cover image The Corporate Warriors

The Corporate Warriors

Douglas K. Ramsey. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), $17.95 (261pp) ISBN 978-0-395-35487-2

Industrial competition is a kind of war, argues NBC news correspondent Ramsey in this chronicle of six modern-day corporate conflicts, among them Coke vs. Pepsi and Penthouse vs. Playboy. The author combines first-hand observation and in-depth research to dramatize recent business wars, including MCI's feisty assault on AT & T; People Express waging a ""dogfight over deregulation'' against TWA and other major air carriers; Ted Turner, ``settling for small victories, guerilla-style,'' in a war of attrition against the big TV networks; and General Motors, which considered Japan's Toyota in its own long-range ``strategic planning.'' A business book that the general reader can enjoy, this gathering of corporate battle reports is spiced intermittently with quotations, e.g. from Napoleon: ``Never interrupt an enemy while he is making a mistake.'' Author tour. (February 24)