It Pays to be Paranoid: Securing Business Success by Preparing for the Worst

By Christopher Eiben

This is a book about avoiding mistakes when making basic business decisions--the kind of mistakes that can result in catastrophic expenses, lawsuits, losses, and bankruptcies. As a veteran private investigator and business consultant, Christopher Eiben has witnessed firsthand how frequently these avoidable mistakes can wreak financial and personal havoc on businesspeople. Through in-depth analysis of authentic case studies, and insight born of his years of experience in the field, Eiben explains how certain prescriptive measures--more careful hiring practices, improved security, effective and thorough due diligence, and others--can limit risks and improve the odds of business success. In the current business climate, with the ever-increasing strategies available to the unscrupulous, the devious, and the outright criminal, this kind of "paranoia" isn't just a necessary tool--it's a virtue.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1932841024
• ISBN13: 9781932841022
• Release Date: November 2004
• Publisher: Agate B2
• Length: 196 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.8" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Chapters provide plenty of case histories

Just when does paranoia pay off? When it can be used to recognize and avoid foreseeable mistakes in business: that's the message of It Pays To Be Paranoid: Securing Business Success By Preparing For The Worst, which helps readers spot problems stemming from misappropriation of funds, cyber-fraud, workplace accidents and more. Chapters provide plenty of case histories and come from a veteran legal investigator and business consultant whose own in-depth case analyses serve as models of understanding.

Excellent and readable!

This cautionary tale of real life business disasters reads like a novel. The case studies are especially relevant to today's litigous business climate. As a business owner I read this book in one sitting and immediately passed it to my HR Department. I highly recommend this book to other business owners.

Hard-headed habits for commercial success

This is one of those rare business books that has changed both my thinking and my behavior. It is particularly valuable for the lean organization that takes pride in its ability to make quick decisions. Mr. Eiben cogently supports the maxim that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure", particularly in the complex, litigious world we operate in today. Buy it, read it, distribute it to your associates and take its lessons to heart.

Save yourself a lot of trouble later; read this book now

Having known Chris Eiben well since high school days I can tell you that he is a careful and meticulous researcher. I have consulted with him on how to avoid problems when hiring new staff for my business. The advice he gave then was invaluable, and included things I had not thought about, but on retrospect one had to ask: "how could I have missed somehing to obvious?" This book is full of similar advice and wise council for anyone who wants to go through life in the lifeboat rather than swimming with the sharks!

A Must Read for Corporate Executives

As an investment and corporate banker for a major Wall Street firm, I am highly recommending this book as a "must read" to all business executives and their management teams. Costly and humiliating mistakes could be avoided by reading the eye-opening corporate cases experienced by other executives and by adhering to Eiben's insightful recommendations based on his years as a corporate investigator.