Another Business Book

Ho hum...

Here comes yet ANOTHER over-the-hill corporate big whig trying to sell you a book with supposedly "inside information" about what leads to failure in organizations.

Donald Keough was recently interviewed on the Charlie Rose Show, so you can take a look for yourself and draw your own conclusions...

Of course, it doesn't help matters much that Charlie lionizes this guy... which, for the record, may have something to do with the fact that Keough's company has sponsored Charlie's various TV projects over the years. Charlie has done this before with his various corporate benefactors, bless his heart! Remember his forgettable, recently re-broadcast interview with Chuck Fruit (who died "after his ritual morning swim")? Nice touch, that, perhaps... taking care of those that take care of you.

Not that this guy Keough is wrong, mind you.

It's just that the book, in my mind, is a wee bit oversold.

And there is just something that bothers me about rich people who talk in terms of me, me, me. Wouldn't be nice to hear Mr. Keough give constant and sustained credit to the hard working, every day people at Coke and elsewhere who actually EARNED the money. Nah... it's not about them, it's about me, me, me!

Moreover, he and his family are really well off by any reasonable standard of global wealth. Wouldn't it be nice for him to donate the proceeds of this book to the less fortunate... say, wounded veterans who protected the economic system which allowed him to amass a large personal fortune, and who actually bought the products he was selling? Nah... Keough wouldn't do that... it's not about them, it's about me, me, me!

If you do a web search online, you can find his "commandments"... 11 in fact, rather than the 10 commandments as advertised. Keough manages to do the Almighty one better!

Commandment one/top of the list: if you want to fail, quit taking risks

Commandment two: if you want to increase your chances for failure, be inflexible

Commandment three: to achieve failure, isolate yourself

Commandment four: for guaranteed failure, assume infallibility

Commandment five: to fail, play the game close to the foul line

Commandment six: don't take time to think

Commandment seven: to fail, put all your faith in experts and outside consultants

Commandment eight: if you want to fail, love your bureaucracy

Commandment nine: if you want to fail, send mixed messages

Commandment ten: if you want to fail, be afraid of the future

Commandment eleven: if you want to fail, lose your passion for work/for life.

Now, doesn't all this make you want to run right out and spend $16.47 of your hard earned, after-tax dollars to help amass even MORE wealth for this guy through book royalties... for even more of his "inside information"?

Nah... I think I'll pass...