Table of Contents

About the Author

Publisher's acknowledgements

Introduction: The monkey story

1: Management happens

Forced to be stupid  

Collective inertia - if you don’t join them, you can beat them!

Pharma - the devil is in the detailing

The Abilene Paradox

Same same but different

"Selection bias"

Numbers and strategy - do they mix?

Inebriated cyclists

Deciding stuff - that’s the easy bit

How well do you know your company? (My guess is not very well at all…)

How to make a compelling corporate strategy in six easy steps

Wanna play strategy? Get a board game

"Framing contests": What really happens in strategy meetings

It looks like we don’t have a strategy…

2: The Success trap (and some ideas how to get out of it)

Why good companies go bad

The Icarus paradox

Tunnel vision - "in the end, there is only flux"

Operation Market Garden

Mental models – let’s all think within the same box

A creosote bush: how "exploitation" drives out "exploration"

A bitter pill

Framing something as a threat or an opportunity dramatically alters what we choose

In a downturn, manage your revenues, not your costs

In a crisis, innovate

Is your company brave enough to survive?

3: The urge to conquer

How big is your yam? (not that it matters)

Deal-eager executives - tribal instincts

CEOs, marriage, mergers, geriatric millionaires, and blushing brides 

When acquisitions take over

"Time compression diseconomies" - too much, too fast

Seeds and fertilizer - how to build a firm

"I've won... I've won"

Most acquisitions fail - really!

"Heerlijk, helder, Heineken"

Toads and acquisitions - where does CEO "hubris" come from?

4: Gods and villains

The heroes of our time

Narcissus versus humble bloke - and the winner is?

Are overconfident CEOs born or made?

Hang the hero

Celebrity CEOs and the burden of expectation

Successful managers - incompetent for sure

Executives: superhuman after all…

"Over the hill and far away, top managers are here to stay"

Chief story teller

Managers and leaders: are they different?

Women on top

5: Liaisons and intrigues

Fact over fiction

Analysts, astrologers, and lemmings - three of a kind?

Conflicts of interest - do analysts rate their bank's clients' stock more favorably?

Banks' blurry categorizations - have your cake and eat it too

Analysts rule the waves (whether we like it or not)

Sirens and investment bankers – birds of a feather

How to tame an analyst

Advice or influence? Why firms ask government officials to be directors

Boards of directors: cliques and elites

Board-cloning - a rewarding habit

Boardroom friends

CEOs and their stock options (oh please)

Stock options, risk, and manipulations

Too hot to handle: explaining excessive top management remuneration

How to justify paying top managers too much

CEOs do seek advice – if you pay them for it

Dirty laundry: who is hiding the bad stuff?

6: Myths in management

No stranger than fiction

Say you will - that'll do

Right again! Managers and their self-fulfilling prophecies

Your expectations manage you

"Reverse causality" - sorry, but life's not that simple

Eating Uncle Ed - don’t worry, its called downsizing

Does downsizing ever work?

Who can downsize without detriment?

What management bandwagons bring

Remember this one: "total quality management"?

ISO 9000 makes you reliable, myopi