Why do some companies prosper while others fail? Despite great amounts of research, many of the studies that claim to pin down the secret of success are based on pseudoscience. The Halo Effect highlights the tendency of experts to point to the high financial performance of a successful company and then spread its golden glow to all of the company's attributes - clear strategy, strong values, and brilliant leadership. But in fact, as Rosenzweig clearly illustrates, the experts are not just wrong, but deluded. In this irreverent and witty book, the author shows how to truly understand business performance and suggests a more accurate way to think about leading a company, a robust and clear-headed approach that can save any business from ultimate failure. Since publication, the world economy has been hit by another financial crisis and Rosenzweig, in two completely new chapters, analyses how mistakes were made as a result of the halo effect and shows how business commentators can still be blinded by strong profits. The Halo Effect continues to be a crucial tool in understanding businesses today. 'Almost everything you thought you knew about business success is wrong. Rosenzweig shatters some of our most cherished beliefs with serious, deep scepticism.

Marvellous' Financial Times 'A thorough, occasionally devastating, de-boning of a clutch of business books and popular business reporting' Guardian 'Immensely readable . Rosenzweig crafts his narrative well' Harvard Business Review Phil Rosenzweig is a professor at IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he works with leading companies on questions of strategy and organization. He earned his Ph.D. from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and spent six years on the faculty of Harvard Business School.