By C Byron
John Wiley & Sons, 2005
$26.95
At first glance this book seems more at home with the likes of Jackie Collins and Jilly Cooper et al. All scandal and sex! Testosterone Inc: Tales of CEOs Gone Wild has no high brow literary designs on itself. The title alone may be enough to discourage HR professionals from looking at it twice, but they definitely should because Bryon hasn’t produced a pot boiler. What he has written is a well researched and composed study of egomania.
Testosterone Inc is the story of four celebrity CEOs of 1980s and 1990s whose careers were hijacked by their own stupidity – or biology, if you believe Byron’s central argument. Testosterone motivated these accomplished businessmen to jeopardise their careers and reputations by engaging in trashy affairs, divorcing loyal wives and stealing company money.
Unfortunately all subjects declined to be interviewed so there are no first-hand accounts to corroborate (or refute) his theory. But Byron has done his homework and managed to examine some 15,000 documents and interview 90 people for this book. As a study of the extreme alpha-male behaviour of which some men are capable Testosterone Inc is truly alarming. Unfortunately men acting like wild teenage boys well into their fifties and beyond is nothing new – even in the workplace.