The Halo Effect Book Review

The Halo Effect: ... and the Eight Other Business Delusions That Deceive Managers by Philip M. Rosenzweig
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I've always loathed business books and management books because they all usually set out with the goal of providing you with some magic formula that will make your management style or business transformational! Data tells us so! The thing is, just like any magical investing formula, if it actually worked EVERYONE would be using it and it wouldn't be some secret that has been a mystery up until the publication of said book and after publication everyone would be using it. There is no magic bullet, and I'm glad The Halo Effect illustrated that.

However, this common sense principle of "no magic bullet" was stretched pretty far throughout this book. The first half of the book is simply examples of contradictory feelings on companies dependent upon performance and then illustration after illustration of halos existing. This is all good and well, but the point is made pretty quickly and I felt there was a bit of padding here.

Categorizing the different issues with some of the past business books was actually the most interesting piece of the book and it was a small section towards the end. I would have loved a more thorough breakdown of past business books and how their "results" were tainted by the various styles of halos. Alas, what is there is at least engaging.

At the end of it all, this is a good counterbalance to the myriad of management books out there that make you think you can do one specific thing to be a better manager or create a better company, but I feel it left a lot of unexplored territory on the table.

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