Benedikt Böhm - From the Death Zone to the Boardroom: What Business Leaders and Decision Makers Can Learn from Extreme Mountaineering

This book makes for an excellent read. Ben and Stefan have chosen topics that are unusual and that arent typically discussed in books of this type. I love Bens stories and reflections about the experiences he encountered during his stunning climbs. Stefan did a great job in relating Bens experiences into a theoretical perspective. Finally a book that is entertaining and informative at the same time. Peter Schwarzenbauer, Member of the Board of Management BMW AG. Responsible for: MINI, Rolls-Royce, BMW Motorrad Customer Engagement and Digital Business Innovation BMW Group

This is an extraordinary book. Boehm reflects on key issues for extreme sports athletes such as uncertainty, fear, suffering, and death. Grschl relates Boehms fascinating stories to scholarship relevant for business executives. Those who choose to or must go to extremes will learn a lot from this insightful and unique book. Dr Horst Eidenmller, a Statutory Professor for Commercial Law at the University of Oxford and a Professorial Fellow of St. Hughs College, Oxford

This book is the result of an exciting collaboration between a scholar and extreme sports athlete (who also happens to run a global business). While there are important differences between sports and organizational leadership, there are similarities too, and this book does a good job at foregrounding the best of these. It is a refreshing change from the usual in drawing on Bens powerful experiences to highlight the challenges of leadership, and innovative strategies for tackling them. Mark de Rond, Professor of Organizational Ethnography at Cambridge University (Judge Business School)

A book that is entertaining and informative at the same time. I enjoyed how Stefan was able to translate Bens experiences as leading speed mountaineer into real life business situations. Great to read about topics that give you a totally new look at yourself. Dr Thomas Sedran, CEO of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles

One of the most accomplished extreme athletes on the planet, Boehm culls lessons from the life-and-death world of ski-mountaineering and, with the help of scholar Stefan Grschl, seamlessly applies them to the high-stakes domain of business. From leading teams in extreme conditions to the willingness to embrace failure as a means to spur innovation, Boehm draws from his experiences on the worlds most dangerous peaks to elevate what could have been a dense, academic tome into something altogether different: an insightful meditation on business, leadership, and life. Kelley McMillan Manley, freelance journalist and contributor to the New York Times

T his book explores experiences and reflections of an extreme sports athlete within the context of classics, the latest scholarly works, and research on topics that are relevant and timely for todays managers and business leaders, and the daily challenges they face.

Conviction, discipline, managing fear in high stakes situations, leading, working with teams, and making decisions in extreme conditions what will help you in extreme sports can also get you to your goals in business. In From the Death Zone to the Boardroom, speed ski mountaineer Benedikt Boehm tells gripping and inspirational stories about his fears, pain, suffering and facing death during his expeditions to some of the worlds highest mountains. Throughout, his co-author and professor of leadership and management, Stefan Grschl integrates scholarly ideas and works beyond traditional business boundaries providing you with unusual insights and thought-provoking alternatives for managing your business.

The combination of extreme athlete, company leader, and business school scholar is unique, and ensures the relevance and timeliness of the selected themes, and the pellucidity of the conceptual context to a readership beyond academic boundaries. The result is advice that is both highly personal and empirically tested; a combination that makes for an absorbing read and unparalleled advice for you and your career.

BENEDIKT BOEHM is CEO of the leading ski touring equipment brand Dynafit and a well-known speed ski mountaineer. Ben has shared his experiences to leading multinational companies and on German national television. He has been featured in national and international journals, newspapers, and television ads.

STEFAN GRSCHL is Professor in management at ESSEC Business School. His award-winning writings have been published in numerous books, chapters, and articles in the international trade and academic press. Aside his scholarly works Stefan has a strong interest in long-distance triathlons and apnea diving.

WHAT BUSINESS LEADERS AND DECISION MAKERS CAN LEARN FROM EXTREME MOUNTAINEERING

Benedikt Boehm and Stefan Grschl

First published 2019

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2019 Benedikt Boehm and Stefan Grschl

The right of Benedikt Boehm and Stefan Grschl to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Boehm, Benedikt, 1977 author. | Groschl, Stefan, author.

Title: From the death zone to the boardroom : what business leaders and decision makers can learn from extreme mountaineering / Benedikt Boehm and Stefan Groschl.

Description: 1 Edition. | New York : Routledge, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Identifiers: LCCN 2019002284 (print) | LCCN 2019021870 (ebook) | ISBN 9780429442544 (eBook) | ISBN 9781138337251 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780429442544 (ebk)

Subjects: LCSH: Leadership. | Decision making.

Classification: LCC HD57.7 (ebook) | LCC HD57.7 .B635 2019 (print) | DDC 658.4/092dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019002284

ISBN: 978-1-138-33725-1 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-44254-4 (ebk)

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SUBTEXT: The interests of a writer and the interests of his readers are never the same and if, on occasion, they happen to coincide, this is a lucky accident

We hope that our book is one of these lucky accidents described by American English poet W.H. Auden, and that you find this book as interesting, informative, and entertaining as we intended it to be. Our book explores Bens experiences and reflections as an extreme sports athlete within the context of selective scholarly works and research from a wide range of disciplines beyond the general business and management literature.