- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Viking Canada (AHC); 1 edition (Nov 1 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0670045365
- ISBN-13: 978-0670045365
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 626 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #425,388 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Former newspaper baron Conrad Black was infamous for his contempt toward reporters--he called them "swarming, grunting jackals"--and his slash-and-burn policies when it came to firing staff and cutting costs. His animosity was so strong that an associate once said Black's contribution to the world was the three-person newsroom--in which two of the people sell ads. It's ironic then that Black's downfall was largely brought about by an ex-reporter (turned shareholder analyst), Laura Jereski, and is documented in exhaustive detail by Jacquie McNish and Sinclair Stewart, two Globe and Mail reporters. Jereski was largely responsible for starting an investigation into financial inconsistencies at Black's company Hollinger. The investigation eventually led to Black's overthrow as evidence emerged suggesting that he and his advisors were using a holding company to siphon money from Hollinger, allegedly for personal use.
Wrong Way documents the investigation from a wide range of perspectives, including shareholders determined to seize back control of Hollinger and executives within the company who were torn between their loyalty to Black and their sense of responsibility toward the newspapers. It follows investigators as they untangle Hollinger's very intricate chain of documents, following a money trail back to Black and his inner circle. At the same time, the book chronicles the ostentatious life of Black and his wife, Barbara Amiel, who mirrors Imelda Marcos when it comes to excess. (Readers interested in a more comprehensive account of their life may want to check out Richard Siklos's Shades of Black as well.) Wrong Way is simultaneously a real-life thriller--albeit one based largely in corporate forensics--and a portrait of a larger-than-life couple. It's the tale of a man who forever changed the media in Canada, and whose spectacular rise to power was matched only by an equally spectacular fall from grace. --Peter Darbyshire
Review
"A man of Napoleonic ambition." -- Observer
"At Hollinger, Black as both CEO and controlling shareholder, together with his associates, created an entity in which ethical corruption was a defining characteristic of the leadership team." -- from the Report of the Special Committee of the Board of Directors of Hollinger International Inc.
"I have an extravagance that knows no bounds." -- Lady Black
"The Blacks are drawn to power." -- Vanity Fair
"The authors’ access to private letters and e-mails is astonishing. However they got their hands on them, it is gripping stuff." -- Times Online (U.K.)
"Time is running out for Conrad Black...Not since the sinking of Robert Maxwell's Mirror Group has a captain of industry been so swamped." -- Sunday Times
.. ''Wrong Way'' is the way to go. -- New York Times
McNish,long one of Canada's best business writers, and her Toronto Globe & Mail colleague Stewart -- New York Times
have produced a nimble account of Black's final years that does everything the Tombs book doesn't. -- New York Times cont'd
"At Hollinger, Black as both CEO and controlling shareholder, together with his associates, created an entity in which ethical corruption was a defining characteristic of the leadership team." -- from the Report of the Special Committee of the Board of Directors of Hollinger International Inc.
"I have an extravagance that knows no bounds." -- Lady Black
"The Blacks are drawn to power." -- Vanity Fair
"The authors’ access to private letters and e-mails is astonishing. However they got their hands on them, it is gripping stuff." -- Times Online (U.K.)
"Time is running out for Conrad Black...Not since the sinking of Robert Maxwell's Mirror Group has a captain of industry been so swamped." -- Sunday Times
.. ''Wrong Way'' is the way to go. -- New York Times
McNish,long one of Canada's best business writers, and her Toronto Globe & Mail colleague Stewart -- New York Times
have produced a nimble account of Black's final years that does everything the Tombs book doesn't. -- New York Times cont'd
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book, within its self-described limits, April 6 2007
By D. M. Ryan "http://thegoldbubble.blogspot.com" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Wrong Way: The Fall of Conrad Black (Hardcover)
The authors promise a critical examination of Conrad Black and Hollinger International, and that is what they deliver. With the exception of Richard Breeden, and perhaps Christopher Browne, none of the major characters in the book go uncriticized at some point in it. The narrative is not only engrossing, but also is sufficiently fact-driven to allow a reader to draw his or her own conclusions about the causes of the implosion of Hollinger. (It is vaguely worded in spots, but that would only be a drawback for those who would use it as a textbook or monograph.)It also has a new relevance thanks to the current trial of Conrad Black, Peter Atkinson, Jack Boultbee and Mark Kipnis. In fact, a recent prosecution witness, Fred Creasey, could have used this book to refresh his memory before his testimony in the trial. (Near-bottom of p. 53.) One other nice feature of this book is that it quotes the E-mails that Conrad Black wrote, recently excerpted in the media, in more copious detail than those excerpts reveal. This level of detail will satisfy the curiosity of anyone who's already read those quotes.
I have only one quibble with the book, which does not relate to its self-imposed limitation of time scope. In the Epilogue, the authors portray Conrad Black as a relic of a bygone age, but their sense of history is somewhat inaccurate. Rather than being a holdover from the nineteenth century, Conrad Black, to the extent to which he is a relic as a CEO, is a holdover from the management culture of the 1980s. When a proper history of that period is written, it will be found that the grandfather of that era was Frederic Donner, chairman and CEO of General Motors from 1958 to 1967. The ever-growing scandals of shareholder abuse are distorted mirrors of Mr. Donner's image; the distortion comes from the relaxation of Donner's well-known probity.
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