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TOMMY BAHAMA

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Edgar Bron an's
narcissistic memoir
contains little in the
way of business advice.

MARTHA GERS HUN
Special to The Jewish News

n December 1997, Edgar
Bronfman Jr., CEO of Seagram
Co., became the first American
businessman to take delivery of
the newest, fanciest toy
designed for the upper tier
of corporate executives —
his very own Gulfstream
G-V corporate jet, priced
at more than $38 million.
' A few months later his
father, Edgar Bronfman
Sr., chairman of Seagram,
published his memoir,
Good Spirits: The Making
of a Businessman (G.P.
Putnam's Sons). It's hard
to say which gesture was
the greater act of hubris
t) in a family hardly lacking
in egos. The son buys an
unbelievably expensive
airplane with shareholder
money, while the father
writes a book in which he
takes personal credit for
every good business deci-
sion, casual piece of luck,
,or act of God during his
watch. We can only hope
that the younger
Bronfman is a better pas-
senger than his father is
an author.
Good Spirits tells the
story of the elder
Bronfman's extraordinary
rise to power with the family-owned,
Montreal-based Seagram Co. He
started in 1951 as an accounts
payable clerk, assumed the presiden-
cy in 1971, the chairmanship in
1975, and relinquished the presiden-
cy to his son in 1994.
During the 47 years since he first
went to work in the family liquor
business at the age of 22, Bronfman
has overseen Seagram's acquisition of
many of the world's dominant bever-

%9AKER

age brands, including Mumm (1970),
Glenlivit (1978), Martell (1988) and
Tropicana (1988). He was also instru-
mental in Seagram's 1963 purchase of
the Texas Pacific Coal and Oil
Company and presided over the firm's
1981 acquisition of $2.6 billion in
Conoco stock and the subsequent sale
of that stock to DuPont for 20.2 per-
cent of DuPont's shares.
With so much wheeling and deal-
ing and just plain business growth
going on, you'd expect this to be a
gripping story.
Unfortunately, Bronfman's enor-

...TOM M Y/

* .

.•

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The Making
of a Businessman

fir

Edgar-

Bro

Martha Gershun is president of MG
Consulting in Kansas City, Kan., and
holds an MBA from the Harvard
Business School. This review first
appeared in the Kansas City Jewish
Chronicle.

.

Jewish Living In M

sis

Details

.11

mous ego takes center stage in every
anecdote in Good Spirits. This is not
the insightful, reflective memoir of a
wise businessman seeking to impart
his "lessons learned" to the next gen-
eration. This is a collection of ram-
bling, self-aggrandizing anecdotes
penned by a conceited, pompous
executive who insists on seeing one
moral to every business tale: "It is to
my credit that this situation worked
out so well."
Bronfman even takes his self-con-
gratulations to ridiculous extremes
when recounting episodes in his per-
sonal life. He takes great pride in
telling the reader that he was able to
predict the number and gender of his

C Bonnie Raitt ET Bob Dylan think he's great

• /--4

s

ack at Oak Park
High School, his
name was Don Fagenson.
Today he goes by the
name Don Was. He's one
of the hottest, most
influential producers
in the music industry.
His clients include
Paula Abdul, Bonnie
Raitt and Bob Dylan.

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1998

Detroit Jewish News

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