The Turnaround Kid

This tale of life as a "corporate firefighter," as Miller calls himself, is one of those books you can read for excitement and pleasure. Then, later, you may realize you've absorbed lessons that are relevant to your own business practice, relationships, and vision.

So who would gain from reading this book? First and foremost, The Turnaround Kid is a business memoir. And, as such, it would interest anyone who's intrigued by how clever management can haul an organization out of crisis. But it's also a worthwhile read for people who like to learn about business relationships, communication between high-level executives, and real, practical leadership skills. Throughout his challenging career, Steve Miller has proved he's not a person who feels compelled to do things the way they've been done before. The book itself reflects this approach by starting – rather surprisingly – not with an anecdote outlining one of the author's professional challenges, but with an account of his wife Maggie's very upsetting death from brain cancer. In fact, Miller's work at the time – on the largest industrial bankruptcy in American history – is first brought up in the book as a way of helping him with his personal grief.

In the first few pages, readers get a sense that this isn't a stark "us -and-them" picture of capitalism and labor. Miller is capable of seeing the wit in hostile union slogans directed against him, at the same time that he's making arrangements with the funeral parlor. This suggests an impressively mature and resilient reaction to adversity.

What does this contribute to the overall message of the book, and what can Mind Tools readers gain from it? Well, first, that realities are complex. Second, that progress often means that you must not take things personally. And third, that knowing we have acted according to our values is one of the greatest sources of confidence and strength, when we're in a tough place.

So, keep listening and find out about the upsides to a crisis; how to get your story off the front page; and what this businessman recommends you do if you're ever at the scene of a car wreck.

The Turnaround Kid is divided into eleven chapters detailing the troubles of major U.S companies, from Chrysler in 1979, to Olympia and York real estate development, MK construction, Reliance insurance, U.S. Healthcare, Bethlehem Steel, and, most recently, Delphi.

In Chapter One, the story starts with Miller's childhood in Oregon, where his grandfather was the manager and owner of a lumber company, and his father became the director of a bank. He meets Maggie – a single mother – when he's a young man at Harvard Law School. Unorthodox even in those early days, Miller gets Maggie pregnant and then marries her. He takes his first job in the finance department of Ford, and the couple moves to Detroit, then Mexico, Australia, Japan, and Venezuela.

Chapter Two, titled "The Hard Part Starts Now," gets to grips with most of the book's main themes, the first being the concept of the celebrity captain of industry. One of these, Lee Iacocca, former CEO of Chrysler, makes his first appearance here as a superstar, extrovert, and talented communicator.

Miller admits he fell under the spell of Iacocca and left Ford to be a fixer for Chrysler without even asking what his new salary would be! But while Iacocca quickly became a friend – he later turned into a foe.

At Chrysler, Miller started on the learning curve that would lead to him becoming the white knight for industry catastrophes. He admits that at Chrysler he was actually too busy to get scared. But, at the same time, the sharp reader will notice that going against the current is something Miller is getting to like. For example, he explains that he rather enjoyed Chrysler's times of crisis, because then he could make decisions without being blocked by bureaucracy – and could experiment with creative solutions.

You heard earlier that the book is structured round the dual progress of the author's career and his marriage. But there are also several sub-themes that emerge within these narratives. One of these is the way that shifts in technology and business culture have paved the way for the global market we know today. As the author points out, he began his career in a time before cell phones, and when US banking was still a state-by-state business.

A second theme that begins to take shape at this stage is patriotism. In the prolog, Miller says he was coaxed out of retirement by Delphi with the words, "Your country needs you." Echoing this, he notes that the immediate health of the US economy depended in part on Chrysler's survival in the 1980s – and therefore his unique role in this company.

The lessons drawn in this chapter repeat positively in the rest of the book: the importance of values – here, honesty and integrity – combined with a negotiating strategy that converts the opponent's moves into an advantage.

The next chapter, "A Reluctant Bean Counter," explains that our author is not cut out for sitting still and analyzing, but rather, needs dynamism. It also outlines his enthusiasm for the ideology of the free market, which he says is "like a religion" to him. Iacocca appears again – by now transformed, in the author's opinion, into a "rather imperial figure."

In his analysis of corporate leadership, the author goes beyond jabs at the behavior of top executives, such as luxury travel at the company's expense, and probes deeper into the human psyche. He sets Iacocca's flaws beside Maggie's mood swings – and his own need to have his ego kept in check. In the end, the PR-smart Iacocca is the inspiration for one of Miller's crucial tactics – resisting getting defensive and actually agreeing with your critics.

This is how Iacocca got an ugly story about Chrysler off the front pages in 1987. The message for us is clear: Don't become outraged and fight – instead, remember there are better ways to get control of the problem.

Soon, we learn what Miller believes a crisis actually is: both danger and opportunity. This interpretation underpins the chapters that follow.

Moving on in the author's working life, he makes the surprising move of taking over the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. As a cultural institution, the orchestra challenges Miller's free-market ethics, and he experiments with what can be done with government as a partner. In the interests of business and political progress, Miller tackles what is politely referred to as "the diversity issue," in the form of quotas for black classical musicians.

With this latest career move, Miller toys with a theory of alternating leadership styles for best results – discipline, followed by creative excellence. Meanwhile, his wife Maggie starts making gingerbread houses as a hobby and retreating socially.

Chapter Four takes us back to Chrysler and Iacocca, and describes how Miller loses his final power struggle with this giant of US industry. After leaving, our author shifts tack. The title of the fifth chapter hints at this tentative new terrain: "I'm a New York Banker, Sort Of, Briefly."

Here, we get a glimpse into the Olympia and York real estate company, which built the high-profile Canary Wharf development in London. We're exposed to the sensation of anxiety turning to panic, which engulfed the author when he realized the company's financiers might withdraw their support.

Paradoxically, our author's difficulties in establishing distance from this company is what propels him to learn an important lesson: that he isn't anyone's clone. He needs time out – and Maggie, his wife, supports him. The dynamic Miller comes up with another business lesson here: you need to know when your batteries are worn out.

By Chapter Six, fully refreshed, the author is back courting controversy. At Morrison Knudson – or MK – construction, Miller goes one step further in taking the flak. One of his tips for people management during a crisis is to allow employees to vent their anger. So, in addition to doing his best to reassure workers, Miller invites them to "bark" at him.

After an exercise in reorganization, Miller returns to cars in Chapter Seven, which is called "A Long, Slow Recovery." By this time our author is so famous that he's courted by the Wall Street Journal and is asked to write a column called Boss Talk. His advice includes tips for people at the scene of a car wreck. He urges them to tell the truth, especially when the truth hurts. For business leaders, he recommends keeping a close eye on employee morale, and advises them not to over-analyze problems – it's more important to come to quick, clear decisions.

Chapter Eight, called "Executives Behaving Badly," covers Miller's experience with waste management. It's especially valuable in identifying warning signs for when the top dogs are going off course. Missing quarterly forecasts is a bad signal, and on a personal level, watch out for the CEO with a short fuse for employees who bring bad news. When core executives are sent packing from one day to the next, there's trouble. And watch out for signs of inflexible rule, like when there's no healthy disagreement among the rank and file.

Chapter Nine attempts to define the characteristics of turnaround specialists. Miller describes himself here – his ability to focus closely in a crisis, but also his lack of a long-term attention span. He compares this to behavior patterns shown by clever students who suffer from Attention Deficit Disorder. Here, he looks at health care, a topic he takes up again in the postscript of the book.

Miller is convinced that good medicine is good business, but says the time has come to face various religious and ethical issues within it. He outlines why he feels the current system, in which America's job-creating industries often contribute to employees' health insurance costs, is destroying the U.S. economy. And he goes into why he believes arguments are pointing toward introducing a national health care system.

Chapter Ten describes Miller's contribution to the preservation of the American steel industry. He gains notoriety for being a "union basher," and at one point even Maggie takes sides with her husband's critics. We catch a glimpse of Miller's tough side, at the same time that Maggie's health starts to fail.

The book ends with a moving homage to Maggie and her memorial service.

The Turnaround Kid doesn't adopt a formulaic approach to any one aspect of leadership or problem solving. Rather, it's a personal narrative – an odyssey even, as some reviewers have noted.

The personal tone works well, because one of Miller's recurrent points is the danger of ego in business leadership. He notes that a decline in success can be caused by a leader becoming too attached to his own power. Miller himself is not exempt from this, and includes some self criticism in the book.

Like the best business memoirs, The Turnaround Kid teaches us about both the corporate world and our own humanity. Steve Miller leaves us with his positive view of human nature, which he believes propels most people towards consensus, fairness, and shared sacrifice. The book's ultimate message for us is optimistic: that the ability to compartmentalize one's life makes it possible to manage an intense corporate crisis – and still be a human being.

The Turnaround Kid by Steve Miller is published in hardback by Collins.

That's the end of this episode of Book Insights.