Books and Articles by Bob Herbold

Seduced By Success – This book published in March, 2007 addresses what can be a devastating business vulnerability. Here is how Bob Herbold describes the problem and the role the book can play in tackling it:

"When leaders of organizations experience meaningful levels of success or periods of stability, they tend to believe that they are entitled to continued success into the future. In many cases, managers become complacent, comfortable, and mediocre. In fact, what they should be doing is building on all the things they’ve done well in the past. They should be probing to uncover fresh approaches, improving their products and services, and staying lean and agile. Unfortunately, the business pages are filled with sad stories of once-successful organizations that, after reaching the top, could not keep it going; could not sustain their success"

"I’ve observed this phenomenon over and over again. Success is a huge business vulnerability. It can destroy an organization’s or an individual’s ability to understand the need for change and can also destroy the motivation to creatively attack the status quo. Organizations and people become trapped by what I call legacy practices and legacy thinking. The implicit assumption here is that your current practices have made you a winner; you are at the top of your game, and no one can beat you. They lose themselves in the approaches they used in their glory days, unable to see that they are not building on their best practices but merely trying to repeat old successes. They don’t notice that the world is changing around them. I believe this fallout from success is one of the most crippling problems that individuals and organizations face."

"I wrote this book to help individuals and organizations become successful and stay successful. I show you how to look past your current success or stability and constantly probe for new and better ideas and ways to do things. I show readers how to put their past successes in perspective so that they don’t rely too heavily on what worked yesterday or what’s working today. It is too easy to be trapped in the exhilaration of the present and to believe you’ve found the true and ever-lasting formula for sustained success. Well, I can assure you that doesn’t exist."

In this book, Bob Herbold analyzes 44 companies in detail. Based on the lessons from the thorough discussions of companies such as Kodak, Sony, GM, Samsung, Toyota, Porsche, HP, P&G, Microsoft and Starbucks, he describes the 9 traps caused by success and how the best companies survive those traps.

To see the Table of Contents of the book, click here.

To read some reviews of this book, click here.

To read what Indra Nooyi, the Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, and others think of this book, click here.

To place an order for this book, go to www.amazon.com or www.barnesandnoble.com and type “Seduced By Success ” in their search tool.

The Fiefdom Syndrome : The Turf Battles that Undermine Careers and Companies – and How to Overcome Them – This book published in 2004 by Bob Herbold tackles the following issue:

There is a simmering and potentially infectious condition inside virtually all organizations and it can lead to massive operational inefficiencies and strategic mediocrity. The problem begins when individuals, groups or divisions try to protect their turf and reshape their environment to gain as much control over it as possible. They become fixated on their own activities, their own careers, and their own territory or turf to the detriment of those around them. People who create such fiefdoms become dangerously insular, losing perspective and awareness of what is happening in the world outside of their own control. They also tend to hoard resources and are determined to do things their own way, often duplicating or complicating what should be done company-wide.

The book tackles this problem; outlining the causes and providing numerous approaches designed to eliminate the problem or to prevent it from ever happening.

A good summary of this book was published in the January-February, 2005 issue of “Chief Executive Magazine” titled “The Fiefdom Syndrome.” To read that article, click here.

What Bill Gates thinks of the Fiefdom Syndrome:

“Turf wars and bureaucracy can undermine even the strongest corporate strategies. Drawing on lessons learned throughout his distinguished career, Bob describes innovative and practical ways to tackle this pervasive problem – and beat The Fiefdom Syndrome.”  
Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software Architect, Microsoft Corporation

To read what Hank Paulson, Jamie Dimon, Michael Dell, and others think of this book, click here.

To place an order for this book, go to www.amazon.com or www.barnesandnoble.com and type “The Fiefdom Syndrome” in their search tool.

"Inside Microsoft: Balancing Creativity and Discipline" - Published in the Harvard Business Review, January 2002.

This publication represents a summary of some of the key learnings that Bob Herbold accumulated over his 26 years at Procter and Gamble and 7 years as the COO of Microsoft. Good insights are provided on enabling an organization to be disciplined in those areas where is pays off handsomely to be disciplined ( HR, Finance, IT, Manufacturing, certain parts of Marketing and Sales), and to be creative in the areas where there is a big payoff for creativity(R&D, Product Development, and parts of Sales and Marketing).

To obtain a reprint of this article, send an email providing your name and address to : bherbold@herboldgroup.com

"Breaking Up Corporate Fiefdoms" - Harvard Management Update, published 2003.

This article by Lauren Keller Johnson which appeared in a 2003 issue of this publication is based on an interview of Bob Herbold and summarizes his views on the issue of fiefdoms, turf wars and bureaucracy in corporations, and what to do about them. To read this article, click here.

"Performance Appraisals: Why and How" - The Human Factor, March-April, 2008

Nothing hurts the morale and the results of an organization as much as the on-going retention of weak talent and the under-utilization of your exceptional performers. Many organizations place an inadequate priority on this difficult issue. This article highlights why this topic is so important and provides a description of how a first-rate performance appraisal system should directly confront this issue. To read this article, click here.

"Innovation and Discipline: An Interview with Bob Herbold" - Chief Executive Magazine, May, 2002 Cover Story

From the introduction of the article: “Are creativity and discipline in management diametrically opposed? They don't have to be, says Bob Herbold, who draws on his experience leading Microsoft and Procter & Gamble to advise CEOs how to integrate the two and achieve their goals.” To read this article, click here.

"Branding: Why Do People Make It So Hard?"

From the introduction of this article: “Compared to other aspects of business, such as esoteric technologies, sophisticated manufacturing practices, and integrated distribution and inventory management systems, branding is a relatively simple subject. On the other hand, it’s incredibly powerful in its ability to build a great franchise, or destroy a franchise if the branding is mismanaged. What people typically mismanage are the simple principles that drive great branding.” Those simple principles are covered in detail in this article. To read it, click here.

"Does the U.S. Realize It’s in Competition" - The Business Journal, June 20, 2008

From the introduction of this article: “Living half time in Asia for the last two and half years has taught me that many countries around the world are tightly focused on competing with other countries for energy resources and global talent, as well as creating a solid financial foundation for their country and an attractive environment for multi-national companies to run their businesses. Unfortunately, in my opinion, very few people in the U.S., and even fewer in Washington DC, seem to realize this.” To read this article, click here.

"K-12 Educators are Putting America’s Industrial Leadership at Risk" - Imprimis Newsletter, 2005

There are some very worrisome trends in the United States with respect to our global share of science, technology, engineering and mathematics expertise.  It is decreasing significantly, both at the bachelor’s level and at the Ph.D. level.  In this article, I provide the basic data that shows those trends, the reasons behind them, the attendant risks and a recommended solution. To read this article, click here.

"Break Up Fiefdoms" - Published in Leadership Excellence Magazine, Febuary 2006.

This article appeared in the February, 2006 issue which had authors like Clayton Christensen, John Kotter, Michael Dell, Pete Carroll, as well as Bob Herbold, providing their thoughts on leadership development and managerial effectiveness. Bob provided a summary of his thinking on discipline and creativity, and how to design the organization to achieve both. To read this article, click here.

"The Role of the CIO in Fighting Fiefdoms" - Optimize Magazine, 2003.

Fiefdoms— and destructive turf wars---can pop up in organizations everywhere. The human tendencies that can lead to fiefdoms come into play in most organizations if you let them. It doesn’t have to be this way, though: CIO’s can play a key role in making sure such tendencies are identified, modified, and corrected. This article from a 2003 issues of “Optimize” outlines how the CIO can do this. To read this article, click here.