Summary of Business Adventures: by John Brooks | Includes Analysis

By Instaread Summaries

Summary of Business Adventures by John Brooks | Includes Analysis 

 

Inside this Instaread Summary:

-Overview of the entrie book

-Introduction to the important people in the book

-Summary and analysis of all the chapters in the book

-Key Takeawa

• Language: English
• Publisher: Instaread, Inc
• Release date: May 17, 2016
• ISBN: 9781683781875

Book preview

Book Overview

Business Adventures was originally published in 1969. It takes a close look at the days when the captains of industry ruled America from their dark-paneled boardrooms filled with cigarette smoke.

John Brooks, who died in 1993, wrote these twelve case histories from American business for the readers of the New Yorker. Though he does not group the chapters in any way, or offer any introduction or conclusion, three major themes emerge. One is that no matter what the era, greed is good could be the mantra of many in the business world.

The second is that sometimes corporations and business people do the right thing, though it may be in spite of themselves. The third is that a little comic relief is always a good thing, and it is easily found in the annals of American business.

The first case history is an example of both greed and doing good. It examines the causes of the 1962 mini-stock market crash, partly fueled by speculators investing with borrowed money, and how serious damage to the world economy was averted by steadfast management in the right places. The second case history follows a very precise look at facts and figures with the comic tale of Ford’s Edsel disaster, a series of colossal missteps that did not, in the end, damage the company or its top executives. The third case history looks at the evolution of the federal income tax and, with it, the largely successful efforts by corporations and wealthy taxpayers to use loopholes to avoid paying as much as possible.

Greed is paramount in the fourth story. It includes an analysis of insider trading at Texas Sulphur, a legal case that resulted in a landmark court decision warning companies that laws against the practice of insider trading were finally going to be enforced. The fifth section looks at the history of Xerox and praises the company for almost always doing the right thing, both in terms of business savvy and community involvement. The sixth case history explores how the New York Stock Exchange stepped up when President Kennedy was assassinated to rescue a major brokerage rocked by