The Halo Effect

...and the 8 Other Business Delusions That Deceive Managers

By: Phil Rosenzweig

Narrated by: Jim Manchester

Much of our business thinking is shaped by delusions that distort our understanding of the real reasons for a company's performance. The most pervasive delusion is the Halo Effect. When a company's sales and profits are up, people often conclude that it has a brilliant strategy, a visionary leader, capable employees, and a superb corporate culture. When performance falters, they conclude that the strategy was wrong, the leader became arrogant, the people were complacent, and the culture was stagnant.

In fact, little may have changed -- company performance creates a Halo that shapes the way we perceive strategy, leadership, people, culture, and more. The Halo Effect unmasks these delusions and replaces mistaken thinking with a sharper understanding of what drives business success and failure. Drawing on examples from leading companies - and mercifully free of business jargon - The Halo Effect is for those thinking managers who want to separate fact from fiction in the business world.

©2007 Phil Rosenzweig. All rights reserved. (P)2009 BBC Audiobooks America

Critic reviews

"Phil Rosenzweig has done us all a great service by speaking the unspeakable. His iconoclastic analysis is a very welcome antidote to the kind of superficial, formulaic, and dumbed-down matter that seems to be the current stock in trade of many popular business books. It's the right book at the right time." (John R. Kimberly, Henry Bower Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania)
"Business books all too rarely combine real-world savvy with scientific rigor. Rosenzweig's book is an outstanding exception - it's a superb work and long overdue." (Philip E. Tetlock, Lorraine Tyson Mitchell II Chair in Leadership and Communication, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley)

On target!

While I’ll have to work on getting over my depression that there are no silver bullets, this book is a huge help on how to be less delusional. My takeaway is that having a solution that customers need (the more strongly the better) and that are based on capabilities that competitors are loath to copy is the one thing a company can count on, at least for the moment.

No nonsense book that debunks business myths

No nonsense book that debunks business myths. Yet another great book that calls out the after the fact bogus business analysis that is the foundation of many business books. good read. especially debunks the 'You do this then you will succeed' kind popularized by Collins.

bit repetitive, but good info

The author is a bit repetitive but makes some very good points. The end is a nice summary. The voice is Pleasant to listen to.

Excellent

Fantastic debunking of the business press and bestselling business books that grossly oversimplify the challenges of managing a company successfully. The book simultaneously does shed some insight into what work to keep a company on top though its not easy.

There's no magic potion or guarantee to success

Every once in awhile you stumble upon a book that allows you to see the world differently. In this case the author of The Halo Effect gave us tools to analyze other books about business and explained how to critically think about success and the cause of it. I appreciated the calling out of popular books and being empathetic to the authors but critically tearing down their arguments for being created on faulty data.

Highly recommended read for those that are involved in business management and want tools to be able to analyze business books, management strategies, and news about business performance.

Nothing New

Would you try another book from Phil Rosenzweig and/or Jim Manchester?

Maybe.

Would you ever listen to anything by Phil Rosenzweig again?

Nope

What didn’t you like about Jim Manchester’s performance?

The narration was fine.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

I didn't find anything even interesting in this book.

Any additional comments?

I read a lot so this probably was simply redundant for me. You might like it.

Powerful debunker of popular management fads

Wow! I was just blown away by this book, and regret that I didn't read it 10 years ago when it first came out. the author does a fantastic job of revealing the flaws in such time honored management classics as "In search of excellence", "Built to Last" and "Good to great". While I believe all of these books do provide some valuable insights, the halo effect does a great job of helping put them in their place as nuggets of information and not holistic solutions about how to be a successful company. I strongly recommend this book as a primer to help you look at other management books more critically.

New look on an much discussed poblem

I love his approach to problem-solving, keep your facts straight, separate correlation from causation, do not mix lots of data with good data and most complex problems have complex answers... This is a business management book but I think it works for so many other situations.

slow start

First four chapters seemed like filler but after listening to the rest of the book, the author was just over emphasizing a point. The book gets progressively better.

I love the book!!!

You should read it! You have to read it! You must read it!...You will remain (bleep) if you don't read it!