When I read this book, I felt that I had been missing the obvious for a long time. The authors provide an explanation about why most of the changes in organizations don't work, whether they are Theory E or Theory O, and how you can combine the two for meaningful and effective results. Their work is based on lots of experience and for me they finally explained what the problem is--and what to do about it. As a change agent, this book gave me great new thinking with which to practice my craft.

I have just finished reading this book and have been rewarded, as a "change" practitioner, this book adds real value in bringing the streams of change together. It is rare when I read a book on the subject and find it rewarding, enhancing what I do at the coal face. No, quick fix recipes but a thoughtful, well constructed set of ideas that do justice to this complex subject. I would reccomend this book to those who want to get beyond "listmania" and into some real thinking of what is involved in the dynamics of change.

Mike Beer has been for some time now clarifying the issues involved in Corporate Cultures, Human Capital, and Organizational Change. In this recent book Dr. Beer has done what SHOULD have beeen done decades ago: Linking several fields by providing useful Framework. This book synthesizes fields "apparently" diverse such as: Organizational Design with People & Team Profiling with Organizational Profiling and Human Dynamics. It is a precise, concise, extremely effective, and much needed book.

Changing Fortunes makes a solidly researched, reasoned, and documented case that large economic institutions-manufacturing corporation in this case-have a skewed bell-shaped curve of evolution. Each curve emerges almost unnoticed out of the debris of a fading economic institution-frontier agriculture in the case of the medieval Church, religion in the case of the Enlightenment, and piecework in the case of manufacturing. It rises rapidly to previously unimaginable heights of power and prestige (as peas in a pod, cathedrals and high rises are separated only by centuries), and then begins a long decline that never quite ends in demise (Christmas and Easter are relics of paganism, not the progency of a new religion).

The reasons for the decline are varied and many, but several threads seem ever present: selfish interest replaces collective interest (American politics), accountability shifts from external to internal (American business), the network effect grows too inwardly dependent (Japan), and the life support of the whole thing-the everyday Joes and Joannes-feel more and more betrayed as they watch corruption replace commonweal. The shabby little personal deals these days between CEOs and Congressmen reminds one of the commerce in Church offices during the 14th through 16th centuries, which led to unprecedented levels of disproportion between principle and practice. The book Silent Theft by William Bollinger comes to many of these same conclusions from the commonweal-holder's point of view.

Changing Fortunes documents its case very well. It is so lucidly written that typically leaden case studies are polished into brilliance by blunt, often witty assessments of corporate goofs. No softening the blow with genial dollops of well-wishing comes from this trio. And of goofs, boy are there some dandies. The sequence of awful decisions that took Xerox from poster-child of TQM (Total Quality Management) revolution of the 1980s to the blunderer of 2000 that shredded both their billing system and customer loyalty makes one chortle, but behind management's arrogant imbecilities are unemployment lines.

The book is a goldmine of facts. Between 1982 and 1992 the number of U.S. business consultants went from 30,000 to 81,000 (if you can't do it, teach it). In 1998 102,171 MBAs graduated from American universities (enough to populate a medium-size city, and wouldn't that be a dull place). Such statistics hint at the explosion in business information and expertise now revolutionising U.S. corporate life. Yet how many bright young things lust for life at a widget factory? The authors cite many examples of manufacturing sector decline, but in the end the example they don't cite is the most telling of all: employment in the manufacturing sector is at its lowest point since 1961, and out-of-work statistics have risen every month for the last 27. Somebody's hurting, and it's not the guys at the top. Now recall that every seismic shift in thinking in the West since Rome has happened because the Joes and Joannes have become ill-served to the point where they no longer believe what they are told.

Changing Fortunes certainly has its virtues. For one, its procedure is sound. The authors examine the Fortune 100 lists from the turn of the 20th century up till today. They find a scowly mask behind the veil with the smile: American industrial companies may be turning out more products than ever, and many of them may have healthy balance sheets, but their relative importance in the economy is inexorably declining in favor of firms based on technology, finance, and services. Classic Schumpeter creative destruction. Wonderful, until you realize that corruption is far easier in a service economy than in a manufacturing one. Enron, WorldCom, and the Wall Street analysts didn't manufacture a thing.

For another, the authors' analysis is impressive. The companies they study are household names-General Motors, Xerox, Merck, Kodak. It's not hard to relate to those. These companies have survived some bad shakes-the 1974 oil price shocks, the rise of an information economy that sucks up the best brains, a compliant but aging workforce, and globalization that hurts as much at home as it does abroad. In search of lifebuoys corporations spent 13 years trying to convert to TQM, six years to soak up Business Process Re-engineering, and three years to embrace network technology. The first two had inward effects: management got better. IT, on the other hand, made for better informed and therefore more footloose customers. Despite all these stopgaps, the decline continues.

In addition to its analytic interest, Changing Fortunes is a formidable resource of interpretive history. One detects the hands of dozens of grad students busily scrabbling together the raw material. The authors' main point-that industrial companies are on the way out-has a flaw, however: It is very US-centric. Offshore, manufacturing is still an extremely important engine of global wealth. Asia and Latin America set the pace in steel, cars, computers, televisions, and so on. If the authors had examined the top 100 global corporations instead of the Fortune 100, quite different conclusions might have turned up. One is that globalization has brought sovereign nations to grovel for the blessings of corporations the same way corporations grovel for the blessing of consumers.

The ultimate penalty for the regressive thinking that congealed over the great corporations analyzed in Changing Fortunes is the inspiration it gives to the tiny little lumps on the next bell curve-the inspiration to respond to a brick wall by walking around it.

OK, there are some parts of this book that I disagree with but I'd be nitpicking. The authors propose that the four core drives to acquire, bond, love and defend shape almost all of our choices. I simply loved this book and found it brilliantly written by the guys from Harvard. The practical applications are obvious and you NEED this book in your library. I thought of a dozen ways to utilize this information immediately and average three underlined sentences per page.

Buy this book, read this book, apply it to your business and your life. It will change the way you think about human interaction forever.

Kevin Hogan
...

This absorbing and probing book explores the biological drives that explain our choices and behavior. Bridging the gap between evolutionary biology and the social sciences, this extraordinary interdisciplinary work shows that our actions are a consequence of a continuous struggle between four innate, subconscious, brain-based drives. These are the drive to: acquire objects and experiences; bond with others in long-term relationships of mutual care and commitment; learn and make sense of the world and of ourselves; and to defend ourselves, our loved ones, beliefs and resources from harm. A very interesting chapter applies this concept to work and organization. The authors present a model to explain human behavior and reveal a common heritage of all humans. The authors suggest that if we attempt to balance our four drives, we will progress forward to the next stage of human evolution. This is a rich and insightful work. Very highly recommended.

At first glance this book seems to be leaning too much toward the scientific/academic side. I was actually dreading to read the book, however the authors have done a magnificant job of livening up each academic part with real world case studies. The main theme of this text is how we base our decision making on four psychological drives that every person is born with regardless of religion, race or other factors:

1.) The Drive to Acquire (D1) - We all have it, it is normal but some have too much of it. Those who have an overdose of D1 tend to teeter on the edge of self-destruction and those around them.
2.) The Drive to Bond (D2) - Everybody likes to feel wanted and belong to some type of organisation (family, cultural, religion, hobby, etc., When a person engages in decicion making, they will usually decided positive for the person who has something in common with them.
3.) The Drive to Learn (D3) - Learning is a part of life and when this drive is not satisfied in people they become aggressive and restless. Have you ever seen a highly intelligent well-paid co-worker leave a job although this person never had any problems with peer or superiors? Chances are that this person was in dire need of a cerebal orgasam i.e. The person was somebody who needed to be mentally challenged.
4.) The Drive to Defend (D4) - We have learned certain beliefs and take them to be true until proven otherwise. When somebody attacks or tries to show us otherwise we become agitated, angry or beligerent because deep down in our subconscious we have a defense mechanism that does not want to be proven wrong.

This is an excellent book for markets, negotiators and employers. What makes us tick inside our crainium. The authors have excellent examples taken from Hewlett-Packard and how they created a bond between employees and the company. Other scenarios show why some companies work extremely well with labour unions and some companies never seem to have any peace between management and unions. Why do we prefer a product over another? All of these answers are in this text.

This book is good. It helps us to grasp reality the manager in multi National Corporation face. Based on effective theory of growth of the firm, empirical analysis implicates internal organization forms influence competitive advantage of multi National Corporation. (It support lundvall influential book on enational system and innovationf) It is interesting.

This book may treat as contiuation of Managing Across Borders. However it's more academic in content. Most content appeared in academic journals. It's valuable for whose interested in MNC management, organizational theory. Besides, focus on western MNCs, it's a great work.

The concepts: 'board' (as in 'board of directors'), 'trustee' and 'non-profit organization' were not found in this book.

I bought this book (all new, but from Amazon market place seller for [lower than retail cost] - the only thing missing was a dust jacket, and I figured it was not worth paying an extra [money] on Amazon for the jacket). At [the lower price] I think it's a book worth having as a reference. I often need to go into details of any project that I handle, but this book provides reliable references I can go check out instead of using a shot-gun approach.

I would highly recommend buying this book in [a lower than retail price range]. At [retail], it's overpriced!
Recommended for: MBA students, management consultants, business managers

This desk reference is a wonderful tool. I thank God for the publishing of this book. I am a busy Mom/Wife/Accountant/MBA Student/Entrepreneur. This book saves me a lot of time and energy when I am doing research. I can get a quick synopsis of the topic, which makes it easy to narrow down my research efforts for more information on that particular topic. Or it helps to refresh my memory of an area of study. It reminds me of all the different essentials involved in certain consulting projects or research papers. GET THIS BOOK, THE INVESTMENT IS EXTREMELY WORTHWHILE!

Not a single insight. Not a single "aha". Go read something else.

Champy and Nohria have written a book that describes the traits and behavior that define some of the great leaders in world history and today. By pinpointing how each of these remarkable characters used a trait or actions in such a way that they became successful.

The Authors points out leadership qualities as a set of rules to live by. From "seize the moment" and "be prepared", to the issues of having a "higher purpose" and to "never violate" your values. And other insights into how important it is to "change" and "knowing when to leave". Each point is re-inforced with the real life example of well known individuals.

All of the people mentioned in the book are without a doubt ambitious, but such ambition itself is difficult to compare to oneself, because everyone has a different balance curve on their arc of ambition. As the authors point out, it's up to the individual to find their own balance between when to go for something and when to cut their losses.

Although I found it difficult to compare my own ambition to people like Nelson Mandela, Steve Jobs or Michael Dell, the book offers pointers, if not solutions to what the leadership journey should be.

Mr. Champy and Mr. Nohria have managed to weave a path through history, business, science, psychology and pleasure with this book. Offering insights and theories into the characteristics of ambition allows readers to see that achievement is possible for anyone willing to make the commitment, while the stories behind each stage in the arc show that success is not merely a "magic moment" that is reserved for or inherited by a select few.

The Arc of Ambition is as entertaining to read as it is enlightening. The stories of other peoples' journeys take this well beyond Ambition 101 and integrate it into our everyday world. The book encourages each of us to carefully examine our dreams and ideas, and to consider the joy of creating something of value for the future.

This is a must read for everyone, from young people entering college to those of us coping with the daily frustrations of the business world. It offers a path to making a difference.

One of the reasons there might be so many versions of this book used and in great condition is becasue when I and my partner tried to penetrate the dense, overwrought prose, we gave up, laughing. We're pretty well educated in matters of the self and the mind, and this book was too obscure for us to even TRY to decipher. It was recommended by a friend, and it's a lovely book, but ... wow, spend the ten bucks and give yourself a good laugh!

This is an ambitious and wide-ranging attempt at delving into the motivating underpinnings of human conduct, both for good and for ill.

You get some flavor of the book, when you look in the index and find the names of Michel Foucault, Rene Girard, Mikhail Bakunin, Camus, Thomas Kuhn, Heidegger, Isaiah Berlin, Arthur Koestler, Sartre, Umberto Eco, Karl Marx, Milton Friedman, Samuel Beckett, Hegel, Descartes, Pascal, Nietzsche, Bergson, Dostoyevsky, Emil Cioran, Kafka, Lenin, John Milton, Max Weber, Simmel, Wittgenstein.

With a strong philosophical orientation, the book was nevertheless shelved under "psychology" even though it was written by two graduate business school professors (Harvard, Toronto).

Some of the chapter headings are intriguing: "Anxiety: the Primeval Broth", "Ambition as Desire and the Will to Power", "Envy and Jealousy: The Master Ratchets", "Want, Will, Wish, Would: the Predicaments of Desire", "A Self Against Itself: An Aesthetic or Rage", "Soliloquies of the Candid Villain: Catharses of the Master Passions".

Personally, I found the book riveting. Once immersed in the discourse of the book, I could not put it down. The writing style reminds me of European writers like Catherine Clements or Slavoj Zizek though not Lacanian in the least, even if the subject matter circles around desire.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in books of this genre, mixing philosophy and the cultural sciences while ranging over a vast amount of territory in a short number of pages (to be exact, 231 pages without the references and index).

It's actually a fun book to read, and if one does not take it too seriously, a lot of laughs. Or if one does take it seriously, then a survival manual and roadmap for achieving ultimate status and power, while ruthlessly overcoming one's rivals.

This 1999 Harvard Business Review article is written by some real management heavyweights. Morten Hansen is an assistant professor and Nitin Nohria a professor of organizational behavior at Harvard Business School. Thomas Tierney is the worldwide managing director of Bain & Company, the famous management consultancy organization.

The foundation of industrialised economies has shifted from natural resources to intellectual assets (knowledge workers). The authors believe that the choice between codification (re-use of knowledge through high-quality, reliable, and fast information-systems) and personalization (channeling individual expertise through creative, analytically rigorous advice) is the central one facing virtually all companies in the area of knowledge management. Companies that isolate knowledge management risk losing its benefits, which are highest when it is co-ordinated with human resources, infomation technology, and competitive strategy. The authors use examples from health care (Access Health in New York City), management consultancy (Bain & Co. and Andersen Consulting - now Accenture), through to high-tech (Dell, HP).

In this article, the authors describe and discuss an important issue for knowledge-based companies - remember Peter Drucker? I did enjoy this article since it combines inside industry knowledge (one co-author from Bain & Company) and academical management theory (two co-authors from Harvard Business School). I also feel some influences from Michael Porter's three generic strategies - differentiation, cost-leadership, and focus. The article is written in simple US-English.

As stated, good cases -still apply to modern business, however, technology demonstrated in the cases is circa '92.