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Title: Chainsaw: The Notorious Career of Al Dunlap in the Era of Profit-At-Any-Price by John A. Byrne ISBN: 0066619807 Publisher: HarperBusiness Pub. Date: November, 1999 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.57
Rating: 5
Summary: Sad commentary on our business culture
Comment: John Byrne has taken a non fiction theme and turned it into a gripping page turner. Virtually everyone I know has read this book in one or two sittings. There is a bright future for him in thrillers!
Al Dunlap was so lionized by Wall Street that the market capitalization of Sunbeam went up by billions of dollars simply because of the announcement that he was taking charge. The subsequent fiasco is well documented. Byrne takes us behind the scenes and shows us what exactly happened, and when and why. Based on exhaustive interviews and examination of public and private records, the tale is both gripping and revealing.
Accounting norms were stretched to the point of outright fraud. Those who tried to sound alarms were silenced by various means ranging from firing to being bought off with options. Characters are finely drawn to the extent that you feel you know each one personally. Telling incidents reveal the essence of each player. During a major crisis, for example, Dunlap dispatches his major henchman to adjudicate a minor dispute with his club. The movers and shakers of business - Michael Price, Ron Perelman and others of that ilk - are shown to have poor judgment coupled with incredible arrogance, the same traits amply displayed by Dunlap. All have overwhelming greed. There are no heroes in this book.
The author documents that Dunlap's "successes" had much less substance than media accounts would lead you to believe. It was luck that prevented Scott Paper, for example, from being the first debacle. This is no hatchet job despite Dunlap's visceral hate for the author. The author does not reveal many damaging tidbits in this book which he has recounted elsewhere - such as the fact that Dunlap refused to contibute to the medical expenses of a niece suffering from cancer.
Far from being a "leader" or even "manager", Dunlap was a tyrant who preyed on the weak, fawned on the strong and endlessly feathered his nest. Media and Wall Street colluded in his successful-for-too-long image building. Byrne has the courage to point this out.
It is a sad commentary on our business culture that Dunlap flourished for so long despite so many people knowing what was really going on.
Read this book to understand what is going on behind the scenes in too many companies. Dunlap did not grow in a vacuum. END
Rating: 5
Summary: A business book you can't put down
Comment: After reading the excerpt of Chainsaw in Business Week magazine, I picked up a copy of this book with the hopes that it would be half as good as the material I had read in BW. Chainsaw isn't half as good. It's 100 times better. I don't know how Byrne got so many people to talk to him, but the stories in this book will make your hair rise. It is American business at its absolute worst: the greed, ego, hubris, and stupidity of a guy once hailed as a corporate leader is simply incredible. The author does a remarkable job of weaving together a powerful narrative that never hesitates to entertain, surprise and shock. My favorite story has to do with Dunlap's secret Palm Beach meeting with billionaire wheeler-dealer Ron Perelman. According to Byrne, Dunlap calls Ron a "pig" because he wants what Dunlap considers too much money for the camping equipment maker Coleman. "You know your company is a piece of shit," Dunlap yells. "You'll never see it worth thirty dollars a share in your lifetime. It's only worth twenty bucks and that is an early Christmas present." "It's Hanukkah," Perelman retorted. "Both rolled into one," roared Dunlap. After exchanging F-yous, Dunlap was told to calm down or he could have a heart attack. Crazy Al then let loose with this gem: "I don't get heart attacks. I give them, and I'm going to give you a heart attack!" The book is loaded with scenes like this one that will make you laugh at the insanity and chaos that occurred under Dunlap. Chainsaw is one great read!
Rating: 5
Summary: A difference between tough and cruel
Comment: If John Byrne's "Chainsaw" were a work of fiction, it would likely be considered unpublishable because its main character is so absurdely evil. Unfortunately -- especially for those who had to endure his wrath -- the story of Al Dunlap is all too true. Byrne's portrayal of Dunlap, who was hailed by Wall Street as a turaround genius before his leadership of Sunbeam ended in debacle, is that not of an admirable business leader, but of an hysterical, violent sociopath who, if his life had turned slightly differently, might well have ended up in prison, a mental hospital, or an early grave. "Chainsaw" paints a portrait of a man who was abusive -- mentally, emotionally and even physically -- to nearly everybody in his life, from his business associates to his family to the few whom he considered friends.
"Chainsaw" chronicles the rise and fall of "Chainsaw Al" Dunlap so compellingly that even those who wouldn't think to read a business book will be hooked. However, the book is in many ways fascinating the way that a car wreck is fascinating. The reader will marvel at the amount and intensity of abuse Dunlap hurls at even his closest friends and allies, the coldness with which he treats his family (he abandoned his son at age 2 and couldn't be bothered to attend the funerals of either of his parents), and the near-perverted bounds of his ego. In fact, as Sunbeam lurches toward collapse, his only apparent interest was in signing copies of his autobiography.
Defenders of Dunlap will say that he did the dirty work of downsizing and layoffs to save dying companies, sacrificing the needs of the few for the good of the many. And true, the modern business world is filled with harsh realities and tough decision-making. But Dunlap's approach to downsizing in "Chainsaw" teeters between indifference to those downsized and pure sadism. At points in the book, he actually seems to enjoy cutting jobs and closing factories (though he usually had others do the dirty deeds). As the author says, there is a business world between being tough and being cruel -- and Byrne leaves little doubt about where he places Dunlap. Worse, Dunlap's moves at Sunbeam didn't seem to have been done with any level of intelligence, other than to get Dunlap a quick win so he could cash out fast. The result was the near-total destruction of Sunbeam rather than long-term gains from short-term pain.
In "Chainsaw," Byrne stresses that either through fear, greed or naivetee, others enabled Dunlap. The way that each of these characters is drawn creates a fascinating if morbid portrait of a dysfunctional, cannibalistic organization revolving totally around Chainsaw Al.
Byrne is a terrific writer, and "Chainsaw" is a great read. My only quibble is that, since Byrne and Dunlap apparently have had great animosity toward each other, Byrne often sacrifices any attempt at objectivity. But perhaps objectivity isn't possible when chronicling such an extreme personality.
It's good to see "Chainsaw" returning to print in paperback. Now, in the era of Enron and WorldCom, Sept. 11 and the War on Terror reminding us what real toughness is all about, and with the Wall Street euphoria of the '90s in the rear-view mirror, its perspective is needed now more than ever...
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Title: Mean Business: How I Save Bad Companies and Make Good Companies Great by Albert J. Dunlap, Bob Andelman ISBN: 0684844060 Publisher: Fireside Pub. Date: October, 1997 List Price(USD): $20.95 |
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Title: Final Accounting: Ambition, Greed and the Fall of Arthur Andersen by Barbara Ley Toffler, Jennifer Reingold ISBN: 0767913825 Publisher: Broadway Books Pub. Date: 04 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Harvard Business Review on Turnarounds by Harvard Business Review ISBN: 1578516366 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: 15 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Disconnected: Deceit and Betrayal at WorldCom by Lynne W. Jeter ISBN: 047142997X Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: February, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Clash of the Titans: How the Unbridled Ambition of Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch Has Created Global Empires that Control What We Read and Watch Each Day by Richard Hack ISBN: 1893224600 Publisher: New Millenium Pr Pub. Date: January, 2003 List Price(USD): $28.95 |
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