Other titles of interest.

In Why Smart Executives Fail (portfolio), Sydney Finkelstein, a management professor at Dartmouth, analyzes an all-too-common scenario. A company ranks among the most admired in the world then fails terribly after three or four years. What happened? Usually, says Finkelstein, upper management has made some terrible mistake, despite having first-rate professionals in the executive suite. Finkelstein investigates the roots of corporate debacles and reaches a surprising conclusion: Even comparing companies that have nothing in common, the causes of such failures are identical. Consultants Adrian Slywotzky and Richard Wise offer practical solutions for weak growth in companies over the past years in How to Grow When Markets Don't (Warner Books). The authors study the over or companies operating in developed markets that have achieved significant growth without investing outside their sector or altering their financial reports. The book provides a kind of vaccine against corporate scandals of late in the U.S. business world, and its authors suggest ways for companies to avoid stagnation in a waning economy.