Learning from the failures of others; billion-dollar lessons for next to nothing

Billion-Dollar Lessons: What You Can Learn from the Most Inexcusable Business Failures of the Last 25 Years, Carroll, Paul B. and Chunka Mui

Progress in science and engineering proceeds from the dispassionate analysis of failure. We learn more when we screw up than when we succeed. However, since Waterman and Peters In Search of Excellence,

2 thoughts on “Learning from the failures of others; billion-dollar lessons for next to nothing”

  1. One way to “bring evidence to strategic debates so that it can be incorporated most effectively” is to use visual methods to display what evidence you do have – and to highlight where there may be no evidence (or no evidence yet adduced).

    Regarding Devil’s Advocate – people often suggest that this should be used in intelligence analysis. Some people have looked at the empirical evidence, such as it is, on the effectiveness of DA, and I dimly recollect hearing that the evidence suggests, despite the intuitive plausibility of the method, that it didn’t in fact improve outcomes. I wonder if Carroll and Mui look at the empirical evidence.

    Can’t check because the book is not yet available – on Amazon at least. Release date Sept 11 – no coincidence?

  2. Pingback: McGee’s Musings : Two explanations for the near collapse of the financial system

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