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The Halo Effect: .and the Eight Other Business Delusions That Deceive Managers | 
 enlarge | Author: Phil Rosenzweig
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
Category: Book
List Price: £16.99
Buy New: £11.89
You Save: £5.10 (30%)
Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 12044
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 256
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.8 x 1
ISBN: 0743291255
Dewey Decimal Number: 658
EAN: 9780743291255
ASIN: 0743291255
Publication Date: April 16, 2007
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
Debunking business pseudo-science July 6, 2007
James Taylor (Palo Alto, CA USA)
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
I just finished reading Phil Rosenzweig's book "The Halo Effect...and the Eight Other Business Delusions That Deceive Managers". This book takes aim at the general run of business books and, in particular, their tendency to dress up vivid stories as scientific study. Phil does not seem to have anything against stories per se, nor does he disagree with some of the advice given in the books. What he takes issue with is the focus on a single, definitive "scientific" set of recommendations when there is no real scientific rigor behind them.
He lays out 9 specific delusions and shows how they distort the advice in management books:
- The Halo Effect - tending of analysis of a company to reflect only the overall results
- The Delusion of Correlation and Causality - the lack of proof of causality in many situations
- The Delusion of Single Explanations - one factor is unlikely to be the reason for success or failure
- The Delusion of Connecting the Winning Dots - problems with only considering "winners"
- The Delusion of Rigorous Research - mistaking large volumes of data for good data
- The Delusion of Lasting Success - most companies trend to the mean eventually
- The Delusion of Absolute Performance - companies can do well and still fail if a competitor does better
- The Delusion of the Wrong End of the Stick - successful companies may do various things but that does not mean that doing those things will make you successful
- The Delusion of Organizational Physics - business organizations are just not that predictable
Phil uses various stories to show how the perception of companies and leaders changes when the company's performance does. He also shows how the vivid but unscientific stories that arise from this are then used as evidence by later studies. He repeatedly makes the point that the business world is not a laboratory but a messy and complex world and that this limits our ability to do analysis. He shows that rather than a specific behavior leading to strong company performance, the behavior is at least as likely to be caused by strong company performance. He likens this to Cargo Cults who hope to get planes full of goods to return by recreating the look of a jungle airstrip, mistaking cause and effect.
The overall effect is to make you take most management books with a large pinch of salt - not ignoring them, but recognizing that they are just stories, not science.
Straight talk about corporate results March 2, 2007
Rolf Dobelli (Luzern Switzerland)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
This serious book will change the way many people think about the pursuit of managerial excellence and, indirectly, about the criteria they use for managing (and coincidentally) investing. Phil Rosenzweig provocatively challenges prevailing concepts about the traits that drive corporate performance. He asks revealing questions about previous research assumptions that labeled companies "excellent." It seems that earlier accolades about "the best" companies - including the claims in some blockbuster books - were based on faulty research techniques that led authors to mistakenly attribute achievements to companies that did not accomplish them or could not sustain them. Rosenzweig distills his compelling ideas clearly, and buttresses his case with specific examples and original research, adding to the book's power. As a result, we would compare this very readable, focused book to fine brandy: palatable, enjoyable, memorable, a little heavy - and imbued with the potential to change your mind. Highly recommended.
has one major flaw - should have been written years ago! August 27, 2007
A. Green (London, UK)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
The Halo Effect is an excellent book, in all respects. It is a fast and concise read, with an engaging style. Rosenzweig uses the style and approach of the successful books he dissects, whist retaining the humility which is required (gets a little carried away in places, but that's fine). I note the quote from Nassim Taleb on the cover, which tells you all you need to know about this book's focus on the essential nature of risk based thought as the key to cutting through the morass of decision making voodoo. It is an excellent introduction to the topic which can be read by anyone with an interest here, and hopefully many managers and decision makers. It can be recommended without a caveat and direction of needing to "read over the bits about market risk", or "think about how that applies in business" - I will be recommending this book to many people. This deserves a good run on the best seller list, and hopefully a sequel in a few years! I strongly recommend you read it in conjunction with David Apgar's `Risk Intelligence', which provides a very helpful and practical suggestion about how to actually apply risk based thought to the warm fuzzy risks in business which need action not math. There's no silver bullet, but there's hope for better decisions, and understanding of decisions ex post facto.
A healthy dose of cynicism and realism in "cutting down tall poppies" August 27, 2007
Siriam (London United Kingdom)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Do not worry about what the Nine Delusions are that the author uses to develop his thesis - they largely overlap and interlock and as you read the book will be seen as a powerful continuum. Why you should read this book is because bottom dollar like me you will have read one of the prior highly successful tomes that is one of the key targets for his thesis.
Whether it is "In search of excellence", "Built to Last" or "Good to great", by the end of this book you will I reckon have a more questioning attitude to such works (if not 100% cycnical) because this book challenges many preconceptions and makes you think and look afresh at how one will ever achieve success in business management.
The theme is not just "cutting tall poppies" down to size, but more basically that nothing is as simple or easy as many have claimed in writing such books. His chapter on why "strategy" and "execution" are actually so hard to do well, is alone worth the price of the book for me.
The core argument of the "delusions" being based on too much retropsective story telling is bought full circle by the three examples at the end of companies and business leaders who have in the authors opinion sought to face reality and do not underestimate the uncertainty that faces everyone.
A highly recommended book since it makes its points thoroughly and cogently and as such comes over as thoughtful and provoking of fresh views - as such it is a welcome change from too many of the best selling tirade type books that have come to represent both business but also political and history bestsellers recently. Definitely a book that is long overdue and one hopes will be succesful plus lead to more realism in such future writing.
Refreshing thinking June 12, 2007
tn_espoo (Espoo, Finland)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The author condemns most successful business books of our time as little more than entertaining bedside reading - and lays logically out the reasons why. Especially every "flavor of the month"-manager should read this every month.
There are no guaranteed management success factors, and the managers in many cases should rethink many basic tenets of their profession.
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