Cold Steel (Book Review)
Monday, March 1st, 2010
The setting was the global steel industry in the years preceding the Global Financial Crisis. The companies involved were Mittal Steel and the Luxembourg based Arcelor. The combatants were Lakshmi and Aditya Mittal’s vision for a globalised steel industry, a vision of rationalisation and economies of scale. Whereas Arcelor CEO Guy Dolle’s vision of a globalised steel industry was European focused on the high end of the market. Mittal Steel served mainly the low end of the steel industry in volume; Arcelor served the higher end of the steel industry with quality… and never the twain shall meet.
In the Tim Bouquet and Byron Ousey non-fiction novel Cold Steel: Laksmi Mittal and the multi-billion dollar battle for a global empire the reader is taken behind the scenes on perhaps the largest hostile corporate takeover of all time. It was also the most complex takeover of all time due to the immensity of the two organisation’s respective footholds in various parts of the world, coming under various authoritative bodies and numerous governments. They played the race cards, they made the backroom handshakes with the inevitable retinue of corporate bankers, spin doctors and strategists. Cold Steel is the inside story of a hostile corporate takeover through the eyes and perspectives of the significant players. It’s a step by step strategic management documentary of how the game was played on both sides and how it ended – becoming ArcelorMittal.
Cold Steel came across my desk as required reading in the MBA unit BMA799 Strategic Management. The book read like a thriller – move for move strategies employed by either side. To that end, I would highly recommend anybody interested in business to give it a read.
I guess the most disturbing point from my perspective, as somebody who is worried that we’re too focused on economy, exploitation and greed, is that the globalised corporate world is in fact run this way. ‘More is more’ seems to be the general philosophy that you have to buy into to agree with either side of this takeover battle.
My suggestion is read Cold Steel simply to understand how globalisation leaders think and how governments work, sometimes counter to the ideals of free trade that they espouse externally.
