Driven- Inside BMW- the Most Admired Car Company in the World Description:

Driven: Inside BMW, the Most Admired Car Company in the World review:
2 stars (Nice history, boring read,) - As an auto industry follower, I can appreciate this book as a sort of historical reference for someone perhaps doing research. But as enjoyable reading, it falls far short. The book goes into a painfully detailed history of company events. In fact, I felt the title was a bit misleading, since it made me expect some interpretation as to why BMW is as admired as it is. Instead you basically get a chronology of events.
1 stars (Poor workmanship and limited insights) - Despite his years of experience as an auto journalist, Kiley is a sloppy writer, doesn't seem to have a clue about the mechanics and history of automobiles, and provides little in the way of new insights into what has made BMW successful.



To give one example, he asserts that in the late 1960s BMW was unique in offering a wide range of engines in its cars and boosting the power of said engines almost yearly. In fact, both were standard Detroit practices at the time. This error is a byproduct of Kiley's urge to gush about everything BMW has ever done. Apparently the company's inarguable achievements are not enough--he must create additional "firsts" for it.



To give another, I'll quote Kiley from page 12: "The higher the horsepower and the lighter the vehicle, the easier it is for engineers to achieve better low-end torque (power at low revolutions of the engine)." Sorry, but the weight of the vehicle has absolutely nothing to do with the torque curve of the engine. In addition, high horsepower usually comes at the expense of low-end torque because of inherent tradeoffs in engine intake system design.



More troubling, all of the material is not Kiley's own. One poorly written section on Active Steering (a recent technical innovation that Kiley inaccurately credits entirely to BMW) left me wondering whether my own understanding of the system was incomplete (it was). So I Googled "steering transmission ratio" and found Kiley's words verbatim on a website that predates the book.



I don't know if this site was Kiley's source, or if both plagiarized a common source--quite likely some PR materials from BMW--but we've got plagiarism either way, as Kiley presents the words as his own. The sections in question are in brackets below:



"Active steering [varies the steering transmission ratio electronically in direct relation to the style and speed of driving and road conditions. Under normal road conditions at low and medium speeds, the steering becomes more direct, requiring less steering effort of the driver] and [increasing the car's agility in city traffic or when parking. At high speeds the steering becomes less direct offering improved directional stability]--less lane waver[. When cornering at high speeds, or when undertaking sudden movements, the steering stiffens up by monitoring increases in the yaw rate]--the side-to-side movement of the car."



"[When the system's sensors detect driver input at the steering wheel (turning motion), a computer analyzes the data and then sends the information to an electric motor and linkage. Based on this input, the front wheels are turned the appropriate amount.]"



The above bits were adapted from the website to mirror Kiley's text by adding the few words outside the brackets but inside the quotes. In the case of his defintion of "yaw," Kiley's additions aren't even correct. Kiley also adds or removes a comma here and there, but last time I checked this is not enough to make words one's own.



If, as I suspect, both accounts are copied from a common source, then even more of Kiley's text was likely lifted verbatim from this source. The sad thing is, the way Kiley has cut-and-pasted yields a redundant and confusing explanation of Active Steering. He doesn't understand enough about his subject to properly "borrow" material about it.



The portions of the book about BMW as an organization fail to provide much insight into what goes on inside BMW. Kiley relies heavily on interviews with BMW executives, and these can hardly be expected to provide a thorough, balanced portrayal. As might be expected, they instead present a thoroughly massaged, idealized view of the company thoroughly lacking in telling detail. BMW's PR firm might as well have written this book.



Kiley's thesis that the consistent pursuit of a focused, coherent product strategy leads to organizational success is not a new one, but it is one I've always personally stressed. However, Kiley too placidly assumes that BMW continues to pursue such a strategy. Rather, the bizarre styling and high-tech features of the latest BMWs represent deviations from the company's traditional focus. A much more interesting, more insightful book would have acknowledged and more thoroughly analyzed these deviations rather than patly accepting the company's position.
3 stars (Nice history, boring read) - As an auto industry follower, I can appreciate this book as a sort of historical reference for someone perhaps doing research. But as enjoyable reading, it falls far short. The book goes into a painfully detailed history of company events. In fact, I felt the title was a bit misleading, since it made me expect some interpretation as to why BMW is as admired as it is. Instead you basically get a chronology of events.