Business Adventures Analysis — Skill (John Brooks)

Knowledge source: Business Adventures by John Brooks. Architecture: Orchestrator + 6 subskills. The main SKILL.md routes the user query; subskills execute the diagnostic workflows and own their reference IDs.

business-adventures-analysis-brooks/
├── SKILL.md
├── quotes/
└── subskills/
    ├── m1_failure_diagnosis/
    │   ├── module.md
    │   └── references/case_library.md
    ├── m2_market_panic/
    │   ├── module.md
    │   └── references/case_library.md
    ├── m3_regulatory_risk/
    │   ├── module.md
    │   └── references/case_library.md
    ├── m4_product_innovation/
    │   ├── module.md
    │   └── references/case_library.md
    ├── m5_governance_accountability/
    │   ├── module.md
    │   └── references/case_library.md
    └── m6_fraud_institutional_fragility/
        ├── module.md
        └── references/case_library.md

Skill Purpose

Use this skill to apply John Brooks's Business Adventures as a diagnostic framework for corporate failures, market panics, product launches, governance breakdowns, regulatory risk, fraud, innovation, and financial culture.

The skill does not summarize the book or predict the future by analogy. It maps a live business situation to recurring Brooks patterns: panic, hubris, communication failure, incentive drift, regulatory lag, product-market mismatch, and institutional fragility.

Core Principle

Human nature is the constant; institutions are the variable. Identify the repeating human pattern first, then examine how structure, incentives, rules, timing, and information flow amplify it.

Workflow Inventory

Workflow	User question pattern	Inputs	Steps	Output	Should be subskill?
Failure diagnosis	"Why did this company, product, or strategy fail?"	Company/product, timeline, market context, decisions	Pattern map, decision chain, warning signals, preventable actions	Primary failure pattern and decision correction	Yes
Market panic analysis	"What is happening in this crash?"	Trigger, price moves, liquidity, media, forced sellers	Panic phase, technical amplifiers, stabilizers, uncertainty	Panic diagnosis and stabilizer map	Yes
Regulatory risk review	"Is this practice risky?"	Practice, disclosure, materiality, enforcement context	Materiality, public usability, tolerated-practice risk, rule-change trigger	Risk level and action	Yes
Product and innovation review	"Will this launch or innovation work?"	Product, customers, incumbents, distribution, research	Timing test, differentiation, incumbent blind spots, commercialization	Stop/redesign/accelerate/monitor recommendation	Yes
Governance accountability	"Is management handling this well?"	Board, incentives, crisis response, shareholder/stakeholder power	Formal power vs real consequences, incentives, accountability	Governance diagnosis	Yes
Fraud and institutional fragility	"How exposed is this system?"	Trust mechanism, counterparties, collateral, disclosure, losses	Hidden exposure, responsibility transfer, contagion path, controls	Fragility map and safeguards	Yes

When to Use This Skill

Invoke this skill when the user asks:

• "Why did this company, product, or strategy fail?"
• "Analyze this business case."
• "What historical pattern does this resemble?"
• "What would John Brooks say about this crisis?"
• "Is this governance, compliance, or regulatory behavior a warning sign?"
• "How do market panics typically unfold?"
• "What lessons from Edsel, Xerox, Texas Gulf Sulphur, Piggly Wiggly, or the 1962 crash apply here?"

Routing Rules

User question type	Must run	Optional run
Broad case diagnosis or postmortem	M1 Failure Diagnosis	M3, M4, M5, or M6 depending on facts
Market crash, liquidity stress, speculative mania, selloff	M2 Market Panic	M6 if counterparties or technical systems are central
Insider information, disclosure, antitrust, tax, tolerated practice	M3 Regulatory Risk	M5 if board/executive accountability matters
Product launch, failed product, innovation, incumbent blindness	M4 Product and Innovation	M1 for full failure postmortem
Board conduct, shareholder power, executive accountability, crisis leadership	M5 Governance Accountability	M3 if legal exposure is material
Fraud, collateral failure, hidden exposure, systemic support, institutional trust	M6 Fraud and Institutional Fragility	M2 if panic dynamics are present
User asks only for historical parallel	Run the closest single module	M1 if the parallel needs a broader diagnosis

Execution Rules

1. Read only the modules required by the routing table.
2. If the user gives a broad failure question, run M1 first and then route to the most relevant specialist module.
3. If the user data is thin, ask for the missing timeline, actors, incentives, disclosures, and consequences before giving a confident diagnosis.
4. Do not run every module for a narrow question.
5. Use historical parallels as diagnostic lenses, not as predictions.
6. Each module owns its reference IDs in references/case_library.md; when citing Brooks-derived claims, use the IDs from the module actually run.

Multi-Module Output Format

## Brooks Pattern Diagnosis
- Situation:
- Primary module:
- Supporting modules:
- Active human pattern:
- Closest historical parallel:

## Diagnostic Chain
- Trigger:
- Decisions:
- Incentives:
- Amplifiers:
- Warning signals:
- Missing facts:

## Risk / Opportunity
- Current risk:
- Latent risk:
- Rule-maker, stabilizer, or accountable actor:
- What would change the diagnosis:

## Recommendation
- Continue / change / stop:
- Immediate action:
- What to monitor:
- Evidence needed next:

## Sources
- REF-...

Subskill Status

Subskill	Path	Status
M1 Failure Diagnosis	subskills/m1_failure_diagnosis/	Available
M2 Market Panic	subskills/m2_market_panic/	Available
M3 Regulatory Risk	subskills/m3_regulatory_risk/	Available
M4 Product and Innovation	subskills/m4_product_innovation/	Available
M5 Governance Accountability	subskills/m5_governance_accountability/	Available
M6 Fraud and Institutional Fragility	subskills/m6_fraud_institutional_fragility/	Available

CITATION RULES

When the user asks for sources, or when producing a formal analysis, cite the quote files for Brooks-derived principles. Each routed module has a references/case_library.md with stable IDs mapped to the quote files and anchors below.

Quote files:

• quotes/market-dynamics-quotes.md — market fluctuation, panic psychology, technical breakdown, speculative cycles.
• quotes/corporate-strategy-quotes.md — product failure, Edsel, Xerox, innovation, corporate decline.
• quotes/risk-crisis-quotes.md — fraud, crisis, regulation, institutional fragility.
• quotes/investor-behavior-quotes.md — stockholder power, speculation, Wall Street behavior.
• quotes/wall-street-wisdom-quotes.md — finance culture and recurring market lessons.

Anchor mapping:

• market-dynamics-quotes.md: #market-will-fluctuate, #morgans-maxim, #antiperistasis-defined, #expectation-vs-event, #tape-delay-consequences, #panic-psychology, #crisis-creates-chaos, #psychological-gestures, #bellwether-stocks, #round-number-psychology, #specialist-wisdom, #crisis-unfathomable, #speculative-cycles, #sweetness-of-honey
• corporate-strategy-quotes.md: #edsel-market-research, #car-personality, #edsel-name-decision, #timing-risk, #kaiser-lesson, #styling-decisions, #image-conflict, #copies-stigma, #copies-suspicion, #corner-game, #tragic-flaw, #communication-problem, #corporate-power, #meeting-authority
• risk-crisis-quotes.md: #insider-information-value, #stacked-deck, #insider-incentive, #haupt-risk, #vegetable-oil-exposure, #exchange-responsibility, #sherman-act, #conspiracy-concealment, #price-fixing-penalty, #central-bank-purpose, #federal-reserve-role, #tax-law-scope, #two-currencies
• investor-behavior-quotes.md: #never-give-advice, #entertainment-vs-greed, #jokes-as-attraction, #walk-ins-as-indicator, #lunch-hour-selling, #who-sold-in-crash, #mutual-funds-as-stabilizer, #funds-spotted-bargains, #losing-other-peoples-money, #fear-of-fund-redemptions, #air-of-unreality, #public-individuals-role, #margin-call-spiral
• wall-street-wisdom-quotes.md: #market-fragility, #edsel-lesson, #salad-oil-swindle, #stockholder-decline, #xerox-complacency, #go-go-years, #de-la-vega-observation

Citation format:

> "Author's exact words here."
>
> - [*Business Adventures*, cited excerpt](https://github.com/simbajigege/book2skills/blob/main/skills/business-adventures-analysis-brooks/quotes/market-dynamics-quotes.md#panic-psychology)

Use only exact quote text from the quote files. If no exact quote fits, cite the closest anchor or module reference ID and state that the reasoning is a paraphrased Brooks application.

Do Not

• Do not treat historical parallels as deterministic forecasts.
• Do not explain a failure only with personality when incentives or structure made the behavior rational.
• Do not assume preparation, research, or capital equals product-market fit.
• Do not treat tolerated practices as safe when materiality, visibility, or public pressure can change enforcement.
• Do not confuse governance process with accountability.
• Do not cite quote text unless it appears in quotes/ or a module case_library.md.