Billion-Dollar Lessons: What You Can Learn from the Most Inexcusable Business Failures of the Last 25 Years

This book is the essential mirror-twin of Good-to-Great. Through plenty of interesting case studies, it analyzes the causes for failed strategies. The main lesson is that companies are often too optimistic about the prospects of a strategy, be it buying a competitor, sticking to a dying industry, or investing in new technology. Executive management isn't open enough to critical thinking and dissent to have an accurate picture of what will happen. While this is usually due to strong organizational dynamics, the authors argue that a formal "devil's advocate" review process can prevent many business catastrophes before they start.