Managing for Success

Morgen Witzel writes with precision, clarity and wisdom about a subject that far too many business books - and leaders - choose to avoid; the social nature of leadership that makes sensible people in good companies make foolish judgements and then follow them through diligently to failure. Read this book, and reflect. -- Ward Crawford Former President, Cadbury Adams Japan, and Former Managing Director, Green & Black's Ltd For too long, the focus of business has been solely learning about 'best-practice'. Well what about learning about 'bad-practice' and how to avoid it? Morgen Witzel's excellent, thoughtful and enjoyable book masterfully addresses this question. Only by learning from corporate weaknesses and failures can we really manage for success. Highly recommended. -- Antonio E. Weiss International best-selling author of 101 Business Ideas That Will Change the Way You Work and Key Business Solutions There are two reasons why you should read this book. First, it's a sad fact that one learns more from failure than from success. Better still to learn from other people's failures. This book can help you do that, showing you how to look out for the early signs of a 'culture of incompetence' in your organization and address them before the virus spreads. Secondly, it's a cracking read. Witzel is an experienced business historian and a master storyteller. -- Patrick Barwise emeritus professor, London Business School, co-author of Simply Better and Beyond the Familiar This is an intelligently argued and impressively thorough handbook, which ought to be lobbed in to boardrooms and executive offices. Businesses and organizations find so many ways to fail, and Morgen Witzel has charted the most important ones. Read it, and think. -- Stefan Stern Financial Times columnist and Visiting Professor at Cass Business School, London This is a rare thing - a management book that is both entertaining and an easy read, full of the author's humanity. -- Dina Medland Independent writer on corporate governance and business issues