Book review: The Turnaround Kid

Steve Miller's book The Turnaround Kid: What I Learned Rescuing America's Most Troubled Companies has generated considerable controversy. The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) discusses the brouhaha in some detail. I don't know enough about the situation at Delphi to have an opinion, so I'm reviewing this as a book, controversy aside.

Miller has built his reputation as a "firefighter" brought in to fix serious problems at deeply troubled companies. He got his start as the CFO at Chrysler where he signed ten thousand documents in one sitting for the loan guarantees that brought the company back from the brink. His career later took him to Olympia & York Developments Ltd., Bethlehem Steel, Morrison-Knudson, Federal-Mogul, Waste Management, and Delphi, where he currently serves as chairman.

His accounts of these struggles are interesting, but the most compelling reading comes when Miller talks about the more prominent people his career has brought him into contact with. This description of Carl Icahn alone is worth the price of admission:

Icahn was uniquely creative in his demands. He was impatient with the board's decision and would bully us to do things his way ... In face to face meetings he gave everyone whiplash. One moment he'd bellow, "That's the stupidest goddamn thing I ever heard heard," and the next he'd put his arm around you. He's effective, I think, because people become so traumatized that they wind up suffering from Stockholm syndrome and will do anything to please him.

His description of Lee Iacocca's decline caused by ego also serves as an interesting cautionary tale.

If you enjoy reading about business history, you'll like this book. And here's the best part: it's a book about management that's generally devoid of cliches and trite platitudes.