Business Adventures

A nice series of business stories from almost fifty years ago that are fascinating to read, and eerily timeless in their themes. I also loved the authors writing style.
It took a little effort to get into this book but my persistence was well rewarded.

I bought this book because Bill Gates recommended as I'm MBA student. It is just wonderful book to read for all MBAs. Nice case studies and you can relate everything to current scenarios. Love the book.

You definitely notice you are reading an old book. In another 20 years it will be difficult to relate to.

I'm not done yet, but so far it is an interesting read that gives history on some of the US's more interesting business events.

This compilation of business cases were fantastic to review and understand added pressures of wall street has on all lines of business. I highly recommend this to any and all businesses for all supervisors, managers, senior leaders and business students who are looking to quench their knowledge and understanding business function and wall street as a whole...

While it would be easy to criticize Business Adventures, a book first published generations ago, for detailing business stories that took place generations ago, the book still gives some insight useful for today’s business world.

Strengths. This book covers many well-known companies that would probably be recognized by people who were baby boomers or older. The book covers a wide range of industries including automotive, aerospace, office equipment, and utilities.

While strategy books often cover the good decisions good companies make and the poor decisions that doom failing companies, Business Adventures also adds in some poor decisions good companies make. The Edsel chapter features Ford making a poor decision in releasing a new product. There is even a chapter about G.E., a very well known company, which is used to display how poor communication can having devastating effects on a company’s employees.

Business decisions are not made inside of a vacuum. Business Adventures provides useful information about the events leading up to decisions. When telling about the crash of ‘62, it tells how the delay in getting in orders precipitated panic that led to big sell offs.

In the Piggly Wiggly case, the author brings to light the idea of corners in the stock market and how they impact businesses. Personally, this was a very interesting topic to delve into and learn more about as the book reveals how one wealthy businessman was able to upheave the stock market for a period of time and go so far as to create his own little private stock market (which consisted entirely of stocks for his company). In this very same case, the author also explains how Piggly Wiggly was the first instance of what is known as the modern day supermarket, another fact which really stood out when reading this chapter.

Another great point to mention about Business Adventures is the fact that the stories are presented in a very casual and interesting way. When Piggly Wiggly’s owner is described as carrying wads of money in his pockets because his suitcase was too full, a slight sense of comedy arises. This is one of the better features of the book as it keeps the reader hooked by entertaining them rather than throwing a bunch of tedious factual information about various companies and their successes/failures.

Weaknesses. As mentioned earlier, most of the companies featured would be recognized by those who were baby boomers or older. Readers looking to learn about newer companies will need to look elsewhere. There are a few companies that are acknowledged in the text that do stand out even today. However, all of the information being provided about those companies is outdated.

At times the book can get bogged down into minute details that do not add to the development of the chapter. This happens quite a few times in the Edsel chapter when the author goes into details of the many key players in the Edsel’s development and failure. This can also be seen in the G.E. chapter where there is constant mention of the “wink” which represents how lax the company was about its corporate policy 20.5.

Some people may not appreciate the style of the book as it explores the successes and failures of many different corporations rather than sticking to just one specific case. However, the stories of this carry enough lessons that even readers today can gain insight from it. Evidence of this is that it is recommended by a founder of a tech company (Bill Gates) and holding company focusing on large cap companies (Warren Buffet).

Throughly enjoyed the book! A history of business in America. I like how the author was able to include the human elements of business in the stories as opposed to just a cold account of how things were. Fascinating read.