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Richard S. Tedlow

Richard S. Tedlow

MBA Class of 1949 Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus

MBA Class of 1949 Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus

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Richard S. Tedlow is the Class of 1949 Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, where he is a specialist in the history of business.

Professor Tedlow received his B.A. from Yale in 1969 and his M.A. and Ph.D. in history from Columbia in 1971 and 1976 respectively. He came to the Harvard Business School on a fellowship in 1978 and joined the faculty in 1979. From 1979 through 1982, he taught First Year Marketing. His involvement in marketing has continued, and he has been a member of the faculty of the "Strategic Retail Management Seminar," the "Top Management Seminar for Retailers and Suppliers," "Managing Brand Meaning," and the "Strategic Marketing Management" executive education programs. From 1978 to the present, he has been involved in the School's Business History program. In 1992 and 1993, he taught a course entitled "Business, Government, and the International Economy." He has also taught in numerous executive programs at the Harvard Business School as well as at corporations, including programs in marketing strategy and general management. His book -- Giants of Enterprise: Seven Business Innovators and the Empires They Built (HarperBusiness, 2001) -- was selected by Business Week as one of the top ten business books of 2001.

Prof. Tedlow’s book, Andy Grove: The Life and Times of an American, was published by Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin Group USA, in November 2006. It was selected by Business Week as one of the top ten business books of 2006.

Prof. Tedlow's most recent book, Denial: Why Business Leaders Fail to Look Facts in the Face, was published by Portfolio in March, 2010. It was selected by strategy+business as one of the best business books of 2010.

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Richard S. Tedlow
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Featured Work Publications Research Summary
The Emergence of Charismatic Business Leadership
Forthcoming from RosettaBooks in September, 2021

The Emergence of Charismatic Business Leadership is an examination of how the role of the  business leader in the U.S. has changed from World War II to the present.  A small number of high-profile individuals have transformed the face of modern-day leadership, making charisma essential to the task. How and why did this transformation take place?  What does it mean for the future?

In order to answer these and other questions about the increased importance of charisma, we must look at leaders such as Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, and Elon Musk. Today, Jobs is considered the model of the modern charismatic business leader.  It is inconceivable that he would have been the CEO of a major company in 1955, the year he was born. Though all three of these pioneers were once outsiders, they each found success by innovating their management style and using their charisma to champion their clear and ambitious visions.

Through an in-depth account of transformational figures in modern business history, this book demonstrates how charismatic leadership enables the creation of revolutionary new products—the electric car, the smart phone—and makes it possible for members of groups formerly considered “outsiders” to attain power and influence. The book also analyzes the careers of people who used their charisma to deceive, such as Jeff Skilling of Enron and Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos.

Charismatic individuals can lead, but they can also mislead. By looking at historical examples, this book is both inspirational and cautionary.

Denial: Why Business Leaders Fail to Look Facts in the Face--And What to Do About It (March 2010)

Denial -- the unconscious belief that a certain fact is too terrible to face and therefore cannot be true -- has torpedoed many good businesses and more than a few great ones. It turns challenges into crises, and dilemmas into catastrophes. It is one of the greatest obstacles business leaders face.

In Denial, Richard S. Tedlow tackles two essential questions: Why have so many sane, smart leaders refused to accept and act on the facts that threatened their companies and careers? And how have some executives found the courage to resist denial when facing new trends, changing markets, and tough new competitors?

To answer these questions, Tedlow takes an in-depth look at examples of people and organizations that were crippled by denial, including Ford, Coke, and Sears. He also shows how companies like DuPont, Intel, and Johnson & Johnson were able to acknowledge harsh realities about their products, markets, and organizations, and use that information not only to avoid catastrophe, but to achieve greatness.

Finally, Tedlow identifies common signs of denial to look for in your own company such as using jargon to mask trouble, or focusing on a glitzy new headquarters rather than the competition. Denial will always be with us, but some people are particularly skillful at battling it. This book can help you to become one of them.

Order DENIAL at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Borders.

Richard S. Tedlow is the Class of 1949 Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, where he is a specialist in the history of business.

Professor Tedlow received his B.A. from Yale in 1969 and his M.A. and Ph.D. in history from Columbia in 1971 and 1976 respectively. He came to the Harvard Business School on a fellowship in 1978 and joined the faculty in 1979. From 1979 through 1982, he taught First Year Marketing. His involvement in marketing has continued, and he has been a member of the faculty of the "Strategic Retail Management Seminar," the "Top Management Seminar for Retailers and Suppliers," "Managing Brand Meaning," and the "Strategic Marketing Management" executive education programs. From 1978 to the present, he has been involved in the School's Business History program. In 1992 and 1993, he taught a course entitled "Business, Government, and the International Economy." He has also taught in numerous executive programs at the Harvard Business School as well as at corporations, including programs in marketing strategy and general management. His book -- Giants of Enterprise: Seven Business Innovators and the Empires They Built (HarperBusiness, 2001) -- was selected by Business Week as one of the top ten business books of 2001.

Prof. Tedlow’s book, Andy Grove: The Life and Times of an American, was published by Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin Group USA, in November 2006. It was selected by Business Week as one of the top ten business books of 2006.

Prof. Tedlow's most recent book, Denial: Why Business Leaders Fail to Look Facts in the Face, was published by Portfolio in March, 2010. It was selected by strategy+business as one of the best business books of 2010.

Featured Work
The Emergence of Charismatic Business Leadership
Forthcoming from RosettaBooks in September, 2021

The Emergence of Charismatic Business Leadership is an examination of how the role of the  business leader in the U.S. has changed from World War II to the present.  A small number of high-profile individuals have transformed the face of modern-day leadership, making charisma essential to the task. How and why did this transformation take place?  What does it mean for the future?

In order to answer these and other questions about the increased importance of charisma, we must look at leaders such as Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, and Elon Musk. Today, Jobs is considered the model of the modern charismatic business leader.  It is inconceivable that he would have been the CEO of a major company in 1955, the year he was born. Though all three of these pioneers were once outsiders, they each found success by innovating their management style and using their charisma to champion their clear and ambitious visions.

Through an in-depth account of transformational figures in modern business history, this book demonstrates how charismatic leadership enables the creation of revolutionary new products—the electric car, the smart phone—and makes it possible for members of groups formerly considered “outsiders” to attain power and influence. The book also analyzes the careers of people who used their charisma to deceive, such as Jeff Skilling of Enron and Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos.

Charismatic individuals can lead, but they can also mislead. By looking at historical examples, this book is both inspirational and cautionary.

Denial: Why Business Leaders Fail to Look Facts in the Face--And What to Do About It (March 2010)

Denial -- the unconscious belief that a certain fact is too terrible to face and therefore cannot be true -- has torpedoed many good businesses and more than a few great ones. It turns challenges into crises, and dilemmas into catastrophes. It is one of the greatest obstacles business leaders face.

In Denial, Richard S. Tedlow tackles two essential questions: Why have so many sane, smart leaders refused to accept and act on the facts that threatened their companies and careers? And how have some executives found the courage to resist denial when facing new trends, changing markets, and tough new competitors?

To answer these questions, Tedlow takes an in-depth look at examples of people and organizations that were crippled by denial, including Ford, Coke, and Sears. He also shows how companies like DuPont, Intel, and Johnson & Johnson were able to acknowledge harsh realities about their products, markets, and organizations, and use that information not only to avoid catastrophe, but to achieve greatness.

Finally, Tedlow identifies common signs of denial to look for in your own company such as using jargon to mask trouble, or focusing on a glitzy new headquarters rather than the competition. Denial will always be with us, but some people are particularly skillful at battling it. This book can help you to become one of them.

Order DENIAL at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Borders.

Books
  • Tedlow, Richard S. The Emergence of Charismatic Business Leadership. New York: RosettaBooks, 2021. View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. Denial: Why Business Leaders Fail to Look Facts in the Face--and What to Do About It. Portfolio, 2010. View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. Andy Grove: The Life and Times of an American. New York, NY: Portfolio, 2006. (Selected as one of the 10 best business books of the year 2006 by Business Week and The Times of India.) View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. The Watson Dynasty: The Fiery Reign and Troubled Legacy of IBM's Founding Father and Son. New York: Harper Business, 2003. View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. Giants of Enterprise: Seven Business Innovators and the Empires They Built. New York, NY: Harper Business, 2001. (Selected as one of the 10 best business books of the year 2001 by Business Week. It has also been translated into 7 languages, including Chinese (complex characters), Chinese (simplified characters), Indonesian, Hungarian, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil) and Russian.) View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. L'Audace et Le Marché: L'Invention du Marketing aux Etats-Unis. Paris, France: Éditions Odile Jacob, 1997, French ed. (Translated into French.) View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. New and Improved: The Story of Mass Marketing in America. 2nd ed. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1996. View Details
  • Chandler, A. D., Jr., T. K. McCraw, and R. S. Tedlow. Management Past and Present: A Casebook on American Business History. Cincinnati: South-Western College Publishing, 1996. View Details
  • Jones, G. and R. S. Tedlow, eds. The Rise and Fall of Mass Marketing. London: Routledge, 1993. View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. New and Improved: The Story of Mass Marketing in America. Tokyo, Japan: Minerva Shobo, 1993, Japanese ed. (Translated into Japanese.) View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. The Rise of the American Business Corporation. Chur, Switzerland: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1991. View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. New and Improved: The Story of Mass Marketing in America. U.K.: Heinemann, 1990. (United Kingdom edition.) View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. New and Improved: The Story of Mass Marketing in America. New York: Basic Books, 1990. View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. Keeping the Corporate Image: Public Relations and Business, 1900-1950. Japan: Yushodo Press, 1989, Japanese ed. (Translated into Japanese.) View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S., and R. John Jr. Managing Big Business: Essays from the Business History Review. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1986. View Details
  • Chandler, A. D., Jr., and R. S. Tedlow. The Coming of Managerial Capitalism: A Casebook on the History of American Economic Institutions. Homewood, IL: Richard D. Irwin, 1985. View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. The Coming of Managerial Capitalism: Case Commentary and Teaching Technique. Homewood, IL: Richard D. Irwin, 1985. View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. Keeping the Corporate Image: Public Relations and Business, 1900-1950. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1979. View Details
Journal Articles
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "The Sky above and the Mud below: Two Books about Steve Jobs." Business History Review 94, no. 4 (Winter 2020): 835–852. (Review essay.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Don't Deny the Facts." Investor's Business Daily (April 27, 2010). (A conversation with Richard Tedlow, by Michael Mink.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Toyota Was in Denial. How About You?" Bloomberg Businessweek (April 8, 2010). View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Nothing to See Here: Richard Tedlow Explains Why So Many CEOs Refuse to Confront the Truth." Conference Board Review 47, no. 3 (Spring 2010). (A conversation with Richard Tedlow, by Matthew Budman.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Admit It: You're in Denial." Washingtonpost.com (February 26, 2010). View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Book Excerpt: Denial at Sears." Bloomberg Businessweek Online (February 26, 2010). View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S., and David Ruben. "Sears' Edifice Complex." Forbes.com (July 10, 2009). View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S., and David Ruben. "GM: The World We Have Lost." Boston Globe (June 3, 2009). View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S., and David Ruben. "Fast Track the New President." Boston Globe (October 15, 2008). View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Leaders in Denial." HBS Centennial Issue Harvard Business Review 86, nos. 7/8 (July–August 2008). View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Will History Happen to You?" Times of India (March 25, 2008). View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S., and David Ruben. "The Dangers of Wishful Thinking." The American: A Magazine of Ideas (January–February 2008). View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "The Intellectual History of Harvard Business School." Harvard Business School Working Knowledge (May 7, 2008). View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "The Valley of Death." Core: A Publication of the Computer History Museum (2008). View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Call It the 'Andy Amendment'." Los Angeles Times (February 4, 2007). View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Inside Intel: The Art of Andy Grove." HBS Alumni Bulletin (December 2006), 26–31. View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "The Education of Andy Grove." Fortune 152, no. 12 (December 12, 2005). View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "The Business Strategies of Fathers and Sons: An American Firm in the Twentieth Century." Aetas: Journal of History and Related Disciplines 20, nos. 1-2 (2005): 52–68. View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S., and Walter Friedman. "Statistical Portraits of American Business Elites: A Review Essay." Business History 45, no. 4 (October 2003): 89–113. View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "Identity Crisis: CEO James Adamson needs to figure out what Kmart is and how to manage its competition." Special Issue on June 2002 CEO Forum: Online. Chief Executive (June 2002). View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "What Titans Can Teach Us." Harvard Business Review 79, no. 11 (December 2001): 70–79. (Reprinted in Harvard Business Review on Leadership at the Top.) View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "How the Giants of Enterprise Seized the Future." Harvard Business School Working Knowledge (July 23, 2001). View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "Sam Walton: Great from the Start." Harvard Business School Working Knowledge (July 23, 2001). View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "The Making of the Modern Company." Business Week (August 28, 2000). View Details
  • Christensen, Clayton M., and R. S. Tedlow. "Patterns of Disruption in Retailing." Harvard Business Review 78, no. 1 (January–February 2000): 42–45. View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "Remembering Roland Marchand." Business History Review 72, no. 1 (Spring 1998). View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "In the Grip of the Dumb Machine." Times-Picayune (July 19, 1998). View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "The Beginning of Mass Marketing in America: George Eastman and Photography as a Case Study." Journal of Macromarketing 17, no. 2 (Fall 1997). View Details
  • Sull, D., R. Tedlow, and R. Rosenbloom. "Managerial Commitments and Technological Change in the U.S. Tire Industry." Industrial and Corporate Change 6, no. 2 (March 1997): 461–501. View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "Roadkill on the Information Superhighway." Harvard Business Review 74, no. 6 (November–December 1996). View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Tires and the Nature of Life." Harvard Business School Bulletin (November/December 1996). View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S., Benson P. Shapiro, and Adrian Jurij Slywotzky. "Why Bad Things Happen to Good Companies." Strategy & Business, no. 3 (Second Quarter 1996): 16–26. View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S., Benson P. Shapiro, and Adrian Jurij Slywotzky. "Why Great Companies Go Wrong." New York Times (November 6, 1994). View Details
  • Koehn, Nancy F., Thomas R. Piper, V. Kasturi Rangan, and Richard S. Tedlow. "Making Choices: Aspects of the History of the Harvard Business School MBA Program." MBA Leadership and Learning (1992). View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S., and M. Marram. "The Case of AIDS." Harvard Business Review 69, no. 6 (November–December 1991): 14–20. View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "Segmentation versus the Mass Market." World Link (March–April 1991). View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S., and Reed Hundt. "'Giants Lose Three Straight; Nazi Armies Take Paris': Commencement Week for the Harvard Class of 1940." Harvard Magazine (July 1990). View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "Automobile Marketing in the Context of American Business History." Gérer et comprendre 18 (March 1990): 68–89. View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Henry Ford Savait-Il Vendre les Voitures?" Gérer et comprendre 18 (March 1990): 68–89. View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "The Process of Economic Concentration in the American Economy." Zeitschrift für Unternehmensgeschichte (1988): 91–111. View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "The Struggle for Dominance in the Automobile Market: The Early Years of Ford and General Motors." Business and Economic History 17 (1988): 49–62. View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S., and John A. Quelch. "Communications Strategy for the Nation-State." Public Relations Journal 37, no. 6 (June 1981): 22–25. View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "From Competitor to Consumer: The Changing Focus of Federal Regulation of Advertising, 1914-1938." Business History Review 55, no. 1 (spring 1981). View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "Intellect on Television: The Quiz Show Scandals of the 1950's." American Quarterly 28, no. 4 (fall 1976): 483–495. View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "The National Association of Manufacturers and Public Relations during the New Deal." Business History Review 50, no. 1 (spring 1976): 25–45. View Details
Book Chapters
  • Tedlow, Richard S., and Rawi Abdelal. "Theodore Levitt's 'The Globalization of Markets': An Evaluation After Two Decades." In The Global Market: Developing a Strategy to Manage Across Borders, edited by John A. Quelch and Rohit Deshpandé, 11–30. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2004. View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "What the Titans Can Teach Us." In Harvard Business Review on Breakthrough Leadership. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2002. View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "George Eastman." In Oxford Encyclopedia of American History. Oxford University Press, 2001. View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "Mass Marketing." In The Oxford Companion to United States History, edited by M. Urofsky. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "Marketing." In Encyclopedia of the United States in the Twentieth Century. Edited by S. I. Kutler. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1996. View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "The Fourth Phase of Marketing: The History of Marketing and the Business World Today." In The Rise and Fall of Mass Marketing, edited by G. Jones and R. S. Tedlow. London: Routledge, 1993. View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "The Rise of the American Business Corporation." In Fundamentals of Pure and Applied Economics. Chur, Switzerland: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1991. View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "Advertising." In The Reader's Companion to American History, edited by E. Foner and J. A. Garraty. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991. View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "Trade Associations and Public Relations." In Trade Associations in Business History, edited by Hiroaki Yamazaki and Matao Miyamoto. University of Tokyo Press, 1988. View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Business History in the United States: Past Accomplishments and Future Directions." In Annali Di Storia Dell' Impresa, edited by Richard S. Tedlow., 1985. View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "Advertising and Public Relations." In Encyclopedia of American Economic History, edited by G. Porter, 677–695. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1980. View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "Judah P. Benjamin." In Turn to the South, edited by Nathan M. Kaganoff and Melvin I. Urofsky. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1979. View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "Essay on Advertising Executive Albert D. Lasker." In Dictionary of American Biography. 2nd ed., 410–412. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1977. View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "Essay on Industrial Psychologist Henry C. Link." In Dictionary of American Biography. 2nd ed., 433–434. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1977. View Details
Working Papers
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Andrew S. Grove's Swimming Across: A Memoir in Historical Context." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 04-050, March 2004. View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S., Courtney Purrington, and Kim Eric Bettcher. "The American CEO in the Twentieth Century: Demography and Career Path." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 03-097, February 2003. View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Charles Revson and Revlon." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 00-032, October 1999. View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Some Aspects of the Life and Career of Andrew Carnegie." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 99-134, August 1999. View Details
  • Friedman, Walter, and Richard S. Tedlow. "The Visible Man: An Historiographical Investigation of Quantitative Studies of American Business Leadership." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 98-101, May 1998. View Details
  • Sull, Donald N., Richard S. Tedlow, and Richard S. Rosenbloom. "Managerial Commitments and Technological Change in the US Tire Industry." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 97-070, April 1997. View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Henry Ford: The Profits and the Price of Primitivism." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 97-051, January 1997. View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "The Manichean World of George Eastman." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 97-033, December 1996. View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "The American Business Tradition: In Search of a Methodology." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 97-032, November 1996. View Details
Cases and Teaching Materials
  • Tedlow, Richard S., and David Ruben. "Incentive or Insult? The Case of Joe Torre and the New York Yankees." Harvard Business School Case 810-074, November 2009. View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S., and David Ruben. "J.P. Morgan." Harvard Business School Case 810-052, September 2009. View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S., and David Ruben. "Sole-Sourcing the Intel 386: A Company and Industry Transformed." Harvard Business School Case 809-076, November 2008. (Revised June 2009.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S., and Heather Beckham. "Harrington Collection: Sizing Up the Active-Wear Market." Harvard Business School Brief Case 083-258, September 2008. View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S., and Heather Beckham. "Harrington Collection: Sizing Up the Active-Wear Market (Brief Case)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 083-259, September 2008. View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S., and David Ruben. "Du Pont: The Birth of the Modern Multidivisional Corporation." Harvard Business School Case 809-012, August 2008. View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "The Historical Development of the Harvard Business School (A)." Harvard Business School Case 808-148, April 2008. View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "The Historical Development of the Harvard Business School (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 808-149, April 2008. View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Benjamin Franklin and the Definition of American Values." Harvard Business School Case 383-160, March 1983. (Revised March 2008.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S., and Wendy Smith. "James Burke: A Career in American Business (A)." Harvard Business School Case 389-177, April 1989. (Revised October 2005.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S., and Wendy Smith. "James Burke: A Career in American Business (B)." Harvard Business School Case 390-030, August 1989. (Revised October 2005.) View Details
  • Poorvu, William J., Richard S. Tedlow, and Daniel J. Rudd. "Westfield America." Harvard Business School Case 899-260, May 1999. (Revised August 1999.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Levi Strauss & Co. and the AIDS Crisis." Harvard Business School Case 391-198, April 1991. (Revised November 1997.) View Details
  • Cuff, Robert D., and Richard S. Tedlow. "Organizational Capabilities and U.S. War Production: The Controlled Materials Plan of World War II." Harvard Business School Case 390-166, April 1990. (Revised August 1997.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S., and James Weber. "Communications Revolution, The : 1995." Harvard Business School Case 796-081, November 1995. View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Chain Stores TN." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 396-048, August 1995. View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Benjamin Franklin and the Definition of American Values, Teaching Note." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 384-111, October 1983. (Revised August 1995.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "John Jacob Astor--1763-1848, Teaching Note." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 384-117, October 1983. (Revised August 1995.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Second Bank of the United States, Teaching Note." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 384-122, March 1985. (Revised August 1995.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Coming of the Railroads, Teaching Note." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 384-201, January 1984. (Revised August 1995.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Nineteenth Century Retailing and the Rise of the Department Store, Teaching Note." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 384-215, March 1984. (Revised August 1995.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Standard Oil Co.: Combination, Consolidation, and Integration, Teaching Note." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 384-225, April 1984. (Revised August 1995.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Organized Labor and the Worker, Teaching Note." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 384-262, May 1984. (Revised August 1995.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Labor Movement Between the Wars, Teaching Note." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 384-269, June 1984. (Revised August 1995.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Rise of the New York Port, Teaching Note." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 384-121, October 1983. (Revised July 1995.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Railroad Problem and the Solution." Harvard Business School Case 384-032, August 1983. (Revised March 1995.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Nineteenth Century Retailing and the Rise of the Department Store." Harvard Business School Case 384-022, August 1983. (Revised March 1995.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Federal Government and Employment." Harvard Business School Case 384-125, November 1983. (Revised March 1995.) View Details
  • Shapiro, Benson P., Adrian J. Slywotsky, and Richard S. Tedlow. "Why Bad Things Happen to Good Companies." Harvard Business School Background Note 595-045, November 1994. View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Hart Schaffner & Marx: The Market for Separately Ticketed Suits." Harvard Business School Case 582-134, April 1982. (Revised June 1993.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Danton's: The Specialty Store Men's Apparel Business." Harvard Business School Case 583-008, July 1982. (Revised May 1992.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Levi Strauss & Co. and the AIDS Crisis, Video." Harvard Business School Video Supplement 792-510, April 1992. View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Fourth Phase of Marketing: Marketing History and the Business World Today." Harvard Business School Case 391-249, May 1991. View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "James Burke: A Career in American Business (A) and (B), Teaching Note." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 390-015, July 1989. (Revised June 1990.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "James Burke: A Career in American Business, Video." Harvard Business School Video Supplement 890-513, February 1990. View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Hart Schaffner & Marx: The Market for Separately Ticketed Suits, Teaching Note." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 585-056, August 1984. (Revised January 1989.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Glossary of Marketing Terms." Harvard Business School Background Note 582-044, September 1981. (Revised July 1987.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Great Depression: Causes and Impact." Harvard Business School Case 385-010, August 1984. (Revised January 1986.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Decline of the British Cotton Industry." Harvard Business School Background Note 386-078, November 1985. View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Challenge Ahead: Economic Growth, Global Interdependence, and the New Competition, Teaching Note." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 385-292, March 1985. (Revised August 1985.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Great Depression: Causes and Impact, Teaching Note." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 385-054, August 1984. (Revised June 1985.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Conglomerates and the Merger Movement of the 1960s, Teaching Note." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 385-274, March 1985. (Revised June 1985.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Antitrust Movement: Symbolic Politics and Industrial Organization Economics, Teaching Note." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 385-064, August 1984. (Revised June 1985.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Federal Trade Commission and the Shared Monopoly Case against the Ready-to-Eat Cereal Manufacturers, Teaching Note." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 385-109, August 1984. (Revised June 1985.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Multinational Enterprise, Teaching Note." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 385-273, February 1985. (Revised June 1985.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Jordan Marsh Co.: Merchandising Men's Tailored Clothing." Harvard Business School Case 582-149, February 1982. (Revised August 1984.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Mass Production and the Beginnings of Scientific Management, Teaching Note." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 384-256, May 1984. (Revised July 1984.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Antitrust Movement: Symbolic Politics and Industrial Organization Economics." Harvard Business School Case 384-051, August 1983. (Revised July 1984.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Emergence of Managerial Capitalism, Teaching Note." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 384-244, May 1984. (Revised July 1984.) View Details
  • McCraw, Thomas K., and Richard S. Tedlow. "Federal Trade Commission and the Shared Monopoly Case against the Ready-to-Eat Cereal Manufacturers." Harvard Business School Case 384-265, June 1984. View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Rise of the New York Port." Harvard Business School Case 384-023, August 1983. (Revised June 1984.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "From Lean Years to Fat Years: The Labor Movement Between the Wars." Harvard Business School Case 384-104, October 1983. (Revised May 1984.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Casual Male: Off-Price Men's Apparel Retailing." Harvard Business School Case 383-052, November 1982. (Revised June 1983.) View Details
  • McCraw, Thomas K., and Richard S. Tedlow. "Ready to Regulate Ready to Eat (B)." Harvard Business School Case 582-048, November 1981. (Revised January 1983.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "Worcester Textile Co.: Marketing Worsted Fabrics." Harvard Business School Case 383-072, November 1982. View Details
  • McCraw, Thomas K., and Richard S. Tedlow. "Ready to Regulate Ready to Eat (A1)." Harvard Business School Case 381-065, October 1980. (Revised October 1981.) View Details
  • McCraw, Thomas K., and Richard S. Tedlow. "Ready to Regulate Ready to Eat (A2)." Harvard Business School Case 381-066, October 1980. (Revised October 1981.) View Details
Presentations
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "From 'Universalistic Rather than Particularistic' to 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre:' Another look at Chapter 2 of Alfred D. Chandler, Jr.'s Strategy and Structure." Paper presented at the Academy of Management Annual Meeting, August 11, 2008. View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "What the Titans Can Teach Us: Lessons from the Giants of Enterprise." Paper presented at the Harvard Business School Association of Northern California Bay Area Regional Event, February 01, 2005. View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "IBM Since 1993." Paper presented at the HBS Global Leadership Forum, January 23, 2005. View Details
  • Tedlow, R. S. "Intel and IBM in 1993." Paper presented at the HBS Global Leadership Forum, January 22, 2005. View Details
Other Publications and Materials
  • Tedlow, Richard S., and Sean Silverthorne. "The History and Influence of Andy Grove." Harvard Business School Working Knowledge (October 30, 2006). (Interview.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S., Alfred D. Chandler, Nancy F. Koehn, Debora Spar, and Jim Aisner. "Historically Speaking: A Roundtable at HBS." Harvard Business School Working Knowledge (June 23, 2003). (Interview.) View Details
  • Tedlow, Richard S. "The Watsons: IBM's Troubled Legacy." Harvard Business School Working Knowledge (May 24, 2004). View Details
Research Summary
The Emergence of Charismatic Business Leadership

Since World War II, a handful of individuals have helped transform the face of modern-day leadership, making charisma essential to the role.  In The Emergence of Charismatic Business Leadership, Richard S. Tedlow examines how pioneers like Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, and Elon Musk found success by innovating their management style and using their charisma to champion their clear and ambitious visions.

Denial: Why Business Leaders Fail to Look Facts in the Face
Richard S. Tedlow is currently working on a book concerning historical examples of outstanding businesspeople who faced daunting challenges.  The book is divided into two parts:  "Getting It Wrong" and "Getting It Right."  Many times, great businesspeople have simply refused to face reality, and they and their organizations have suffered dreadfully as a result.  The reality of which Prof. Tedlow writes was not only knowable to these businesspeople at the time, it was in fact known by them.  This is not a book that exploits hindsight.  The question which the first half of the book explores is:  Why, knowing that they were facing disaster, did these great businesspeople not change course?  The second part of the book explores business executives facing similarly difficult dilemmas who did change course.  The question with which the book deals is:  Why is it that some people "get it wrong" while others "get it right"?
The American Chief Executive from 1850 to 2000
Richard S. Tedlow's research explores changes in the leadership strategies, styles, and backgrounds of corporate chief executive officers in the United States over the past century and a half. This project has both a qualitative and a quantitative component. The qualitative issues are described and analyzed in his book Giants of Enterprise: Seven Business Leaders and the Empires They Built (New York: HarperBusiness, 2001). The discussion of these seven business visionaries provides a prism through which we can see the evolution of American business and the American chief executive officer over the course of a century and a half. Business Week selected Giants of Enterprise as one of the top 10 business books of 2001. The quantitative side of this research is composed of data gathered on the CEOs of the nation's 250 largest corporations at different points in history. This database consists of demographic information (such as age, income, education, and place of birth) and information on career path (including number of companies worked at, number of jobs held, and number of years in business before reaching the top). Professor Tedlow's most recent book is a dual biography of the Thomas J. Watsons, Sr. and Jr., and the long term impact of their leadership on IBM. Entitled The Watson Dynasty: The Fiery Reign and Troubled Legacy of IBM's Founding Father and Son. This book was published by HarperBusiness in November 2003. Professor Tedlow has just competed Andy Grove: The Life and Times of an American. It is forthcoming from Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin Group USA, on November 2, 2006.
Additional Information
  • DENIAL reviews
  • Read excerpts from DENIAL
  • Recent articles
  • Professor Tedlow in Working Knowledge
Areas of Interest
  • brands and branding
  • business history
  • entrepreneurship
  • leadership
  • management styles
  • Industries
  • advertising
  • computer
  • marketing industry
  • retailing
  • semiconductor
  • tire
  • Geographies
  • North America
  • United States
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DENIAL reviews
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DENIAL reviews

"A wake-up call to be sure that we dont allow ourselves to confuse our maps with the actual territory."

strategy+business "2010 Best Business Books," Winter 2010

"The history of industry is rich with [instances of denial], a number of which Tedlow examines with thorough understanding of both business and psychology."

Publishers Weekly -- starred review, April 19, 2010

"[A] smart new book....a lively history of corporate blind spots and blunders."

Andrea Sachs, Time Magazine "Business Books," March 8, 2010

"Insightful analysis....highly readable, often invigorating."

Hardy Green, Books@DailyFinance, "Facing Up to the Awful Truth," March 27, 2010

"Every single page is a pleasure....Each chapter reads like a great short story....A great read!"

Gaebler.com, "Business Books Worth Reading," March 2, 2010

"An excellent summary and set of examples of a major business problem."

Loyd E. Eskildson, "5 Star Review: Tedlow's Denial," Basil & Spice, April 14, 2010

Extraordinarily informative, as well as eloquent.

Bob Morris, First Friday Book Synopsis, March 4, 2010

"A lively account of the stumbling, fumbling, and occasionally inspired action that has characterized some of Americas most famous companies over the past hundred years."

Roberta Rood, Books to the Ceiling, March 15, 2010

Advance Praise for DENIAL:

"This lucid and scary history of our proclivity to deny uncomfortable truth is Richard Tedlow at his analytical best. But plan ahead before you pick it up. It is very hard to put down."

-CLAYTON M. CHRISTENSEN, Author of The Innovator's Dilemma

 "Richard Tedlow blends historical rigor with practical insights useful to today's leaders-a rare and wonderful combination. His huge lesson-that the seeds of tragic demise are almost always visible, if only leaders would face them square-on-should terrify any successful person."

-JIM COLLINS, author Good to Great and How the Mighty Fall

 "In this absorbing study, Tedlow makes the case that the willingness to face harsh facts is what distinguishes great leaders from merely adequate ones. A must-read."

-SHERYL SANDBERG, COO of Facebook

 "Tedlow's book is a fascinating look at the phenomenon of denial. It's a great explanation of why smart leaders act dumb, and what you can do about it."

-SCOTT ADAMS, creator of Dilbert

 "Tedlow's book forces the business executive to ask: ‘Is this about me?' If the answer is yes, you've got a problem. The stories presented here can help you work your way out of it."

-SUZY WELCH, author of 10-10-10

Read excerpts from DENIAL

The Edifice Complex: Denial at Sears

Book Excerpt: Denial at Sears (BusinessWeek.com, February 26, 2010)

 

From Denial: Why Business Leaders Fail to Look Facts in the Face—and What to Do About It, Richard S. Tedlow tells how the retailer let ego get the best of it

By Richard S. Tedlow

 

Beware the monument.

Please bear with me for a moment and read the following short poem that Shelley published in 1818, entitled Ozymandias:

I met a traveler from an antique land

Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read,

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed.

And on the pedestal these words appear

quot;My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Ozymandias was a heavy hitter in days gone by. He built a huge statue of and to himself. If the meaning of the statue was not clear enough, he had inscribed on the pedestal that he was such a big shot that "ye [other] Mighty" were reduced to despairing at his magnificence.

But, look! The ruins of the statue were all that survived, and it has become nothing more than a "colossal wreck." Whatever the "works" were that should have caused despair to the mighty have now disappeared into the sands of time.

Gordon Metcalf became CEO of Sears in 1967. Odds are, he had never read Shelley's poem. "Being the largest retailer in the world," he said, "we thought we should have the largest headquarters in the world." So, just as cracks began to appear in the armor of Sears—despite a seemingly robust bottom line, some metrics, like return on equity and employee productivity, had begun to flag—Metcalf decreed that Sears would construct the world's tallest building. The 110-story Sears Tower, renamed Willis Tower in 2009, came to be known as "Gordon Metcalf's last erection."

On the surface, Metcalf's explanation for building the Tower seems to make sense. But when you really think about it, it doesn't. The two clauses have nothing to do with one another, and the declaration cannot survive one single word: Why? Why is it that the world's largest retailer should have the world's largest headquarters?

In 1993, when Intel was experiencing its spectacular growth, CEO Andy Grove, like the rest of the company's employees, had not an office but a cubicle. It was tiny. Fortune, in a clever variant of a classic retail metric, conducted a return to the shareholders survey that year. It measured return to the shareholders per square foot of the CEO's office. Grove led the pack by far, as Intel returned $1.64 per square foot of his cubicle.

It was not apparent that Intel needed a giant building to celebrate how wonderful it was. Why was it so obvious at Sears?

Building monuments deserves a file drawer along with trash talking when you are looking for companies in denial. I recall interviewing top executives in the Sears Tower in the summer of 1980. The pictures on their walls were quite beautiful. I wondered whether the average Sears customer could have afforded the frames. The furniture was plush. It didn't look like it came off the floor of a Sears store.

I remember looking out the windows. The view up Chicago's lakeshore was spectacular. And there was not a competitor in sight. The people down below looked like ants. Those ants were supposed to be Sears's customers. Of all industries, it is most important for a retailer to keep his or her ear to the ground. The Tower was a symbolic denial of that reality.

The year the Tower was dedicated, 1973, was the first year of the chairmanship of Arthur Wood. Writer Donald Katz described him as "patrician," "elegant," "the consummate old-world gentleman-businessman." His opulent office included works from his private art collection by Degas and Monet.

Wood was unlike Kmart's great merchant Harry Cunningham. An even bigger problem is that he was the antithesis of the incomparable Sam Walton.

Just prior to the first oil shock in 1973, retail sales in the United States began to decline in real terms. Sears's economist (this is prior to the oil shock) felt the country was looking at a severe recession the following year. A "senior officer" of the company, according to Katz, told the economist that if he publicized an official forecast to this effect, he would be fired. There appears to be a persistent belief in once-great companies that have lost their way that if you simply avoid speaking the blunt truth, all the problems will just go away. It is almost as if by telling the truth, you are endowing problems with a reality that they would not otherwise have. It is this brand of magical thinking that leads to shooting the messenger.

Sales in 1974 actually increased seven percent, which would not have been bad if the company had not forecast a rise of fifteen. Profits were off almost a quarter, a dramatically steep slide. Here indeed is the essence of the problem of denial. Reality is always just around the corner.

Sears wandered in the wilderness amid intermittent signs of life from 1973 until it was bought by Kmart owner Eddie Lampert in 2005. The company abandoned its Tower in 1992, a year in which it lost almost $4 billion, and relocated outside of Chicago to a town called Hoffman Estates. Kmart adopted Sears's name and the combined company is today called Sears Holdings.

Sears began to hire consultants in the 1970s, but they were no more helpful than the homegrown executives. Sears convinced itself that its market was "saturated." The way to grow, therefore, was to enter whole new lines of business. The company bought the real estate franchise Coldwell Banker and the financial broker Dean Witter. Why the company's CEOs thought they would do better managing businesses in industries they did not understand than they would in general merchandise retailing remains one of life's mysteries.

In fact, there was a fortune to be made in the very classes of trade in which Sears made its name. We know this—and everyone at Sears should have known it at the time—because Wal-Mart's spectacular success was no secret. Sam Walton had become the richest man in the world. He dressed in a grass skirt and did the hula on Wall Street itself in 1984 because Wal-Mart's stock had so outperformed what he had bet it would be. You had to be wallowing pretty deeply in denial to miss this.

Sears executives should have been focused on nothing else. Instead, they were playing around with the "store of the future" and telling themselves they would succeed selling "socks and stocks."

For the sake of symmetry, we should note that Walton did not pay much attention to Sears. In his autobiography, he only mentioned it once, and not very flatteringly. "One reason Sears fell so far off the pace is that they wouldn't admit for the longest time that Wal-Mart and Kmart were their real competition," he wrote. "They ignored both of us, and we both blew right by them."

It has often been observed there are no mature markets, only tired marketers. Unfortunately, nobody at Sears was making that observation, and there is no company which it described—or which demonstrates the pitfalls of denial—more perfectly.

Adapted from Denial by Richard S. Tedlow by arrangement with Portfolio, a member of Penguin Group (USA), Inc., Copyright © 2010 by Richard S. Tedlow.

Introduction to DENIAL

THIS BOOK is being written in the midst of the worst global economic crisis since the Great Depression. How, when, and indeed if the crisis will end no one knows. But whatever the future holds and the postmortems reveal about the crisis, one culprit is abundantly clear: denial.

Denial by financiers who pursued short-term gain while ignoring long- term consequences that were highly likely, if not inevitable. Denial by the banking and real-estate industries that what goes up can come down.

Denial by homeowners and consumers that the bills for goods bought on credit will someday come due.

Denial by investors who convinced themselves, once again, that “this time, it’s different.”

Denial by politicians and bureaucrats of inconvenient truths that didn’t fit their free-market ideology.

Denial even by swindlers whose Ponzi schemes could only end in disaster, not just for their victims but for themselves.

Denial today is all around us. Eliot Spitzer, the governor of New York (who made his name while the state’s attorney general as the “watchdog of Wall Street”), was in March 2008 caught patronizing a high-priced prostitute in a fancy Washington hotel. It quickly came out that this was not his first such dalliance. Later, after he had resigned as governor because of the scandal, Spitzer was asked by a television interviewer how a well-known politician such as himself could possibly have expected to get away with such behavior. “[Being caught] crossed my mind,” he replied, “but like many things in life, you ignore the obvious at a certain moment because you simply don’t want to confront it.”

If you’re looking for a succinct expression of the essence of denial, it would be hard to do better than this. You ignore the obvious. Why? Because you simply don’t want to confront it. You know the consequences, but you don’t know. You see, but you don’t see.

Denial is the unconscious calculus that if an unpleasant reality were true, it would be too terrible, so therefore it cannot be true. It is what Sigmund Freud described as the combination of “knowing with not knowing.” It is, in George Orwell’s blunt formulation, “protective stupidity.”

From the young child who insists that his parents haven’t separated even though his father has moved out, to the alcoholic who swears he is just a social drinker, to the president who declares “mission accomplished” when it isn’t, denial permeates every facet of life. Business is no exception. In fact, denial may be the biggest and potentially most ruinous problem that businesses face, from start-ups to mature, powerful corporations.

But surely businesspeople ought to be among the most hardheaded and clear-eyed among us. Why would a sane, smart person deny a fact of critical importance to his or her business? Because, to state the obvious, he or she is human. And the impulse to avoid painful truths, just like the impulse to avoid pain itself, is a part of human nature.

I have been teaching and writing about business history for four decades, and what is striking about the dozens of companies and CEOs I have studied is the large number of them who have made mistakes that could and should have been avoided, not just with the benefit of hindsight, but on the basis of information available to decision-makers right then and there, in real time. These mistakes resulted from individuals denying reality.

Denial is a pervasive problem not only historically but today. It seduces not only dreamers but the most rational people among us. Why is it seductive? Because it is soothing. It is convenient. It allows us to live in a world of our own creation—while it lasts. It permits us an “as if ” existence. We live “as if ” things were the way we want them to be, rather than the way they are.

But this is only part of the seduction. Denial sometimes actually works. Plenty of entrepreneurs have succeeded even though others denied they had a chance. The overwhelming majority of new businesses fail. Everyone who starts a business denies that the statistics apply in his or her case.

Even denial in the face of certain catastrophe is not necessarily irrational. The inevitability of catastrophe does not mean that we personally will suffer its consequences. Our successors or descendants may pay the price instead. “Après moi, le déluge” was the famous phrase attributed to Louis XV. “After me, the deluge.” He did not use the preposition pendant, which means “during.”

Anyone could increase the profits of Procter & Gamble this year by eliminating the advertising for Tide. It would be a terrible blow to the brand in the long term, but sales might not slump too badly right away. A decision like that would be so obvious that it would make news. However, the same result could be achieved in a thousand less public ways throughout the corporate world.

Even in the case of certain catastrophe, denial can be an intelligent strategy. Permit me to provide a personal illustration. As my late wife was dying of cancer, she once said to me that we should declare a forthcoming holiday a “disease-free weekend.” I immediately agreed. Denial was automatic and complete. We lived “as if” she were healthy. She bought us four wonderful days in the face of the abyss.

Denial is seductive because it can work in the short term. Occasionally it works in the long term, but that is rarely true in business. In business, pretending that things are better than they are virtually ensures failure.

As we have noted, however, denial is a part of human nature. You can never avoid it completely, and its avoidance is not a matter of raw intelligence. The protagonists in the first part of this book were not stupid. If they could succumb to denial, anyone can.

Yet as the second part of the book shows, some people rise above denial and stare reality unblinkingly in the face. These exemplars of courage and clarity are remarkable and merit scrutiny. Indeed, the British sociologist Stanley Cohen suggests that denial is so common that rather than trying to fathom why we deny, we should instead focus on when and why we do not. “When do people pay attention?” he asks. “When do they recognize the significance of what they know? When will they be aroused to act, even at personal risk?”

Shedding light on these questions is the aim of this book. Discovering who got it right, who got it wrong, and why may help us to answer them and move us closer to our goal. A goal that should be no more or less than this: to confront more than we deny.

Adapted from Denial by Richard S. Tedlow by arrangement with Portfolio, a member of Penguin Group (USA), Inc., Copyright © 2010 by Richard S. Tedlow.

 


Recent articles

Don't Deny the Facts

Investor's Business Daily, April 27, 2010

The ability to see facts objectively is paramount to business success. An interview with Richard S. Tedlow.

Nothing to See Here: Richard Tedlow Explains Why So Many CEOs Refuse to Confront the Truth

The Conference Board Review, Spring 2010

Q&A with Richard S. Tedlow about his new book, Denial: Why Business Leaders Fail to Look Facts in the Face.

Toyota Was in Denial. How About You?

By Richard S. Tedlow, BusinessWeek, April 8, 2010

You can just shake your head at Toyota's obvious denial of reality. Or you can take a hard look at your own company.

Ruthlessly Realistic: How CEOs Must Overcome Denial

HBS Working Knowledge, March 29, 2010

In this Q&A, Richard S. Tedlow discusses how denial can cripple a company, and what can be done about it.

Admit It: You're In Denial

By Richard S. Tedlow, The Washington Post, "On Leadership," February 26, 2010

There is no foolproof way to escape denial. But there are tell-tale signs of its presence in an organization.

Sears' Edifice Complex

By Richard S. Tedlow and David Ruben, Forbes.com, July 10, 2009

If you are involved in a company that decides to immortalize itself in glass and steel, proceed with caution.

GM and the World We Have Lost

By Richard S. Tedlow and David Ruben, The Boston Globe, June 3, 2009

The bankruptcy of General Motors Corp. is one tree falling in the forest that every American ought to hear.

Fast Track the New President

By Richard S. Tedlow and David Ruben, The Boston Globe, October 15, 2008

Most free nations change administrations with far greater dispatch than does the U.S. We can fix our system now, before it causes irreparable harm. Why wait?

Leaders in Denial

By Richard S. Tedlow, HBS Centennial Issue, Harvard Business Review 86, nos. 7/8 (July - August 2008)

History has lessons to teach about the role of denial in the decline of companies. The stubborn refusal of the U.S. automobile industry to admit the changeability of consumer demand is one of the best examples.

Will History Happen to You?

By Richard S. Tedlow, The Times of India, March 25, 2008.

Why is it that great firms -- companies with the smartest executives and the most powerful competitive advantages -- persist in the mistakes of their predecessors?

The Dangers of Wishful Thinking

By Richard S. Tedlow and David Ruben, The American, February 2008

Too many U.S. businesses have been infected with the disease of denial. The answer? In Lincoln’s words, "We must disenthrall ourselves."

Areas of Interest

brands and branding
business history
entrepreneurship
leadership
management styles
 More

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advertising
computer
marketing industry
retailing
semiconductor
tire

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