "Value innovation" is central to the concept.

The examples used are super - as well as the "usual suspects" such as Starbucks and Co. (yawn!) - there are some terrific case histories from outside the field of consumer goods and services, from the NYPD to Cirque du Soleil to the US Forces' Joint Strike Fighter.

Where the book falls down for me is in its structure and style. The writing is not particularly good and often falls into unintentional humour: "The challenge is to successfully identify, out of the haystack of possibilities that exist, commercially compelling blue ocean opportunities." What pictures does this mixed metaphor conjure up? The structure, as other reviewers have pointed out, leads to a lot of dull repetition, which is a shame as the overall concept is a good one.

One of the Most Important Works on Innovation, 04 Sep 2008
This is a highly influential and important book in the field of innovation and business strategy. Most markets are crowded with me-too companies fighting each other with cut-throat discounts and special offers. Kim and Mauborgne show how you can move out of this bloody 'red ocean' into a different and more profitable 'blue ocean.' I found the most useful part of the book was the description of company 'value curves' which compare the values that you offer in different aspects of your product or service with those of your competitors. It is an invaluable starting point in searching for ways to gain competitive advantage through innovation. There are some good case studies and examples. The later parts of the book on implementing the strategy are a little weaker but overall it is highly recommended.

Eye-opening, 06 Jun 2007
This is a very well thought through and researched piece of work. It is a must -read for any CEO who wants his company to operate in a space different from the beaten track.

The book puts together a pack of simple yet powerful tools to conceptualize the new space, define it in detail, craft a profit strategy, and actualize its implementation.

The examples used are penetratively insightful, and liberal in number for the point(s) to be driven home.

Although primarily geared more for B2C businesses, the broad principles can be extrapolated for any type of business.

I was pleasantly intrigued to find that on the back of this book someone has actually created a service offering and started a boutique consulting firm. That is very impressive indeed.



Read the first half of the book - excellent. 2nd half- dull, 27 Jan 2006
I have been reading their reviews over the years and its good to see a summary book of their principles of value innovation. Their contextual examples really emphasise their thoughts well and for any practising marketeer, the strategic canvass section is an excellent tool in developing genuine new market space. By identifying key qualities in a market, or consumer need, and then reducing, eliminating, increasing or creating qualities, new market space is found. The end of the book is filler and offers no more insight than many other books on similar subjects - but then at least you only have to read half the book to gets it true value.

Very good book for 'Business Strategy' students, 16 Oct 2008
I bought this book only for one reason - to pass an upcoming June 2008 ACCA Paper P3 'Business Strategy' exam. And I did! I had only 9 days allocated for this paper so my only hope was this book. Its language is very understandable, though sometimes I felt that material is too much detailed (maybe because I hadn't much time).

With the book you receive access to an online content. At that time the content was incomplete and was partly lacking business case scenarios, but the tests module was perfect. For every chapter you have many multiple-choice questions and all your answers and results are being recorded. So you can easily see where an improvement required. Also you have an option to download mp3's summarizing the content of the book. You have also 'Interactive key concepts', 'Flashcards', 'Glossary', etc.

Highly recommended!

Great book, but terrible online content, 10 Sep 2008
I ordered this book as part of my Masters in Business Administration course. The book is neatly structured, mainly separating subjects in three main parts: Strategic Positioning, Strategic Choices and Strategy in Action.

I also found the case studies presented in this book to be of great help when studying for the Business Environment module of my MBA. A matrix table presents a guide for each case study in the book and what are their main focus. For example, if you want a case study that focus on Porter's five forces, then read the TUI case study on page 619, and so on.

The book also comes with an "student access kit" to access further content online, and claims that users would have access to more than 30 "classic case studies" within the companion website.

The book is good but I must say the so called online content is a joke. You can only find the case studies that came with the book, and there are no further "classic case studies" to be found. I was particularly interested on a given business case which is mentioned in the book as available in the companion website for my dissertation, and I can't help but to feel cheated about it.

I emailed support asking for advice but I never got an answer, and I tried to call Pearson's support line but I have never received a call back or a proper answer to my query.

The experience I had with Pearson's student access kit was terrible that comes with this book, and I would warn anyone who is thinking to buy one of their books or a standalone student access kit to stay away from them.

Beware, this is not a new book, 19 Nov 2007
I am very much looking forward to getting stuck into this book, but I personally feel misled by the publication date showing on Amazon and wanted to bring this to the attention of others.

I purchased this book because I was looking for something 'recent' on the topic of strategy. Whilst 2004 is not that recent, I have great respect for M Porter and so was happy that it was recent enough for my purposes.

Unfortunately, upon opening the book, I find that it is a 1980 book on strategy with a 2004 preface.

The content is still good but it kind of defeats the purpose if you are looking for some modern thoughts on and techniques relating to strategy.

Packed With Knowledge!, 17 Sep 2004
This seminal book is a classic and ought to be read by anyone in business. Michael E. Porter's ideas on competitiveness have lost little relevance despite the fact that he first advanced them in this book in 1980. They have now become so much a part of business practice and business language that one reads the book more with a sense of recognition than a sense of discovery. His prose style is clear and straightforward, albeit somewhat plodding, and the book can tend to repeat itself. However, Porter's clarity is a welcome change from the murk you encounter in many other books on business strategy, and his repetition serves a useful pedagogical purpose. We highly recommend this excellent book. If you're in business, it's relevant.

Figure out why you buy before you buy, 11 Jun 2004
This is emphatically not a work of strategy and and not a book about strategic analysis. I can't see how this would be practical or useful in a real "hands-on" business environment, although i can see how the more shallow CEOs may pick up on its buzzwords. Strictly speaking, this is a work of applied classical economics and as such has rigour and intellectual clarity, though some presuppositions seem a bit dodgy and some of the results aren't extended far enough. Recommended for business studies/MBA students.

How Important Are Competitors in Setting Future Strategy?, 29 May 2004
Anyone would agree that this book is the best overview of competitive strategy analysis ever written. The strength of the book is a solid outline of subjects and questions to improve your thinking, and get to be a step ahead of the competition. In highly-competitive, commodity businesses, that's usually what strategies focus on.

On the other hand, the rapid advances of knowledge and technology mean that the relevant benchmark is perfection, not the competitor, in defining an ideal best practice. In that world, this book has serious limitations, because the competitive dimension is often less important than the customer and user dimension these days.

Any business arena begins, as Peter Drucker so aptly put it, with the task "to create a customer." That reminder is especially relevant today when they are so many new ways to serve a customer's needs that no one has ever considered before. The strategic point of 'Blown to Bits' for example is that almost every business will see its vertical value chain (moving from resources through to the customer) broken apart into tiny segments each served by specialists. If you did not begin with that perspective in analyzing the impact of electronically-based business practices, you could easily focus on the wrong tasks using this book to create an over-broad strategy focus, rather than concentrating on just a few areas.

I suspect that the applications of Moore's Law and Metcalfe's Law need to be explicitly considered as part of the analysis that Professor Porter is recommending.

A more general weakness in this book is that it assumes that future conditions will be stable enough to draw conclusions about which conditions will be favorable, without giving enough guidance on how to deal with the increasing frequencies and degrees of volatility that we see (in areas like financial markets, commodity prices, the weather, changing customer preferences, and so forth).

Although no book that takes such a narrow focus can help but have weaknesses (like having the podiatrist not notice that you have kidney problems), if you want a good start of how to think about competitors, this is the book for you. Just be sure you keep developing yours strategy with additional dimensions after you finish using this analysis.

If you have read none of Professor Porter's works, this is the one book you should read.

Excellent book for your study, 01 Feb 2004
Most people who buy this book will do so for thier study work. I am undertaking an MBA and this has proven invaluable for the dissertation. Its great to get down to the original text and interpret the theories for yourself.
If you were considering buying this book then consider no longer. It will help you get the grades you need.

Following on from their book, The Machine that Changed the World, Womack and Jones have developed their ideas further with Lean Thinking. This book is aimed at any manager interested in sustaining growth within their industry. They define "lean thinking" as the elimination of unnecessary waste in business, and by outlining the principles and applications of this they link their theories to value for the customer.

Womack and Jones demonstrate the effectiveness of their approach through their research in both the U.S. and Europe. Citing examples from both simple and complex manufacturing processes, and from traditional technologies to high-tech companies, they show how their theories have been put into action.

They develop their ideas further by suggesting the application of lean thinking to the whole product cycle, from suppliers to customers. Taking the travel industry as an example, the authors show how their methods could eliminate long queues and waiting times for customers.

Based on the belief that companies should compete against perfection rather than each other, Lean Thinking provides a valuable new insight into methods of production management. And by applying the theories outlined in this book, managers across all sectors of the economy will be able to reduce waste and increase profitability.

Don't Fear Change., 19 Oct 2007
A fantastic book on how to make necessary change in an organization by overcoming the inertia of "doing things the way they've always been done." I constantly run through the 8 steps in my mind when I am thinking about ways to help all of us continue to align our people to new ideas or more effective field strategies.

A good start, just the beginning, 03 Oct 2007
How many change initiatives have gone horribly wrong, most according to research. This book is a start, a good start into the field and a very big field indeed. It is still contemporary, easy to read and digest and doesn't try to get into the minutia, the eight stage strategy should be taken as a plausible logical approach which has a higher chance of working than most efforts we see. Don't do what many managers do and come running back from corporate leadership seminars all fired up thinking this book will solve everthing.

Of at least of one thing we can be sure of, Change Management is incredibly difficult (Kanter et al 1992) to make sense of. Always challenging and impossibly confusing though paradoxically now with many elements well researched by agents buried in the strata of academia, consultancy and change. And yet, frequently more than fifty percent (Kotter 1996) of all change initiatives fail.

Go on to read stuff from Hope-Hailey, Senge, Kanter, Schein & Beer and Noria and then the complexities begin to show.


Insight into the world of Change, 27 May 2007
One of the best books on strategic change resistance and gaining sponsorship you will ever read. I have used and continue to use the eight step framework for all my change programmes.

Well written, easy to read and practical.

Packed with Knowledge!, 24 Jun 2005
The picture on the cover of John P. Kotter's book tells it all: a group of penguins are shuffling their feet nervously on an icy precipice, while one brave bird leaps for the water below. The question is, which penguin are you? In too many organizations, executives shy away from the precipice, while someone lower down in the pecking order jumps in to test the landing conditions. Kotter says managers and leaders are quite different. A manager, he explains, is trained to think in a linear, one-two-three, risk-limiting way. Transformational change, however, can only be attained when true leaders push forward on several fronts at once - eight of them to be exact. Every successful change initiative begins with a coalition of leaders who create a sense of urgency. Kotter's book stems from a 1995 Harvard Business Review article titled, "Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail." It will probably sound hauntingly familiar to managers who have watched change initiatives begin in the front courtyard with a marching band and end a few months later, ushered out the back door like a diner who can't pay the tab. If you want to know why your last change initiative fizzled, we say read this book. Better yet, study it to ensure that your next leap of faith is a flying success.

The leading change process model, 12 Jan 2005
Organisations need change. We all know that. But how can an organisation adopt great ideas, tools, and methods, absorbing them in a way to stimulate change and get superior results?

Harvard-professor John P. Kotter has been observing this process for almost 30 years. What intrigues him is why some leaders are able to take these tools and methods and get their organizations to change dramatically - while most do not.

How many times have we not seen somebody get very excited about some new tool (CRM, e-business, etc.)? Yet two years later there is no performance improvement at all. Often because most of the organisation has rejected the change needed to make it happen.

When people need to make big changes significantly and effectively, Kotter finds that there are generally eight basic things that must happen:

1. INSTILL A SENSE OF URGENCY. Identifying existing or potential crises or opportunities. Confronting reality, in the words of Execution-authors, Charan and Bossidy.

2. PICK A GOOD TEAM. Assembling a strong guiding coalition with enough power to lead the change effort. And make them work as a team, not a committee!

3. CREATE A VISION AND SUPPORTING STRATEGIES. We need a clear sense of purpose and direction. In less successful situations you generally find plans and budgets, but no vision and strategy; or the strategies are so superficial that they have no credibility.

4. COMMUNICATE. As many people as possible need to hear the mandate for change loud and clear, with messages sent out consistently and often. Forget the boring memos that nobody reads! Try using videos, speeches, kick-off meetings, workshops in small units, etc. Also important is the teaching of new behaviours by the example of the guiding coalition

5. REMOVE OBSTACLES. Get rid of anything blocking change, like bosses stuck in the old ways or lack of information systems. Encourage risk-taking and non-traditional ideas, activities, and actions. Empowerment is moving obstacles out of peoples' way so they can make something happen, once they've got the vision clear in their heads.

6. CHANGE FAST. Little quick wins are essential for creating momentum and providing sufficient credibility to pat the hard-working people on the back and to diffuse the cynics. Remember to recognize and reward employees involved in the improvements.

7. KEEP ON CHANGING. After change organizations get rolling and have some wins, they don't stop there. They go back and make wave after wave of other actions necessary for long-term, significant change. Successful change leaders don't drop the sense of urgency. On top of that, they are very systematic about figuring out all of the pieces they need to have in place before they declare victory.

8. MAKE CHANGE STICK. The last big step is nailing big change to the floor and making sure it sticks. And the way things stick is through culture. If you can create a totally new culture around some new way of managing, it will stay. It won't live on if it is dependent on one boss or a couple of enthusiastic people who will eventually move on.

We can divide these eight steps in three main processes. The first four steps focus on de-freezing the organization. The next three steps make change happen. The last step re-freezes the organization on the next rung on the ladder.

I've personally used Kotter's change process in several e-business projects. It has helped me a lot. I highly recommend that you buy this easy-to-read and affordable book. Alternatively, read his Harvard Business Review article from Mar/Apr 1995 on the same subject.

Peter Leerskov,
MSc in International Business (Marketing & Managem