Baby's First Merger (and Other Tales of Business Start-Ups)

"Ken Sternad, director of public relations at UPS, first conceived of a book that would mark that company's 2000 centennial and then insisted it become a vehicle not just for lauding UPS, but for explaining the role that the company plays in the global marketplace. Ken's advice and insight steered us..."

A celebratory, all-but-commissioned tome? The authors do get some access in the book. However, investors are no better served by basing investment decisions on a company's investor relations staff, who are vouching for the company. Enough said. Except that the authors did not, obviously, conceive or guide me in this review.

It is with a bit of trepidation that I give the "Help" award to Seduced By Success: How the Best Companies Survive the 9 Traps of Winning by Robert J. Herbold, former chief operating officer of Microsoft (MSFT Quote).

You will, like me, be forced to bear with the absurdly trite chapter headlines, ones that give you a firm grasp of the obvious like "Don't Wait For The Crisis." Yes, of course! I must anticipate the crisis. Why didn't I think of that? I used to pretend they were never going to happen.

Or, my personal favorite, "Stay Relevant." I don't think it is even possible to mock that.

As broad and silly as the headlines are, the examples given below them can be quirky and telling. Pulling threads from them can inform investors on how companies work -- and don't. Read about Coke's (KO Quote) refusal, when Germany changed recycling laws, to alter its iconic can. It paid dearly. Or '70s-and-'80s era Procter & Gamble (PG Quote), which treated Japanese advertising as if it were American and also paid.

Again, there is plenty of pabulum, like about how it is important to value people and repeat their value like a mantra, but individual stories about how people can sometimes be reassigned instead of laid off do more good than the chapter headline: "Clarity, Simplicity and Repetition Are Essential."

As an aside, Good to Great (HarperCollins) by Jim Collins, author of Built to Last, is on a similar topic of what it takes to build a lasting company, but it reads more like an academic screed, even with real-world examples interspersed. Any investor looking for similar information but wishing to avoid coming down with a case of narcolepsy, would be better served by the Herbold book.

1 What would best describe your stance heading into the coming week of trading? Bullish Bearish Neutral 2 Which of these sectors do you think is set to move up in the coming week? --Choose One--Aerospace and DefenseAirlinesAutomobilesBeverages and Food ProductsBiotechnologyCommercial BanksComputers and PeripheralsConsumer NondurablesEnergy Equipment & ServicesHMOs and HospitalsHomebuildingInsuranceIntegrated OilInternet, Software ServicesInvestment Bankers and BrokersMediaMultiline RetailPharmaceuticalsPrecious MetalsSemis, Semi EquipmentTelecom EquipmentTobacco and AlcoholWireless CommunicationsUtilities 3 Which of these sectors do you think is set to move down in the coming week? --Choose One--Aerospace and DefenseAirlinesAutomobilesBeverages and Food ProductsBiotechnologyCommercial BanksComputers and PeripheralsConsumer NondurablesEnergy Equipment & ServicesHMOs and HospitalsHomebuildingInsuranceIntegrated OilInternet, Software ServicesInvestment Bankers and BrokersMediaMultiline RetailPharmaceuticalsPrecious MetalsSemis, Semi EquipmentTelecom EquipmentTobacco and AlcoholWireless CommunicationsUtilities View the results without voting