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R**T
An Important book that captures the basis for corporate successes - EXECUTION
The key point in the whole book is the first word of the title - EXECUTION. There is without question in business in this country, and to a far greater extent overseas, a failure to execute. Businesses, like people have wonderful thoughts, ideas, notions, desires, goals, objectives, and needs. Try finding the company, entity, institution that bottom line, successfully gets things done. It comes back to EXECUTION.The authors are as professional as you can get. Larry Bossidy is a product of the General Electric system of management. He is the man credited with building the division now known as GE Capital into what it is today. GE Capital is one of the most profitable divisions of any corporation in the world, and the envy of every financial institution including Wall Street.Bossidy was one of three men in the running to become Chairman of General Electric. He lost to Jack Welch. It is traditional that when you are passed over as Chairman of GE, you take your time, but you leave. Bossidy left to run Allied Signal, which then was absorbed into Honeywell. It was during that corporate transformation that Bossidy became associated with the techniques that you are reading in his book, "Execution-The Discipline of Getting Things Done".His co-author is Ram Charan, who has taught at both Harvard Business, and the Kellogg School of Northwestern University. Charan has functioned as an international business consultant specializing in management. Without being mentioned, it is obvious that at some point Charan consulted for Bossidy somewhere along the way, and this is how the partnership was formed.Why You Must Read this Book?You read every word in a book like "Execution", because you are getting it from the horse's mouth. Even if other people can say it better, Bossidy is the guy who made the big bucks doing it. Who wouldn't want to read a book on playing golf under pressure by Tiger Woods, or how you should prepare for a big basketball game the day of the game by Michael Jordan.Bossidy is the real deal. He has run a major corporation, and posted major results, for a long period of time. All the major players are in agreement; that this is the man you go to when you want to talk about management. Now having said that, does the book ramble, yes, could it be shorter, yes, could it better written, the answer is of course. It still doesn't make any difference. You have to read Bossidy, because even Jack Welch at GE read this book.Here's what you will learn very quickly1) Execution isn't everything - it's the ONLY THINGYou'll remember that Vince Lombardi, the Green Bay Packer's coach use to say that winning isn't everything; it's the only thing. The same thing can be said about EXECUTION. The only purpose bottom line for a business to be in business is to execute the goals, and objectives of the corporation.2) The difference between Dreams, and Results is how you EXECUTEDBusinesses started with goals and objectives, and then you have to get to reality. Everything in between is how you execute, and the authors make clear at every opportunity those instances where corporations did well (General Electric, Dell, EDS), and those times when corporations failed (Xerox, Lucent, Kodak, Motorola, AT&T). The examples given are thorough, and make sense. You know all these corporations.3) The importance of the talent you fieldBossidy is so right on this one. He says that he spent 40% of his time picking the players. In the end, how much can a CEO personally do, or deliver? It's true that a CEO can fairly easily blow up a corporate structure in a year or two. The two authors say the same CEO picking the right talent can deliver enviable results. They must be held to high accountable standards. You use the feedback to power the results.4) Constant involvement with that talentBossidy is not a guy that leaves things to human resources. Bossidy talks about the importance of the lunch or dinner with his management team members, how he was constantly sizing them up. Could they deliver, would they execute. He is the only CEO I have ever heard of who personally would check referrals on those he hired. That kernel of information tells you everything. One could almost argue that if you put the right players into place, your job is 90% done, providing the system works.I would like to take a moment to tell you how you work with a book like this. You need to write in the margins, you must underline, and you must question, and annotate the entire book. If you are someone that finds himself commuting either to work, or spending significant time in a car, than the audio version is excellent as well because it is in the author's voices.Recognize that this is a book you will read, or listen to many times. There are multiple layers of messages here, and you will not capture them all with the first run through of either the book, or the audio. Bossidy is acknowledged to be one of the most successful businessmen of his era, take advantage of it, and pull everything you can out of his book.Good luck.Richard Stoyeck
N**S
This book is a winner and I recommend it.
My OpinionThere is plenty of actionable material and lots of ideas to share with the officers of your company (a dynamic HR department, developing a company budget in three days). I don't care for the style and format that the book was written in. It jumps from straight forward discussions to side commentaries by Larry & Ram.The Big IdeaLeadership without the discipline of execution is incomplete and ineffective, plans remain only plans. Organizations of Execution have three things; 1) a strong business Leader, 2) execution must be the core element of an organizations culture, 3) discipline integral to strategy.Business LeaderOnly the leader can set the tone for an organization.The Leader must be in charge of getting things done by running three core processes; picking other leaders, setting strategic direction and conduction operations.Seven essential behaviors of a leader:1. Leaders must `live' their business. They have to know more than just the basics because they have to ask the tough questions.2. Insist on realism. You keep a realistic view of the company by constantly asking questions.3. Set clear goals and priorities. Focusing on three or four priorities will produce the best results from the resources at hand, K.I.S.S.4. Follow through. Failure to follow through is the major cause of poor execution.5. Reward the doers. You have to make clear that rewards and respect are based on execution.6. Expand People's Capabilities. Coaching is the single most important part of expanding an organization's capabilities. The most effective way to coach is to observe and provide useful feedback. Feedback is both what is being done right and what needs to be changed.7. Know Yourself. It takes emotional fortitude to be open to people and information. It takes fortitude to deal with those who are not performing. It comes from self-discovery and self mastery.a. Authenticity. Be real. What you see is what you get.b. Self Awareness. Self discipline and self awareness.c. Humility. Learn how to listen. Admit that you don't know everything. Admit mistakes.Culture of ExecutionAn organization's culture is a sum of it's shared values, beliefs, and norms of behaviors.The inability to act decisively is rooted in the corporate culture. The leaders create this culture and they are the only ones that can change it.Cultural change gets real when your aim is execution. Most efforts at cultural change fail because they are not linked to improving the business's outcomes.The foundation of changing behavior is linking rewards to performance and making the linkages transparent. You want differentiation among options, bonuses, and salary increases.The people process is more important than strategy or operations. A good people process evaluates, develops and plans for succession. It requires integrity, honesty, a common approach, common language, frequency and above all candid dialog.The People Process:1. Companies need to plan out near term, medium term, and long term strategies.a. Hire and train people to meet these strategies.2. The Leadership Pipelinea. Having succession depth prevents employees from stagnating and prevents people from moving up too quickly.b. Talent reviews - Everyone is reviewed against their current job and potential future jobs.i. Four Basic Competencies to measure are: Functional skills, Business Skills, Management Skills, and Leadership skills.ii. They will fall in one of three categories: Good Fit, A Stretch, or Action Required.c. Managers should also do a retention assessment based on compensation, current role, potential role, effectiveness and risk of loss to the company.3. Non-performers must be addressed; coached, moved or terminated.Four Elements of a robust People Process1. A culture of high performance, which makes you demand the best from individuals.2. A leader who is not only willing but also ready to question a person's assessment.3. A collegial culture among the top executives of the enterprise, where they hold each other mutually accountable.4. The Human Resource department that is integrated into the business process.Discipline Integral to StrategyAt the Heart of Execution; the people process, the strategy process and the operations process.A strategic plan must be an action plan that business leaders can rely on to reach their business objectives.The substance of any strategy is the key concepts and actions that define it.A business unit strategy defines the direction of the unit. Where it is, where it wants to be, and how it will get there.To be effective a strategy must be constructed by those who are going to execute it.Decide on your objectives: what do you want to get done? What are critical issues to understand? Why in the end is this helpful?A Strong Strategic Plan must address the following questions:1. What is the assessment of the external environment?2. How well do we understand existing markets or events?3. What is the best way to grow the business profitability, and what are the obstacles to growth?4. Who is your competition?5. Can the business execute the strategy?6. What are the important milestones for executing the plan?7. Are the short term needs balanced against the long term payback?8. What are the critical issues facing the business?9. What will the business make money on a sustainable basis?After the Long Term Strategy has been agreed upon, the Operating Plan is created. The Operating Plan breaks down long term output into short term goals. It puts the reality behind the numbers by answering the "hows". Operating Plans are those programs that your company will complete within the year. The leader is primarily responsible for overseeing the seamless transition from strategy to operations.1. The Operating Plan is a three part processo Setting Targetso Developing an action plano Get agreement and closure from all participants.2. Tradeoffs will have to be made between the companies projects; money & A-Players. The out come of the plan must be clear and specific. The plan should be reviewed quarterly to make sure it is still on track.3. The four flaws of a typical operating plano Doesn't provide dialog on the assumptionso Built around results that upper management wants and doesn't specify actions to make these results realityo Doesn't provide coaching opportunities for people to learn the totality of the business.o Plan is very rigid and doesn't allow for new opportunities or forces people to `trick' the system to make goal.Quotables and Cool StoriesRepeated Failure drains the energy from an organization.The execution is the process of discussing, questioning, following through and ensuring accountability.The hands-off leader is not confronting poor performance, searching for problems to solve and then solving them. They are presiding and only doing half the job.You do not fix a problem by focusing on it's outcome.If you are really executing and you are listening to tomorrow's customers as well as today's and planning for their needs.Typically said of a new management initiative; "This too will pass".Goals don't mean much if no one takes them seriously.A manager who is emotionally weak will avoid hiring people who are smarter than they are. To them, loyalty is most important.Failure to deal with underperformers is an extremely common problem, it is usually the result of a managers blockages.We don't think of ourselves into a new way of acting. We act ourselves in to a new way of thinking.You get what you measure.The harmony - sought by many leaders who wish to offend no one - can be the enemy of truth.Leaders get the employee behavior that they exhibit and they tolerate."I want bigger margins than anyone else, and to accomplish this we have to have great people and train them better and faster than anyone else. We need educational programs that are focused on key business issues and problems, the things that matter".In general the DNA of the people who can execute the model is fundamentally different from the DNA of the people who run a model.If a strategy does not address the "hows", it is a candidate for failure.Sometimes leaders strategize themselves into the wrong business.
M**R
Bossidy Made Me a Lot of Money. More than I ever imagined
For an entIre year, back in 2002, my partner and I implemented the principles in this book and became the number 1 producers at the flagship international office of UBS.We did so well that the branch manager approached us and asked us how we did it. I told Alberto: Dude, your diploma from Wharton is worthless unless you read this. Are you sure? He asked. I answered, I'm 100%. I bought him the book at the local B&N the next day. He read it. Six months later we went from being #5 to #1 for two years in a row until I left to set up my hedge fund.If you're serious about improving your process and optimizing your P&L, don't even think twice. Buy it. Trust me.
D**R
Strategy, Execution & Results
In this book Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan do a brilliant job of giving the reader the HOW TO of execution. The biggest reason companies fall short is because they cannot keep their promise. This book looks at the reasons why companies fall apart, the process of execution and HOW to execute. Companies must realize it is not about bigger issues. Strategy must be carefully planned and form part of a system-it is called discipline. As the heading of the book indicates - "get things done right the first time." Larry & Ram also discusses The Seven Essential Behaviors of a Leader.As an entrepreneur, investor and sales growth specialist, execution is close to my heart. Without Execution, all the brilliant leadership talk is just that, talk. All the strategy work is just that. One of the biggest difficulties that I see that companies have is "knowing" how to execute. It is a must read for all leaders. This book is part of my "Dantotsu" collection (Best of the Best.)Danita ByeSales Growth Specialists
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