And Petzinger buttresses his arguments with vivid tales culled from his Wall Street Journal columns. The only problem with the book is that the author's frequent academic intrusions into the narrative can be overblown. Such as when he explains the success of Avedis Zlidjian Co., founded in 1623 in Constantinople, now of Quincy, Mass., and the world's largest maker of cymbals. The current Avedis, Armand, is evidently a tonal genius. He can summon from metal alloys just about any effect describable by drummers as varied as Alex Acuna and Ringo Starr.
Customers love the guy's ability to create distinctive sounds.
That's a bit precious. But such criticism is niggling. After devoting exactly half my lifetime to writing about business, I knew little about how business actually worked. But Petzinger wanted to explore in his book why business manages to reinvent itself and create things that customers value. Ultimately, Petzinger emerges as a raging optimist.