The Halo Effect, by Phil Rosenzweig.  I'm a little over half way through this book and it has been eye opening to say the least.  The willingness of the author to look at the major publications in the business field and their conclusions about business practice has been revealing.  When reading some of the other books discussed or hearing about the companies cited by other authors as examples of best business practices and models for other to follow, it is possible to get the sense that if you just follow the boiled down best practices, anyone can have a great company.  After reading the Halo Effect the amount of guesswork and gut-instinct that goes into defining these "best practices" becomes obvious.   In essence, the halo effect comes from any data which draws from subjective impressions and opinions, no matter how well informed, regarding a business' practices.  According to Rosenzweig, any company that is doing well will be considered to be doing better and have superior processes, personnel and strategies than those who are not doing well.  This is regardless of market and other environmental factors which may be completely out of the control of the business.  The halo effect, or the residual "shine" from being considered to be doing well, influences every other consideration so much that it is nearly impossible short of clearly objective data of separating fact from halo.

What is coming clear to me is that there are halos, both good and bad, pretty much everywhere you look and being aware of that can make me more capable of making better decisions and, perhaps, more cautious in handing out praise OR judgment.

This is a good read, although Rosenzweig's attack on pretty much every major business research book does get a little frustrating.  I'm anxious to see as I get into the last part of the book if this is anything more than a doom and gloom reaction to other writer's success.  I don't doubt there IS a halo effect, but I also am pretty sure that most of the principles I read in other books have some validity for best practices in the business world, even if they can't clearly be supported by hard data.