#15. Bloomberg by Bloomberg – Michael Bloomberg and Matthew Winkler

As we are on the verge of launching our own online content service, AssociationWire, I picked up this book as I thought it would be interesting to read the insights of someone who has built a billion-dollar company through providing information and media.
It was interesting to read about Michael Bloomberg's early career as a Wall Street hotshot for Salomon Brothers and how he was eventually 'set free' after 15 years, going on to establish a company built first on the Bloomberg financial information console, which would become an essential for traders the world over, but then added to the empire with news, TV, and other media. Written in 1997, it now seems a little outdated, and one wonders what he would make of the internet explosion that has happened since then, with its incredible impact on the media and transmission of information.
I guess the key difference between his company and a business like ours is that when he started up, he had received a lazy $10 million (in 1981, no less) as a payout from Salomon, so he was hardly on the poverty line. While he preaches about creating a lean and hungry company, in my view, any business that can afford to spend four years in development isn't that lean and hungry. But in light of Bloomberg's success, it was obviously time well spent.
I enjoyed reading about the development of the business - later chapters, expounding his views on management, business, technology, philanthropy, and perhaps most irritatingly, how great America is, are less engaging. The structure leaves a bit to be desired - for instance, the chapter on his early life and the influences of his parents is second-last, which seems a little strange. Mostly, I think the book suffers from a lack of light and shade - his endlessly positive, blustery tone leaves you in no doubt of his will to crush every obstacle he faces, but there is little sign of the moments of self-doubt, sheer terror and crushing disappointment that surely are part of every entrepreneur's journey to the top. He even paints the failure of his marriage as little more than a necessary development in the evolution of two people, but without any real emotion. For this reason, the book sometimes reads like a corporate brochure-cum-history of the Bloomberg business, and in it, Michael Bloomberg lacks the humanity that someone like Richard Branson, for all his own success, conveys. I have real difficulty with the American 'corporate warrior' act, and frankly sometimes he sounds like a complete tosser – but then when you think about it, it is no mean feat building a company of the size and complexity of Bloomberg, so maybe he deserves to blow his own trumpet.