The Halo Effect.. and the Eight Other Business Delusions that Deceive Managers

Phil Rosenzweig's The Halo Effect is among the 10 best business books of all time in this humble author's opinion.  He deftly tears into much of the business literature and demonstrates that the research and numbers frequently don't hold water.

In a nutshell here is his thesis: "Stories of inspiration may give us comfort but have little more predictive power than a pair of coconut headsets on a tropical island. Instead managers would do better to understand that business success is relative, not absolute, and that competitive advantage demands calculated risks."