Bad Blood
BOOK REVIEW
Bad Blood – John Carreyrou
Hands down amongst the most meritorious business books of recent years, a riveting warning to tech darlings emulating Icarus
Although I identify as a notoriously slow reader, this exposition of the investigation into Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos was so engrossing that I finished the entire book over the duration of a continuous five day feast, neglecting almost every other personal responsibility along the way. I even abandoned my customary practice of taking notes as I read, such was my fixation on the jaw-dropping story told by the Wall Street Journal’s John Carreyrou, who first reported on suspicious activity at Theranos in 2015.
Carreyrou holds the reader’s hand through the smoke and mirrors that was Theranos’ nascency, masterfully capturing Holmes’ essence as the company raised over US$700M on the promise of developing blood testing machines that could perform hundreds of tests using mere drops of blood. Her magnetism secured Theranos investors and board members from the highest ranks of business and politics, including former US Cabinet members, US Senators and executives of the world’s biggest corporations. A token of overbearing visionary ambition, Holmes is portrayed as mixing ruthlessness and recklessness by constantly embellishing Theranos’ capabilities. This pattern of behaviour, magnified by her right-hand man Sunny Balwani, with whom she is also entangled romantically, initiates a curve of rapid self-enrichment and latterly self-destruction as Holmes dances among the lava of her lies.
“Like her idol Steve Jobs, Holmes emitted a reality distortion field that forced people to momentarily suspend disbelief.”
Even as Theranos signs major agreements with Safeway and Walgreens, Holmes’ propensity to mischaracterize the company’s progress only accelerates, to the great discomfort of her staff. Her skillful obscurantism, coupled with a carefully sculpted public image mirroring Steve Jobs, allows her to survive a growing chorus of allegations about Theranos’ misconduct. The most astonishing instance of this apparent immortality is when former US Secretary of State George Shultz, a Theranos board member and staunch supporter of Holmes, dismisses concerns brought to him by his own grandson, a company employee, and discourages any public divulgence.
“Hyping your product to get funding while concealing your true progress and hoping that reality will eventually catch up to the hype continues to be tolerated in the tech industry.”
But even Holmes’ mini cult of duped powerbrokers cannot prevent the ultimate shattering of her illusion as the WSJ points its spotlight at a company on the cusp of becoming a nationally recognized household name. The Food and Drug Administration begins its own investigative process and things unravel quickly, despite Theranos’ despotic efforts to intimidate and silence its past and present employees.
With her trial set to commence this year, Elizabeth Holmes’ reprehensible exploits should be subject to the full power of the law, despite the misguided sympathy offered by a small band of idealists who claim she was merely an actor in the theatre of Silicon Valley start-ups competing for attention and capital. No matter the veracity of this criticism towards a troubling tech culture of puffery, I hope that Theranos is forever remembered as a warning of what happens when founders fly too close to the sun. The publication of Bad Blood is a step towards that outcome: John Carreyrou’s majestic work might just save society from similar Icarus-like disasters.
-NP, February 2021