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Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Crown Business Average Customer Review:  Hardcover (15 June, 2002) list price: $27.50 -- our price: $16.99 (price subject to change: see help) US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France Editorial Review Disciplines like strategy, leadership development, and innovation are the sexier aspects of being at the helm of a successful business; actually getting things done never seems quite as glamorous. But as Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan demonstrate in Execution, the ultimate difference between a company and its competitor is, in fact, the ability to execute. Execution is "the missing link between aspirations and results," and as such, making it happen is the business leader's most important job. While failure in today's business environment is often attributed to other causes, Bossidy and Charan argue that the biggest obstacle to success is the absence of execution. They point out that without execution, breakthrough thinking on managing change breaks down, and they emphasize the fact that execution is a discipline to learn, not merely the tactical side of business. Supporting this with stories of the "execution difference" being won (EDS) and lost (Xerox and Lucent), the authors describe the building blocks--leaders with the right behaviors, a culture that rewards execution, and a reliable system for having the right people in the right jobs--that need to be in place to manage the three core business processes of people, strategy, and operations. Both Bossidy, CEO of Honeywell International, Inc., and Charan, advisor to corporate executives and author of such books as What the CEO Wants You to Know and Boards That Work, present experience-tested insight into how the smooth linking of these three processes can differentiate one company from the rest. Developing the discipline of execution isn't made out to be simple, nor is this book a quick, easy read. Bossidy and Charan do, however, offer good advice on a neglected topic, making Execution a smart business leader's guide to enacting success rather than permitting demise. --S. Ketchum ... Read more Reviews (155)
Isbn: 0609610570 |
$16.99 |
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Jack: Straight from the Gut by Warner Business Books Average Customer Review: Hardcover (11 September, 2001) list price: $29.95 -- our price: $19.77 (price subject to change: see help) US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France Editorial Review It's hard to think of a CEO that commands as much respect as Jack Welch. Under his leadership, General Electric reinvented itself several times over by integrating new and innovative practices into its many lines of business. In Jack: Straight from the Gut, Welch, with the help of Business Week journalist John Byrne, recounts his career and the style of management that helped to make GE one of the most successful companies of the last century. Beginning with Welch's childhood in Salem, Massachusetts, the book quickly progresses from his first job in GE's plastics division to his ambitious rise up the GE corporate ladder, which culminated in 1981. What comes across most in this autobiography is Welch's passion for business as well as his remarkable directness and intolerance of what he calls "superficial congeniality"--a dislike that would help earn him the nickname "Neutron Jack." In spite of its 496 pages, Jack: Straight from the Gut is a quick read that any student or manager would do well to consider. Highly recommended. --Harry C. Edwards ... Read more Reviews (234)
Isbn: 0446528382 |
$19.77 |
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Fortune by The Time Inc. Magazine Company Average Customer Review:  Magazine list price: $150.47 -- our price: $29.98 (price subject to change: see help) US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France Editorial Review Just as Wall Street is an icon to the investment community, Fortune magazine is one to its readership, the difference being Fortune's diversified reach into the many facets of business: technology, companies, global economics, and, of course, your personal fortune. While many a narrow-focused business and investing magazine has come and gone, Fortune has grown and prospered, investing as much in content as ad space and staying in print since the 1930s. Columns include features on the marketplace, tech movers and shakers, career trends, U.S. politics, and even European business. Readers also look forward to the annually updated Fortune lists, which include the "40 Richest Under 40," "Most Powerful Women," and the "Fortune 500," an exclusive collection of companies whose employees are undoubtedly Fortune readers as well. --Mace Bainwright ... Read more Features Reviews (15)
Asin: B0000AWD8Z |
$29.98 |
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Fast Company by Gruner + Jahr USA Publishing Average Customer Review:  Magazine list price: $59.40 -- our price: $12.00 (price subject to change: see help) US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France Editorial Review Since 1995, Fast Company has been an informative and vital voice of the changing business industry. The monthly magazine is a beacon to new industries, especially those tied to the Internet, but offers more. Inside are smart attitudes and information that give entrepreneurs and business professionals the particulars of leadership and organization, no matter what the trade. Find key ingredients of working in teams or read a candid interview with the leaders of today's leading-edge companies. The magazine also offers practical business tools and tactics, from must-have gadgets to how to handle voluminous amounts of e-mail. Ideas come from Wall Street, Silicon Valley, Harvard, and even Las Vegas. The magazine dubbed the entrepreneurship and consulting movement "Free-Agent Nation," and overnight became the bible for those working for themselves. --Doug Thomas ... Read more Features Reviews (17)
Asin: B00005N7Q4 |
$12.00 |
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The Leadership Engine by HarperBusiness Average Customer Review:  Paperback (20 August, 2002) list price: $17.95 -- our price: $12.21 (price subject to change: see help) US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France Reviews (22)
The term "Engine" as used by author, illustrates the dynamic potential of the winning organization to teach the leaders and develop future leaders. Noel says, "Many management theories don't buy the argument that leadership engine is the key factor in determining an organization's success. They assert that a winning culture, or efficient work processes, or any number of other ancillary attributes are the sine qua nons for success". But he believes that leadership takes precedence over everything else and one reason leadership take precedence is that leaders are the people who decide what needs to be done and are the one's who make things happen. To accept the fact as represented by author, the research should also include mid sized organizations and opinions of middle layered managers.
The CORE of the ideas of Mr. Tichy is superb. Really. Building a model (a triangle which is not, for one of the corners includes "emotional, energy and edge" and there's is not the sligthest reference in the book why these are bundle together) where he included values, ideas and the emotional side to introduce the discipline of the storytelling in the organization is a premier work intended to give a method to build those stories (World Bank, 3M, Ford and many other companies with a long tradition of strategic planning are working on this line, prefering it over conventional bullet lists, formats and charts but back in 1997, when Tichy's work arrived it was a weird idea). BUT that's all! If you expect to learn here how to buid the "teachable point of view" (this is how Tichy christened his baby) forget it. At least an useful one. Many water has gone under the bridges since 1997 and there're many subsequent authors with better techniques to teach you to do so. Nevertheless, Tichy's work is a nice model to keep in mind when you build and use the strategic stories. But as a framework... and I've got that in the little excerpt of the exhibit in HBS. Last, but not the least... the examples. And this REALLY bothered me. Rather than present the teoric foundations for his ideas, in order to let you to figure out how he get there and then let the reader to develop his own path (like Collins&Porras, Tichy's nemesis, did in "Built to last"), Tichy gives an harangue of two or three lines with his ideas and then throw at you a 3-pages example so tailored-made for the concept you wonder if he's not explaining a coyuntural practice in some organization which he happened to hear about or maybe witness now and then rather than give you some new insights about leadership. And that organization, 70% alongisde 250 pages or so, is GE, 20% is AliedSignal's Larry Bossidy (a GE insider) and the 10% are ocassional references to Ameritech or well-konwn leaders so suitable for the day-to-day environment of XXI century business like Martin Luther King and Winston Churchill. Of course you can learn from any leader, that's what metaphors are for, but it's risky at least to compare the deployment of some set of values and ideas in a company with somebody who broadcast alive in the middle of some war. HOW the leaders deploy their messages (not the build of the message, but the media and the selection criteria they used) is a major absence in this book. And when it comes to learn about diagnostics and measures for the performance of his idea, Tichy olimpically come down from the bronco saying "I think the value market is the best measure to keep track of the performance of the company in the long term". And thats's it: one line and a half and keep going repeated like a mantra (I wonder what does Tichy thinks about some market values like Enron' And by the way, Ken Lay wrote in the back of the book a very nice appraisal of this leadership method to succeed in the market...) Which means if you're CEO in a private held company, a non-profit organization, a multillateral banking institution like IMF, a public company far away from the S&P or Dow Jones or the local chamber of commerce, you can implement these ideas but for measures go to the nearest church. Noel Tichy was director at mythical Crotonville GE Human Developing Center. And the book become for moments a "Thanks my sweet lord psalms choir" to Jack Welch. Who is, no doubt, the best known business leader worldwide today. And Tichy used his previous book (Control your destiny) about the great man to quote himself a lot of times as authoritative source. But with the teorics of the book, it is at least arrogant to place such an emphasis in this company. I mean, if "winning companies" are the ones who win today, tomorrow and the next day by the inheritance and labor of its present leaders, how Tichy knew it would be the case back in 1997? Jeffrey Immelt hasn't been appointed to the office and you simply can't know, even today, 5 years after the book, if Welch revolution will survive him. Tichy made an example of his method and of a "winning company" out of Coca Cola under Goizueta reign, and you can go to ask about all this revolution to his succesors, Doug specially. Welch might well become a sort of Tom Watson, the head of the company Tichy's beat to death every single opportunity he has to the point you wonder if they fired or offended him in some moment: if he couldn't illustrate some point in the book with some real practice, then he explain it by default showing HOW IBM didn't do this or that and ergo fell down... and GE sure has, no doubt, somewhere around the world, even if he can't prove that, but the wonderful market value of the company is enough proof. And by the way.... if you read "Straight from the gut" by Welch himself, you learn many of Tichy' affirmations about his practices are, to be candorous, descontextualized or mistaken. In short, a very, very good idea with a very, very bad excution in a very, worse package.
Tichy insists that learning, teaching, and leading are intertwined and admits he is a proponent of transformational leadership theory. Elements of this theory are clearly evident throughout his book. Tichy is also resolute in his belief that leading IS teaching-"they can, they do, they teach"-this point is driven home numerous times throughout his book(1). Winning organizations are teaching organizations. Successful organizations have proven leaders who are both teachers and avid learners themselves. The author emphasizes on numerous occasions that leaders must have a teachable point of view and must create teachable moments for the right kind of learning to occur-the kind that transforms an organization. A leader's "teachable point of view" is a trinitarian view composed of: a) ideas, b) values, and c) emotional energy and edge(2). Ideas are the substance of learning and good ideas are teachable. Tichy uses numerous real life examples from the business world and even the military to highlight his points throughout the book. His liberal use of relevant and true stories to emphasize the point he is making, is in itself, a subtle illustration of a key leadership trait-being a good story teller. Tichy insists that successful leaders are successful teachers because they use stories and share examples from their own personal life. The author's frequent use of stories makes the book interesting, even captivating at times and minimizes the possibility of the reader getting bored. The Leadership Engine is an outstanding, well organized, and very readable book; and not just a book, but a useful handbook as well. Tichy includes a 99-page workbook with practical exercises designed to both help the reader assess his or her own leadership and to help the reader develop a "Leadership Engine" in his or her own organization. The workbook is what sets this leadership book apart from the thousands of others in this crowded category. Noel Tichy has accomplished what he set out to do-convince us that winning organizations are teaching organizations. However, for the student of leadership, there is no new ground or profound insights in this book and consequently, I am not convinced that it deserved its Business Week "Book of the Year" honor. NOTES Isbn: 0887309313 |
$12.21 |
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Every Business is a Growth Business: How Your Company Can Prosper Year After Year by Three Rivers Press Average Customer Review: Paperback (04 April, 2000) list price: $13.95 -- our price: $11.16 (price subject to change: see help) US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France Editorial Review "There's no such thing as a mature business," only a growth business, write leading business consultants Ram Charan and Noel M. Tichy. Every Business Is a Growth Business is a step-by-step manual for turning any company into an expanding company. The book is packed with real-world examples and key concepts for executives to get their businesses on an upward trajectory. Charan and Tichy assert that growth requires sticking to two principles: "strategy from the outside in" and "changing the genetic code." The first means putting yourself in your customers' shoes and asking what are their needs and how are they changing. From this perspective, a company can redefine its market and come up with creative ways to expand demand. The second principle, changing the genetic code, means revamping the corporate culture so that a new mindset for growth can thrive. As anyone who has ever worked in a company knows, corporate culture is a hard thing to overhaul. The book gives concrete steps to make that happen; sometimes it requires whole new leadership. Charan, who has been on the faculty of the Harvard Business School and Northwestern University, and Tichy, a professor at the University of Michigan Business School, speak from experience. They've advised companies such as Royal Dutch/Shell and Mercedes-Benz. One of their heroes is the late Roberto Goizueta of Coca-Cola. When Goizueta took over, the company was on cruise control. It dominated the U.S. soft- drink industry--a market that many experts believed was mature with nowhere to grow. Under conventional thinking, Coca-Cola was maxed out: it would do well just to defend each tenth of a percent of market share against archrival PepsiCo. But in the 1980s, Goizueta framed the question of market share in a different way. Goizueta got his top executives to see that globally, Coca-Cola accounted for less than 2 ounces of the 64 ounces of fluid that each of the world's 4.4 billion people drank on average every day. In one simple stroke, he redefined the market and opened vast new areas of opportunity for his company. Coca-Cola became an immensely successful growth company under his leadership. Similar stories about Compaq, Citibank, and other companies abound. Every Business Is a Growth Business is an inspiring and practical book for business leaders looking to grow their company. --Dan Ring ... Read more Reviews (5)
I have applied these principles in my own professional work and find the concepts very useful in business growth development efforts. In almost every growth opportunity development session with employees, collegues and clients, the going in premise is that there is not enough budget or too limited a market, thus preventing us from pursuing a given opportunity.Applying the author's concepts to creating the expanded view of the opportunity almost always proves to incite a bigger picture for everyone. The book may require better book bindings because I refer back to it so often that I will one day wear out the bindings! Read and Expand the Pond!Highly Recommended.
The authors define "desirable" growth from theperspective of shareholders as capital efficient, profitable growth. Theythen describe a framework for "growing the pond you fish in".Next, they point out the necessity of changing the "genetic code"of the organization so that growth is pursued by leaders at all levels inthe organization. They describe a framework for producing this change inthe genetic code of the organization. This framework is primarily based ona "teachable point-of-view" developed by the leadership, andconstantly reinforced and reiterated through various carefully designed"operating mechanisms". The teachable point-of-view consists ofkey business ideas, values, emotional energy, and "edge" (ontough calls). I've read this book twice already, and may read it again.I've started to implement the methodology in my company...so far, so good. ... Read more Isbn: 0812933052 |
$11.16 |
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The Cycle of Leadership : How Great Leaders Teach Their Companies to Win by HarperBusiness Average Customer Review: Hardcover (20 August, 2002) list price: $26.95 -- our price: $18.33 (price subject to change: see help) US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France Reviews (6)
Isbn: 0066620562 |
$18.33 |
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The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth by Harvard Business School Press Average Customer Review: Hardcover (September, 2003) list price: $29.95 -- our price: $19.77 (price subject to change: see help) US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France Reviews (31)
Isbn: 1578518520 |
$19.77 |
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Wired by Conde Nast Publications Inc. Average Customer Review: Magazine list price: $59.40 -- our price: $12.00 (price subject to change: see help) US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France Features Reviews (68)
Asin: B00005N7TL |
$12.00 |
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Unleashing the Ideavirus by Hyperion Average Customer Review: Paperback (10 October, 2001) list price: $14.00 -- our price: $11.20 (price subject to change: see help) US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France Editorial Review Treat a product or service like a human or computer virus, contends online promotion specialist Seth Godin, and it just might become one. In Unleashing the Ideavirus, Godin describes ways to set any viable commercial concept loose among those who are most likely to catch it--and then stand aside as these recipients become infected and pass it on to others who might do the same. "The future belongs to marketers who establish a foundation and process where interested people can market to each other," he writes. "Ignite consumer networks and then get out of the way and let them talk." Godin believes that a solid idea is the best route to success in the new century, but one "that just sits there is worthless." Through the magic of "word of mouse," however, the Internet offers a unique opportunity for interested individuals to transmit ideas quickly and easily to others of like mind. Taking up where his previous book Permission Marketing left off, Godin explains in great detail how ideaviruses have been launched by companies such as Napster, Blue Mountain Arts, GeoCities, and Hotmail. He also describes "sneezers" (influential people who spread them), "hives" (populations most willing to receive them), and "smoothness" (the ease with which sneezers can transmit them throughout a hive). In all, an infectious and highly recommended read. --Howard Rothman ... Read more Reviews (82)
Isbn: 0786887176 |
$11.20 |
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