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The Timid Corporation: Why Business is Terrified of Taking Risk
 
 
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The Timid Corporation: Why Business is Terrified of Taking Risk (Hardcover)

by Benjamin Hunt (Author) "Part One of this book examines the enormous rise of self-regulation in the business world ..." (more)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 264 pages
  • Publisher: John Wiley & Sons (14 Mar 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0470843683
  • ISBN-13: 978-0470843680
  • Product Dimensions: 22.8 x 15.4 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,052,907 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review

"…Hunt’s book is recommended – and his rallying cry against risk aversion is attractively original…" (IT Week, 21 March 2003)

"…a penetrating new book…" (Morningstar, 17 April 2003)

"…Hunt does a good job of taking apart many of the assumptions that inform current business practice…" (Spiked–risk, 29 May 2003)

"…remarkable…contains some thought–provoking moments…" (Supply Management, 3 July 2003)

"…this book aims to provide reassurance…" (Gulf Business, August 2003)

"…Hunt has made a provocative case that business today is quite timid…" (Wall Street Journal, 27 August 2003)

"…Hunt is on to something: Most companies are shrinking back from bold moves…" (www.conference–board.org, September 2003)

"…Hunt has hit on a highly provocative theme.." (European Business Forum, Autum 2003)

"…Hunt is absolutely right…" (Ethical Consumer Magazine, October 2003)



Review

"…Hunt’s book is recommended – and his rallying cry against risk aversion is attractively original…" (IT Week, 21 March 2003)

"…a penetrating new book…" (Morningstar, 17 April 2003)

"…Hunt does a good job of taking apart many of the assumptions that inform current business practice…" (Spiked–risk, 29 May 2003)

"…remarkable…contains some thought–provoking moments…" (Supply Management, 3 July 2003)

"…this book aims to provide reassurance…" (Gulf Business, August 2003)

"…Hunt has made a provocative case that business today is quite timid…" (Wall Street Journal, 27 August 2003)

"…Hunt is on to something: Most companies are shrinking back from bold moves…" (www.conference–board.org, September 2003)

"…Hunt has hit on a highly provocative theme.." (European Business Forum, Autum 2003)

"…Hunt is absolutely right…" (Ethical Consumer Magazine, October 2003)

See all Product Description
Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
Part One of this book examines the enormous rise of self-regulation in the business world. Read the first page
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Concordance
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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4 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Insightful!, 8 Jun 2004
By Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract.com" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This book offers a passionate and stupendously irreverent slap in the face to virtually every management orthodoxy and business shibboleth. Nothing escapes the scathing criticism of this corporate Jeremiad. Managing for shareholder value? Woe to you, sinner! Think the brand is important? Out with you, infidel! There's plenty to find fault with in author Benjamin Hurt's presentation of his case. He's vengefully biased, and never lets a silly fixation like "balance" get in the way of a good zinger. He's set himself to dig holes in the dikes that hold the wild waters of skepticism at bay. This book will make you mad, make you protest, may even make you throw it against the wall in disgust. But any book that makes you react that way has something going for it. At least, it's a bracingly different perspective from anything else you'll read about management, marketing or finance. With that caveat about balance firmly in mind,
We suggest reading this decidedly eccentric, provocative original, if you dare to take the risk.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Up-to-the-minute analysis with a powerful message, 16 Sep 2003
We all know that "corporate governance", "regulation", "shareholder value", "economic value added" and "risk management" are amongst those dull but important terms that anyone involved in business should be interested in. But too often our eyes just glaze over. If so, then this is the book for you. Benjamin Hunt combines a journalist's flair with an academic's rigour to bring these things to life, arguing persuasively that the modern company is failing in its principal purpose - to take risk in the interests of creating new products and new markets. In short, he believes that business has lost its way. Hunt is an expert on risk management - a subject he has made his own by writing on it for a variety of publications, and this book benefits from a year-long trek around the world's financial markets gathering primary data. He sets risk management in a wider context making the necessary connections with sociology, economics, technology and management theory. His fundamental theme is that capitalist society's confidence in experiment and progress has evaporated and companies mirror that loss of belief. Innovation has been dumbed-down, the notion of growth has become defensive, self-regulation is a dead hand and entrepreneurialism is being reined in. Employees are frustrated and under-perform, caught in a web of ethics and risk management. What is striking about this theme is that it is not one your average management consultant espouses, because it does not lead to fat fees. Hunt argues that we need to look more critically at the role of regulation. We behave now as if the world is riskier and more out-of-control, and people are more unethical. In fact, there are fewer uncertainties in the world (even though it never seems so at the time) and the morality of society has improved, not deteriorated. Tolerance of unethical behaviour has declined. Yet we are beset by irrational caution and restraint. It is a refreshing theme and one that Hunt carries with a a vibrant mix of quotes, references and observations, making connections as he proceeds. It's also a quick read - one to shove in a CEO's briefcase as he or she leaves for the airport, one that may remind them of what they're actually supposed to be doing to merit those fancy remuneration packages.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Shaky start but lots of good points later, 26 April 2004
By Barton Keyes "barton keyes" (England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
After a shaky start in his introduction, where Hunt makes points that areeasy to shoot down, this book rapidly gets into its stride in making somevery well-aimed pot-shots at the afflictions of modern business --short-termism and a Stock Market divorced from reality, coupled with anincreasingly litigious blame culture. Hunt is a bit wobbly in trying sohard to make every regulatory development fit his hypothesis that theworld is going to hell in a handcart because of over-officious meddling(there are genuine ills that need correcting) but there is much food for thought on whether it is all really necessary and whether more regulationisn't simply counter-productive. Overall the book is a timely call forsome reflection on where this trend -- of knowing the price of everythingand the value of nothing -- is leading us.
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5.0 out of 5 stars A very interesting read
The author has certainly made business risk a more interesting read. I found the book most compelling.

If you need to read about 'risk', then you need to read this book. Read more

Published on 14 April 2003 by Johnny Zen

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