Steve Miller (9)

Business books, and especially war-story type memoirs, can often be pedantic without actually providing much substance. Miller beautifully avoids this pitfall and writes an excellent book that provides a look both at Miller personally and at the business situations he handled in his varied and interesting career. I would highly recommend this book to anyone at all interested in the problems facing modern business, particularly old-line businesses like the auto makers and steel industrial show more giants that Miller assisted. The first chapter is also a quite lovely tribute to Miller's wife of nearly forty years who died of brain cancer in 2006.

Overall, the book occasionally bogged down into too much description of the names and personalities of the individuals with whom Miller worked, but was mostly highly readable and worthwhile. Miller gives a clear picture of the job of a top consultant faced with companies in crisis and was willing to give a more clear and honest account of the problems and difficult compromises he was forced to make to try to bring these companies back from the brink of failure. The book is a valuable addition to the universe both of business books and memoirs.

In the final chapter Miller gives his perspective on the grand problems of pension plan liabilities and health care costs. His suggestions are sweeping and do not actually provide action plans so much as identify known problems. Nonetheless, because the book was so well-written and thoughtful, Miller seemed to earn the right to comment on these larger problems facing companies. show less