Reviewed by Erin O’Hara
“The 10 Commandments of Business Failure” is written by George Keough (former president of The Coca-Cola Company) and serves as the basic rules of what not to do in the business world. Or as Keough puts it, the commandments of guaranteed failure. Follow his rules and rest assure that despair and often bankruptcy will be right around the corner.
Each chapter of the book in dedicate to a separate commandment, they include: Quit taking risk, 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, Love your bureaucracy, Send mixed messages and Be afraid of the future. Keough adds one extra rule (not) to live by at the very end, and perhaps is the most applicable commandment to every individual from any walk of life, “Lose your passion for work, and life”.
Each chapter reveals the unglamorous side of the American dream gone wrong. The greed, pride, and ignorance of leaders from the past are disclosed to give first hand examples of how not to “play the game”. Keough’s commandments are centered around the idea that history is doomed to repeat itself. Follow the lead of illegal con artists like Enron and you’re in for a whole world of trouble. Take lessons in pride from Henry Ford who promised the American people, regarding his Model T, “They can have it in any color they want, as long as it’s black” and you will inevitably get pasted up by the competition.
Keough urges his readers to keep their eye on the ball, do the best you can with what you have, and do so ethically. He talks about hard times from his childhood, during the Great Depression, when his family had nothing, but his father worked his way up at a cattle ranch and eventually became the most trusted name in the business from the Atlantic coast to the Midwest. He talks about his own experiences at Cola-Cola, when the company tried to advance America’s favorite soda to the “New Coke.” Blind taste tests revealed that people liked the sweeter version better, but
America went into an uproar about the switch. After millions of calls, complaints, and boycotts, Coca-Cola listened and returned their beloved product back to the market, and Coca-Cola Classic has been in stores ever since.
The commandments are simple and the information invaluable. Each chapter, and thus each commandment, expounds upon the previous one. Keough ties real life examples from his personal experiences at the Coca-Cola Company in with other business tycoons’ mistakes and applies them to the commandment at hand. The tone of the book resembles that of a story, mostly because the majority of information is derived from a past experience or history. For a man who should take a lot of credit for past successes Keough humbles himself to talk about what he’s done wrong, and how he’s learned from his mistakes. I feel that this humane approach not only is a first class example of Commandment Four, “Assume Infallibility”, but also speaks volumes of this author. He doesn’t claim to know all the answers, but he does know how to own up to his own mistakes and right a wrong when he sees one. Quotes from famous writers, scholars and entrepreneurs embellish the pages and really bring home the point Keough is relaying.
I would definitely recommend this book to other students in public relations, management or business in general. I feel that George Keough is a reliable source of sound advice considering his past history with one of the largest and most recognized trademarks in the world, Coca-Cola. The book is an easy read and an intriguing one at that. The chapters are clearly laid out and each truth about business failure is undeniable. Keough knows how to connect with his audience on a personal level. Instead of preaching about the best way to do things right this success guru simply relays the best ways he’s found to do things wrong. In the words of Bill Gates, “Don’s commandments for failure will teach you more about business success than a whole shelf full of books.”
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