1. Why Smart Executives Fail
What Can Studying Failure Tell You?

Part I: Great Corporate Mistakes
2. New Business Breakdowns
Stories of New Ventures That Don't Work...and Why

3. Innovation and Change
Choosing Not to Cope

4. Mergers and Acquisitions
The Search for Synergy, the Quest for Integration

Strategy Gone Bad: Doing the Wrong Thing
Why Strategists Misread Competitors and Select "Irrational" Strategies

Part II: The Causes of Failure
6. Brilliantly Fulfilling the Wring Vision
How Executive Mind-set Failures Push Businesses to the Brink...and Beyond

7. Delusions of a Dream Company
How Executives Avoid Facing Reality

8. Tracking Down the Lost Signals
Why Businesses Don't Act on Vital Information

9. Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful People
The Personal Qualities of Leaders Who Preside over Major Business failures

Part III: Learning From Mistakes
10. Predicting the Future
The Early Warning Signs

11. How Smart Executives Learn
Living-and Surviving-in a World of Mistakes

Notes
Index