Rating: 4 out of 5
I think this work is primarily interesting because of the emphasis it places on the selected eight leaders doing things that others did not think of and succeeding because of that. To be precise, this must not be read as the validation of doing whatever the rest of the people in the group think, but rather as proof that if one has an idea which seems obvious and provably good, the absence of others doing this shouldn’t deter one.
My main problem with this book was that it was superficial. It rarely went into delineating the exact points of thought, insofar as possible, to note the positives/negatives of the various points. Also, some idea of the internal resistance that these guys had to overcome would have been helpful. As it is right now, the book more recited that X, Y, and Z happened. This makes the companies sound very similar despite the incredibly different industries which are covered here.
With the above in mind, I would regard this as a very good introduction into these people while a more detailed biography of any of these people would probably be more insightful. At the same time, the broad coverage is a benefit to prevent one from falling into the trap of “A works with B and not C”, so perhaps this is a natural stepping stone on the path to reading about the eight CEOs in more detail.
