Ten Commandments for Business Failure
“Keep thy shop and it will keep thee.” That’s a quote from Benjamin Franklin, used by Warren Buffett in his foreword to a small book entitled ‘The Ten Commandments for Business Failure‘, to describe the management philosophy of the book’s author, Don Keough, the former president of Coca-Cola. Keough led Coke through a fantastic period of growth and shareholder value creation, but this book isn’t about how to succeed in business. Rather, as the title implies, it’s about how not to succeed:
- Quit taking risks
- Be inflexible
- Isolate yourself
- Assume infallibility
- Play the game close to the foul line
- Don’t take time to think
- Put all your faith in experts and outside consultants
- Love your bureaucracy
- Send mixed messages
- Be afraid of the future
- Lose your passion for work - for life.
Yes there is an eleventh commandment, just like the more familiar “Don’t get caught”. Keough uses it to advocate the power of emotion:
- Make an emotional connection with your customers
- Make an emotional connection with your brands
- Make an emotional connection with your people
- Make an emotional connection with your dreams.
I’ve written before about the power of Not, and the power of emotion, so I felt a great deal of resonance with Keough’s messages. Although there’s not a lot new in this book, that doesn’t make it any less worthwhile reading. Keough comes from the same Omaha town as Buffett, and has a similar down to earth style, which means the book is an easy read, full of pithy phrases and observations for people to draw upon in their own speeches and presentations. I rather expect Don Keough is set to become one of those people who’ll be long quoted and much quoted.
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