Working Together: Why Great Partnerships Succeed

Ten iconic collaborations reveal the power of mutual trust, balanced egos, and shared leadership in building extraordinary success.

In Working Together, a fascinating and invaluable look at why great partnerships succeed, former Disney CEO Michael Eisner discusses how professional partnerships have contributed to his success.

The author provides a candid and illuminating look at his decade with Frank Wells, showing how their partnership revived Disney. The Burbank executive suite relied on daily consultation, balancing creative ambition with financial discipline to foster steady growth.

Drawing on firsthand interviews across diverse industries, Eisner explores the mutual respect that prevents destructive rivalry. The book offers a practical and perceptive breakdown of how shared authority outlasts solitary leadership in competitive fields.

In addition, Eisner tells the stories of nine other highly successful business collaborations, including Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, Valentino and Giancarlo Giammetti, Bill and Melinda Gates, Joe Torre and Don Zimmer, and Brian Grazer and Ron Howard.

• Organizational Culture: How Home Depot co-founders Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank inverted the corporate hierarchy, empowering apron-clad store associates while sharing an adjoining office bathroom to resolve disputes instantly.
• Case Studies: How Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger built Berkshire Hathaway on quiet daily reading rather than market noise, using blunt intellectual honesty to filter out risky investments.
• Business Communication: How Bill and Melinda Gates structure co-equal decision-making at their foundation, demanding unanimous alignment on leadership choices and dividing global travel to double their reach.
• Productive Teams: How Imagine Entertainment partners Brian Grazer and Ron Howard instituted an uncompromising fifty-fifty profit split across all film and television ventures, removing financial scorekeeping entirely.