Why They Do It, Eugene Soltes
Why They Do It, Eugene Soltes
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Why They Do It
Inside the Mind of the White-Collar Criminal

Author: Eugene Soltes

Narrator: Eugene Soltes, Johnny Heller

Unabridged: 11 hr 54 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/11/2016

Synopsis

Rarely does a week go by without a well-known executive being indicted for engaging in a white-collar crime. Perplexed as to what drives successful, wealthy people to risk it all, Harvard Business School professor Eugene Soltes spent seven years in the company of the men behind the largest corporate crimes in history—from the financial fraudsters of Enron, to the embezzlers at Tyco, to the Ponzi schemers Bernie Madoff and Allen Stanford.

Soltes refutes popular explanations of why seemingly successful executives engage in crime. White-collar criminals, he shows, are not merely driven by excessive greed or hubris, nor do they usually carefully calculate the costs and benefits before breaking the law. Instead, he shows that most of these executives make decisions the way we all do—on the basis of their intuitions and gut feelings.

Based on extensive interaction with nearly fifty former executives, Soltes provides insights into why some saw the immediate effects of misconduct as positive, why executives often don't feel the emotions most people would expect, and how acceptable norms in the business community can differ from those of the broader society.

About Eugene Soltes

Eugene Soltes is the Jakurski Family Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. His research focuses on how leaders can lose their way and "gray zone" managerial practices. His research has been cited by the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and the Financial Times. Professor Soltes teaches in Harvard Business School's executive education programs and is the recipient of the Charles M. Williams Award for Outstanding Teaching. He received his PhD and MBA from the University Of Chicago Booth School Of Business and an AM in statistics, AB in economics from Harvard University.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Tanja on June 07, 2022

I was in a class or training with the author, sponsored by work, earlier this week. I promptly downloaded the book and it’s been fascinating. The author gives the history of white collar crime - and how it even became a crime. He then recounts excerpts from a number of personal interviews with forme......more

Goodreads review by Mary on June 29, 2017

Soltes has successfully walked me through the history of white-collar crime, outlined the whys and hows, put forward some possible remedies and introduced me to several convicted white-collar criminals, including the Big Kahuna of NYC Ponzi fame. I was baffled and angered by super successful men bec......more

Goodreads review by Colleen on August 12, 2017

Eugene Soltes' book is a much-needed and far-ranging scholarly exploration of white collar offenders' motivations for their behavior, told from first-hand accounts of "Celebrity" offenders like Marc Dreier, Bernie Madoff, and Allan Stanford. There is an absolute vacuum of such studies in the space o......more

Goodreads review by Marcella on December 16, 2017

This book takes an academic approach to understanding the psychology that underlies white-collar crime, exploring current law enforcement understanding of the motives for white-collar crime, cases across the spectrum, from the seemingly psychologically normal executive who goes too far in informatio......more

Goodreads review by Anthony on August 26, 2020

I read to about page 225 (just over 300 total pages) before giving in. I hate not finishing books, however, I feel that the book didn’t explore the mind and psychology of white collar criminals, and those topics were what I was wanting to read about. Very interesting that the title is, “Why they do......more

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