Bowers, Brent

PERSONAL:

Married; wife's name Barbara.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Brewster, MA.

CAREER:

Writer and editor. Wall Street Journal, reporter and editor; then New York Times, New York, NY, business editor, c. 1996-2006. Also served as a reporter, editor and bureau chief in U.S. and European offices of United Press International and for AP-Dow Jones.

WRITINGS:

(With Harold Geneen) The Synergy Myth and Other Ailments of Business Today, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1997.

(With wife, Barbara Bowers, and Agnes Hooper Gottlieb and Henry Gottlieb) 1,000 Years, 1,000 People: Ranking the Men and Women Who Shaped the Millennium, Kodansha America, 1998.

(With Harold Geneen) Synergy and Other Lies: Downsizing, Bureaucracy, and Corporate Culture Debunked, St. Martin's Griffin (New York, NY), 1999.

(Editor, with Deidre Leipziger) The New York Times Management Reader: Hot Ideas and Best Practices from the New World of Business, introductions by David Leonhardt, foreword by Harold J. Leavitt, Times Books (New York, NY), 2001.

If at First You Don't Succeed …: The Eight Patterns of Highly Effective Entrepreneurs, foreword by Carl Schramm, Currency/Doubleday (New York, NY), 2006, published as The 8 Patterns of Highly Effective Entrepreneurs, 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Brent Bowers is a former New York Times business editor who has also written and edited several books focusing on business in America. He collaborated with Harold Geneen, the former head of ITT, to write The Synergy Myth and Other Ailments of Business Today. In their book, the authors attack some of the modern beliefs about business and provide the octogenarian Geneen's time-tested outlook on how businesses should be run. Barbara Jacobs, writing in Booklist, called the book "amusing, sarcastic, cynical, irreverent, and downright opinionated." A Publishers Weekly contributor noted that the authors give "readers a hodgepodge of advice and insights on the business world."

Bowers went solo to author If at First You Don't Succeed …: The Eight Patterns of Highly Effective Entrepreneurs. Bowers focuses primarily on the personal qualities that a good entrepreneur should possess to be successful. "This is an excellent, easily read primer for aspiring entrepreneurs," wrote Mary Whaley in Booklist. A Publishers Weekly contributor referred to If at First You Don't Succeed as "a well-organized, nimbly reported account for those seeking answers to the riddle of entrepreneurship." Bowers also served as coeditor with Deidre Leipziger of The New York Times Management Reader: Hot Ideas and Best Practices from the New World of Business, which features case studies and articles written by New York Times reporters. The book features writings about a variety of business management topics and includes stories about management at various large companies. Booklist contributor Mary Whaley noted that the book "provides a broad view" of the business world.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 15, 1997, Barbara Jacobs, review of The Synergy Myth and Other Ailments of Business Today, p. 1369; July, 2001, Mary Whaley, review of The New York Times Management Reader: Hot Ideas and Best Practices from the New World of Business, p. 1960; March 15, 2006, Mary Whaley, review of If at First You Don't Succeed …: The Eight Patterns of Highly Effective Entrepreneurs, p. 10.

Library Journal, March 15, 1997, Kathy Shimpock-Vieweg, review of The Synergy Myth and Other Ailments of Business Today, p. 71.

Publishers Weekly, January 27, 1997, review of The Synergy Myth and Other Ailments of Business Today, p. 88; March 6, 2006, review of If at First You Don't Succeed …, p. 64.

ONLINE

UNC Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative Web site,http://www.kenaninstitute.unc.edu/centers/cei/ (April 6, 2006), "Former New York Times Editor, Author Delivers Kenan Institute 20th Anniversary Lecture."