BOOK REVIEW

ON
THE GREATEST BUSINESS DECISIONS OF ALL TIME

SUBMITTED TO:

UNIVERSITY OF RAJASTHAN

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF BBA COURSE

BATCH-(2019-20)

SUBMITTED BY- TANISHQ TAMBI

BBA PART III

MAHARISHI ARVIND INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND MANAGEMENT

AMBABARI, JAIPUR
 ABOUT THE BOOK

GENRE: Management & Leadership

AUTHOR: Verne Harnish

TITLE: Greatest Business Decisions of

All Time

EDITION: 2012
PAGES: 129
 Summary

The Greatest Business Decisions of All Time

details what Verne Harnish and the editors of
Fortune magazine deem the 18 greatest
business decisions ever made around the globe.
Some of them, like Apple’s, were made recently,
and some, like Eli Whitney’s, were made over
100 years ago. More than creating a great
product, these decisions mainly concern each
company’s human capital.

The majority were counterintuitive and deemed

illogical by affected parties. They all involved a
certain level of risk, and many of the executives
risked everything in favor of their gut conviction
that the decision would be successful. After the
decision transformed the company, most
companies then had to fend off imitators
Sr. No. Chapter Name
1 Introduction
2 Apple: Let’s bring back the guy we
ran out 11 years ago
3 Zappos: Getting consumers to buy
shoes without trying them on

4 Samsung: Tell their star performers

to pack their bags
5 Johnson & Johnson: Caring more
about the consumer than the
stockholder
6 3M: Paying our employees to
daydream
7 Intel: Why should I care about my
microprocessor?
8 GE: Laying off 100,000 but spending
$50 million on “some training center”
9 Microsoft: Bill Gates takes off a week
to think
10 Softsoap: If we cannot beat our
competitors on price, we will block
their material flow
11 Conclusion
 INTRODUCTION

This book details what Verne Harnish and the

editors of Fortune magazine deem the 18 greatest
business decisions ever made around the globe.
Some of them, like Apple’s, were made recently,
and some, like Eli Whitney’s, were made over 100
years ago. More than creating a great product,
these decisions mainly concern each company’s
human capital.

The majority were counterintuitive and deemed

illogical by affected parties. They all involved a
certain level of risk, and many of the executives
risked everything in favor of their gut conviction
that the decision would be successful. After the
decision transformed the company, most
companies then had to fend off imitators. All the
decisions certainly have one thing in common:
despite the scoffers, hardships, and delays, they
were absolutely worth it.
Apple: Let’s bring back the guy we ran out 11
years ago:

Apple is highly regarded for its innovative products

and being the most valuable company in the world
in recent years. With the help of co-founder Steve
Jobs, the company pioneered the personal
computer and was the first to implement current
industry standards like straightforward icons and
the computer mouse.

In 1985, the company was soaring, but CEO John

Sculley, whom Jobs recruited himself, made Jobs
feel unwelcome at his own company, and Jobs split
with Apple.
In the following years, Apple’s wide range of
underwhelming products and bloated supply chain
led to the company’s downturn. Their management
and board of directors were deficient and
constantly changing. In 1996, CEO Gil Amelio
convinced the board that acquiring Jobs’ software
company, NeXt, would be a valuable investment
for its.
Zappos: Getting consumers to buy shoes
without trying them on :-

Zappos emerged during the dotcom boom in 1999

and quickly experienced defeat from the plethora
of competitors vying for market share. CEO Nick
Swinmurn’s goal was that Zappos would become
the “Amazon of shoes.” Before it could do that, it
needed to generate some income quickly. In a
desperate attempt to differentiate, Zappos decided
to offer free shipping on all orders, and a service
even more unusual: free returns.

Swinmurn did not base the decision on complex

spreadsheets, but a gut feeling.
Zappos wanted their customer service to stand out
among online shoe stores, and the company
eventually stood out as having the customer
service to beat. Zappos does pay high shipping
and return costs, since up to 40% of all Zappos
orders are returned, but the repertoire and
marketing they gain with the customer makes up
for it.
Samsung: Tell their star performers to pack
their bags :-

“Samsung is paying $100,000 to send our rising

stars to live in another country?” “Hardly anyone
goes on international business trips for even two
days, much less one year!” “Why are we sending
them to an emerging country versus one where we
already have clients?” “How could they possibly
contribute more in a foreign country than they could
in Korea where they are comfortable?”

Samsung chairman Lee Kun-Hee received many

pessimistic comments similar to these when he
unveiled his radical new program to fund promising
young talent to serve year-long sabbaticals in
countries around the globe.
Johnson & Johnson: Caring more about the
consumer than the stockholder :-

Tylenol pain reliever is a medicine cabinet staple in

households across the United States, but the ever-
present medicine came close to extinction in 1982
when multiple cyanide-laced bottles left seven
dead. Calamity hit on September 30, 1982 when
two healthy people from Chicagoan suburbs
unexpectedly died. Authorities linked the incidents
to Extra Strength Tylenol, which both victims took
shortly before their deaths.

A widespread panic erupted, partly spurred by

firefighters and police officers driving around
neighborhoods proclaiming via loudspeakers that
residents should stay away from the drug. The
death toll grew to seven. The bestselling
painkiller’s lifespan was quickly dwindling, facing
halting sales and substantial lawsuits
3M: Paying our employees to daydream.:-

3M is a conglomerate corporation, synonymous

with many innovative products like masking tape,
Scotchgard, sandpaper, and Post-It Notes. The
company produces over 55,000 products and is
constantly creating new ones, which can be
partially explained by its objective that 30% of
revenue must come from products less than five
years old.
Intel: Why should I care about my
microprocessor? :-

As the age of the computer spread, consumers

chose specific computers because of size, brand,
and whether it completed a task. The consumers
may have been aware of the components of the
inner hardware, but they certainly did not know or
care who manufactured those components.

That is why Intel CEO Andy Grove’s decision was

considered so radical when he suggested that Intel
spend millions, and eventually billions, on
advertising to promote its product that contains the
brains of the computer—the microprocessor. This
decision launched Intel to become one of the most
recognized brands
GE: Laying off 100,000 but spending $50 million
on “some training center”:-

When Jack Welch became the General Electric’s

youngest chairman and CEO, he faced many
quandaries within the struggling company. He
made the decision to lay off over 100,000
employees and restructure the company to align
with his vision. One of the central ideas of his vision
was to create a world-class internal business
school for GE managers, which led to “Crotonville.”
Welch did not establish Crotonville; it was founded
by former CEO Ralph Cordiner over twenty years
earlier.
It is a 53-acre retreat where thousands of GE
managers went to learn to take control of their own
operations with profit-and-loss responsibility. It was
successful for some time, but it eventually evolved
into a place where anyone could go, and even a
place of punishment for underperforming
employees.
Microsoft: Bill Gates takes off a week to think :-
While Jack Welch of GE utilized a huge facility at
Crotonville to revolutionize the company, Bill Gates
did it all by himself by simply taking a week-long
retreat. Gates packed up stacks of emails and
employee-composed proposals, left friends and
family, and retreated to the serene shores of Hood
Canal. Gates found that he could study there the
most comfortably and without distraction.

Gates could have used the time to go on a relaxing

vacation, but he decided it would be most
beneficial to devote that time to work.
Instead of ignoring the stacks of proposals and
emails, Gates chose to read them and carefully
consider each one. While he at first solely focused
on Ph.D. theses and scholarly papers, he then
focused on internal projects and employees
suggestions.
Softsoap: If we cannot beat our competitors on
price, we will block their material flow

In a world of traditional bar soap, Robert Taylor

realized that soap could be presented in a more
striking and gentle form and birthed the idea for
liquid soap. Taylor was already the CEO of a $25
million a year bath product company named
Minnetonka, but knew consumers would buy into a
liquid soap that could be placed in a beautiful
dispenser on a vanity.
 Recommended :-
Quick read. The Greatest Business
Decisions of All Time is a concise and
entertaining read, especially if you like
getting into heads, the thoughts, and the
motivations of well-known business
luminaries. The 18 case studies lack rigor
and are beset with recency biases,
narrative fallacies, and a misplaced
sense of causes and effects. Some
stories, e.g., the Softsoap one, aren’t well
known.
 CONCLUSION

Apple, Zappos, Samsung, Johnson &

Johnson, 3M, Intel, GE, Microsoft, Softsoap,
Toyota, Nordstrom, Tata Steel, Boeing, IBM,
Wal-Mart, Eli Whitney, HP, and Ford all made
bold, yet innovative decisions that are still
spurring success within their companies today.

Their legacy is inspirational. While all eighteen

business decisions were extraordinary, Ford’s
is deemed the greatest business decision of all
time because it combined the decisions’
common elements of risk, ingenuity, and
compassion to provide a model for future
employee standards and revolutionize
American business