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Why They Do It cover art

Why They Do It

Written by: Eugene Soltes
Narrated by: Johnny Heller, Eugene Soltes
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Publisher's Summary

Rarely does a week go by without a well-known executive being indicted for engaging in a white-collar crime. Perplexed as to what drives successful, wealthy people to risk it all, Harvard Business School professor Eugene Soltes spent seven years in the company of the men behind the largest corporate crimes in history - from the financial fraudsters of Enron, to the embezzlers at Tyco, to the Ponzi schemers Bernie Madoff and Allen Stanford.

Soltes refutes popular explanations of why seemingly successful executives engage in crime. White-collar criminals, he shows, are not merely driven by excessive greed or hubris, nor do they usually carefully calculate the costs and benefits before breaking the law. Instead, he shows that most of these executives make decisions the way we all do - on the basis of their intuitions and gut feelings.

Based on extensive interaction with nearly 50 former executives, Soltes provides insights into why some saw the immediate effects of misconduct as positive, why executives often don't feel the emotions most people would expect, and how acceptable norms in the business community can differ from those of the broader society.

©2016 Eugene Soltes (P)2016 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
Criminology True Crime Workplace & Organizational Behaviour Economics Criminal Minds White Collar Crime
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Profile Image for Roberta W

Forks in the road

Insightful, but not so memorable...

I forgot to review this book right after finishing it, and although its only been a week or two, I barely remember it.

I guess it was ok, it kept my attention.

As I write this, a couple of stories are coming back to me...

Interesting to learn about the forks in the road when people made a poor judgement call, then couldn't (or wouldn't) go back.

I can't say I now know why they did it, because my mind never works like those described, but it was insightful.

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