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Total Competition: Lessons in Strategy from Formula One Hardcover – 3 Nov. 2016
Across four decades, Ross Brawn was one of the most innovative and successful technical directors and then team principals in Formula One. Leading Benetton, Ferrari, Honda, Brawn and Mercedes, he worked with drivers such as Michael Schumacher, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton to make them world champions. In 2017, he was appointed F1's managing director, motor sports, by the sport's new owners Liberty Media. Now, in this fascinating book written with Adam Parr (who was CEO and then chairman of Williams for five years), he looks back over his career and methods to assess how he did it, and where occasionally he got things wrong.
Total Competition is a definitive portrait of modern motorsport. In the book, Brawn and Parr explore the unique pressures of Formula One, their battles with Bernie Ecclestone, and the cut-throat world they inhabited, where coming second is never good enough. This book will appeal not only to the millions of Formula One fans who want to understand how Brawn operates, it will also provide many lessons in how to achieve your own business goals.
'A must-have insight into the awe-inspiring career of a true motor racing great' Daily Express
- Print length336 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherSimon & Schuster UK
- Publication date3 Nov. 2016
- Dimensions24.7 x 2.9 x 16.6 cm
- ISBN-101471162354
- ISBN-13978-1471162350
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'It has widespread appeal as well as offering a unique insight into F1...this is a must-read.' (Edd Straw Autosport)
'Offers valuable lessons on how to succeed in pressurised environments and forge working relationships with difficult colleagues. And for those in love with the sport, it is a must-have insight into the awe-inspiring career of a true motor racing great.' (Daily Express)
'Eccentric but brilliant...some theories from within could be applied to other professions and indeed personal lives.' (Motorsport)
About the Author
Adam Parr is a businessman, investor, and lawyer whose career has taken him all over the world. Between 2006 and 2012 he was CEO and then chairman of the Williams Formula One team, where he was responsible for bringing hybrid technology to the team as well as turning round its fortunes.
Product details
- Publisher : Simon & Schuster UK; UK ed. edition (3 Nov. 2016)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 336 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1471162354
- ISBN-13 : 978-1471162350
- Dimensions : 24.7 x 2.9 x 16.6 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 355,601 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 203 in Racecar Drivers Biographies
- 246 in Formula One
- 539 in Motor Rallying & Rally Driving
- Customer reviews:
About the authors
Adam Parr is an Anglo-French barrister and businessman, and former chairman and chief executive of the Williams Formula One team.
Adam chairs Oxford Semantic Technologies Limited, an AI spin-out of the University of Oxford, and Cheesecake Energy Limited, a spin-out of the University of Nottingham, developing compressed air energy storage systems.
In 2020, Adam set up Homeland Conservation, a UK charity dedicated to accelerating the carbon drawdown, focusing on the agricultural sector. So far, Homeland Conservation has helped launch Downforce®, an innovative technology for measuring natural capital, and SRI 2030, an initiative to promote climate-smart rice cultivation.
Adam is a Business Fellow at the Smith School for Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford and Adjunct Professor at the University of Western Australia.
Adam is the author of two books about Formula One: The Art of War – Five Years in Formula One; and co-author, with Ross Brawn, of Total Competition – Lessons in Strategy from Formula One. His academic study, The Mandate of Heaven — Strategy, Revolution, and the First European Translation of Sunzi’s Art of War (1772) was published by Brill in 2019.
Adam was born in London in 1965. He holds an MA from Cambridge University and a PhD from UCL University of London. He has lived and worked in Europe, Japan, South Africa and Australia. Today he lives in Oxford with his wife and two children.
Learn more at www.adamparr.net
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
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Customers find the content fascinating, insightful, and succinct. They also describe the strategist as excellent and the book as good. Opinions are mixed on readability, with some finding it readable and informative while others say it's disjointed.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book fascinating, erudite, and insightful. They also say it includes interesting inside information they hadn't previously known about. Readers also say the book is readable and informative about F1 racing.
"...from Parr were too long but the answers of Ross were clear and full of substance...." Read more
"...Overall though this is an easy to read and interesting read about the politics and life of Formula One and if you are interested in the Sport or the..." Read more
"Great Paperback, what a good book that touches the surface really of a very clever and I’d say humble man" Read more
"Definitely loved the insightful chat between two guys who know the inner workings of an F1 team and Ross's take on what it takes to manage a..." Read more
Customers find the book has great insights into the workings and dynamics of Formula 1. They also say the author is a very smart guy with well thought through views. Readers also say it's a refreshing and interesting way to present a book.
"...The F1 insights were interesting and included some interesting inside information that I hadn't previously known about certain events and Ross's..." Read more
"A really well written, easy to read, manual for success...." Read more
"...The parts with Ross Brawn discussing his working practices were truly excellent, and the parts where he discusses his working practices with Michael..." Read more
"Ross Brawn is as succinct and informative as I expected him to be.Adam Parr on the other hand (who?) is just annoying...." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the readability of the book. Some find it readable and easy to understand, while others say the format makes it very disjointed to read and lacks continuity. Some readers also mention that the book is strangely written as an interview, which spoils the flow of the read.
"...Overall though this is an easy to read and interesting read about the politics and life of Formula One and if you are interested in the Sport or the..." Read more
"...of War" by Sun Tzu didn't really add a lot and maybe spoiled the flow of the book...." Read more
"A really well written, easy to read, manual for success...." Read more
"...Its definitely one of the more readable and sport informative F1 books." Read more
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Honda was withdrawing from F1 and Brawn with the help of a Mercedes engine and a brilliant car developed the year before, won the title.
What was really a delight for me was to discover in Ross a fine man, with principles and deep caring for people as well as for technical side of the stuff. I found some introduction from Parr were too long but the answers of Ross were clear and full of substance. Every fan of F1 would love the book as it gives insights much deeper than the regular articles about the sport. You get to know also the unseen (and ugly) sides of Toto and Nikki and Bernie, principles of management and working with people.
Some of the book feels a little dated now as F1 has moved on quite a lot since this was written, but if you follow the sport then this will still make sense.
Brawn comes across as a decent guy with some interesting ways of running a team and considering his success, they obviously worked. Parr tries to link these ideals into his previously written thesis on 'The Art of War' and sometimes these links feel a little tenuous, but it doesn't detract from how interesting the book is.
Bernie Ecclestone comes in for some stick in this book, from both writers and why this may well be warranted, it became obvious with the degree they did it. As a follower of the sport I found this fascinating, but as a reader of a business strategy book it felt a little out of place.
Overall though this is an easy to read and interesting read about the politics and life of Formula One and if you are interested in the Sport or the career of Ross Brawn, then this is well worth a read. There are some business lessons that you can glean from this, but this feels kinda secondary at times and there are better books if you are after this specifically.
I preferred the Adrian Newey book.
I am an F1 follower and also have an interest in process and working productively so I am probably the ideal audience for it. The F1 insights were interesting and included some interesting inside information that I hadn't previously known about certain events and Ross's views on some of the key F1 movers he has worked with and against. Brawn is an intelligent, rational and thoughtful person whose views are always well thought through and worth listening to (and I'm looking forward to his current role guiding the direction of the sport to eventually bear fruit). The other side of the book is Ross's views and practice on process, i.e. best approach to problem solving, incentivising, focussing effort, and acheiving quality, honed to what works based a great deal of experience in a competetive and unforgiving arena. Whilst the authors acknowledge where and how this differs from other industries, there is a lot to interest any manager or technical/knowledge worker who wants to see better effectiveness in these areas.
Parr's approach and his influence on the structure of the book is something of a curate's egg. Whilst it is obviously relevant to their discussion, like other commenters I'm not sure that over-reliance on Sun Tzu as a framework for the book always works; it distracts as often as it focusses the discussion. But Parr is a decent foil for Brawn in terms of stimulating their discussion.
In short I'd recommend it as an excellent and stimulating read if you have an interest in the two subject matters. As regards the F1 side, get it now while the content is fresh and relevant to rhe current F1 scene! whilst the discussions on the process and management aspects are solidly based and will not age.
Previous comments about Adam Parr's sections led me to expect a low interest but I found it insightful and well explained while making lessons learned from military battles relevant.
Overall I found it a page turner so would fully recommend it.
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