Book Excerpt

The Fiefdom Syndrome : The Turf Battles that Undermine Careers and Companies – and How to Overcome Them –

This book published in 2004 by Bob Herbold tackles the following issue:

There is a simmering and potentially infectious condition inside virtually all organizations and it can lead to massive operational inefficiencies and strategic mediocrity. The problem begins when individuals, groups or divisions try to protect their turf and reshape their environment to gain as much control over it as possible. They become fixated on their own activities, their own careers, and their own territory or turf to the detriment of those around them. People who create such fiefdoms become dangerously insular, losing perspective and awareness of what is happening in the world outside of their own control. They also tend to hoard resources and are determined to do things their own way, often duplicating or complicating what should be done company-wide.

The book tackles this problem; outlining the causes and providing numerous approaches designed to eliminate the problem or to prevent it from ever happening.

A good summary of this book was published in the January-February, 2005 issue of “Chief Executive Magazine” titled “The Fiefdom Syndrome.” To read that article, click here.

What Bill Gates thinks of the Fiefdom Syndrome:

“Turf wars and bureaucracy can undermine even the strongest corporate strategies. Drawing on lessons learned throughout his distinguished career, Bob describes innovative and practical ways to tackle this pervasive problem – and beat The Fiefdom Syndrome.”
Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software Architect, Microsoft Corporation


To read what Hank Paulson, Jamie Dimon, Michael Dell, and others think of this book, click here.

To place an order for this book, go to www.amazon.com or www.barnesandnoble.com and type “The Fiefdom Syndrome” in their search tool.

"Inside Microsoft: Balancing Creativity and Discipline" - Published in the Harvard Business Review, January 2002.

This publication represents a summary of some of the key learnings that Bob Herbold accumulated over his 26 years at Procter and Gamble and 7 years as the COO of Microsoft. Good insights are provided on enabling an organization to be disciplined in those areas where is pays off handsomely to be disciplined ( HR, Finance, IT, Manufacturing, certain parts of Marketing and Sales), and to be creative in the areas where there is a big payoff for creativity(R&D, Product Development, and parts of Sales and Marketing).

To obtain a reprint of this article, send an email providing your name and address to : bherbold@herboldgroup.com

"Breaking Up Corporate Fiefdoms" - Harvard Management Update, published 2003.

This article by Lauren Keller Johnson which appeared in a 2003 issue of this publication is based on an interview of Bob Herbold and summarizes his views on the issue of fiefdoms, turf wars and bureaucracy in corporations, and what to do about them. To read this article, click here.