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Unlike many other books on the market that stress
high-minded, complex theories, Larry Bossidy's and Ran Charan's Execution
is a unique and indispensable guide to corporate strategy that focuses on
the quality most essential to every business -- the ability to get things
done. Bossidy, the chairman and CEO of Honeywell International, and Charan,
a much-praised adviser to companies such as General Electric, use the simple
metaphor of building a house to illustrate the importance of execution: The
concerns that often occupy the attention of executives -- incentive systems,
process design, promotions, new approaches to organization structure -- are
just the walls or roof of a house, while successful execution is the true
core, the foundation upon which everything else rests. As the authors note
in their introduction, "Execution is a systematic process of rigorously
discussing hows and whats, questioning, tenaciously following through, and
ensuring accountability." If you want to create an organization in which
strategic planning and day-to-day operations are supported by tangible
results, then this book will be an invaluable guide. Execution may
well be the most useful business book you'll read this year.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
| The book that shows how to get the job done and
deliver results . . . whether you’re running an entire company
or in your first management job
Larry Bossidy is one of the world’s most acclaimed CEOs, a
man with few peers who has a track record for delivering
results. Ram Charan is a legendary advisor to senior executives
and boards of directors, a man with unparalleled insight into
why some companies are successful and others are not. Together
they’ve pooled their knowledge and experience into the one book
on how to close the gap between results promised and results
delivered that people in business need today.
After a long, stellar career with General Electric, Larry
Bossidy transformed AlliedSignal into one of the world’s most
admired companies and was named CEO of the year in 1998 by Chief
Executive magazine. Accomplishments such as 31 consecutive
quarters of earnings-per-share growth of 13 percent or more
didn’t just happen; they resulted from the consistent practice
of the discipline of execution: understanding how to link
together people, strategy, and operations, the three core
processes of every business.
Leading these processes is the real job of running a
business, not formulating a “vision” and leaving the work of
carrying it out to others. Bossidy and Charan show the
importance of being deeply and passionately engaged in an
organization and why robust dialogues about people, strategy,
and operations result in a business based on intellectual
honesty and realism.
The leader’s most important job—selecting and appraising
people—is one that should never be delegated. As a CEO, Larry
Bossidy personally makes the calls to check references for key
hires. Why? With the right people in the right jobs, there’s a
leadership gene pool that conceives and selects strategies that
can be executed. People then work together to create a strategy
building block by building block, a strategy in sync with the
realities of the marketplace, the economy, and the competition.
Once the right people and strategy are in place, they are then
linked to an operating process that results in the
implementation of specific programs and actions and that assigns
accountability. This kind of effective operating process goes
way beyond the typical budget exercise that looks into a
rearview mirror to set its goals. It puts reality behind the
numbers and is where the rubber meets the road.
Putting an execution culture in place is hard, but losing it
is easy. In July 2001 Larry Bossidy was asked by the board of
directors of Honeywell International (it had merged with
AlliedSignal) to return and get the company back on track. He’s
been putting the ideas he writes about in Execution to
work in real time.
SYNOPSIS
The book that shows how to get the job done and deliver
results . . . whether you’re running an entire company or in
your first management job
Larry Bossidy is one of the world’s most acclaimed CEOs, a man
with few peers who has a track record for delivering results.
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Soundview
Executive Book Summaries
Available also as an
executive summary from Soundview.
Click Here
Execution is the discipline of getting things done, and
according to CEO extraordinaire Larry Bossidy, it is the
leader's most important job. He explains that, in order to
turn AlliedSignal around from a disconnected company with no
productivity culture to one with a ninefold return for
shareholders, he needed to create a discipline of execution.
Together with Ram Charan, a Harvard professor and respected
business author, he turns his ample experience into a plan
that links people, strategy and operations.
According to the authors, execution is built on three
basic blocks. The first block is composed of seven essential
leadership behaviors. These are:
- Know your people and your business.
- Insist on realism.
- Set clear goals and priorities.
- Follow through.
- Reward the doers.
- Expand people's capabilities.
- Know yourself.
The next building block of execution involves creating
the framework for cultural change within an organization. A
culture is a group of people who share the same values,
beliefs, and norms of behavior. The authors write that
values need to be reinforced by the people at the highest
levels of the company. People's beliefs are conditioned by
training, experience, what they hear inside and outside
about the company's prospects, and their perceptions of what
leaders are saying and doing. The authors explain that
beliefs can only be changed when new evidence persuades them
that they are false. Behaviors are beliefs turned into
action, and are what deliver results.
A company's competitive advantage depends on the
behavioral norms of how people work together. To improve how
people work together, and to change other behaviors, the
authors write, rewards must be linked to performance. They
write that a business's culture defines what gets
appreciated, respected and rewarded. The authors explain
that if a company wants to create a culture of change, it
must reward and promote people for execution.
The authors write that the third building block of
execution is based on the job that no leader should
delegate. This is the task of finding the right people and
putting them in the right places. The authors explain that
this depends on being systematic and consistent when
interviewing applicants, appraising employees, and
developing employees by providing useful feedback.
Once these three building blocks are in place, a solid
foundation has been build on which core processes can be
operated and managed efficiently. The authors write that the
most important of these core processes is the people
process. Since the people in an organization make judgments
about markets, create strategies based on those judgments,
and translate those strategies into operations, if the right
people are not in place, the potential of a business will
never be realized. The authors write that the key to finding
the right people lies in whether individuals can handle the
jobs of the future. Expertise in appraising and choosing the
right people is developed through consistency of practice.
The next core process explored by the authors is the
strategy process. This process is based on linking people
with operations so customer preference can be won,
sustainable competitive advantage can be created, and
shareholders can get paid. According to the authors, a
strategic plan should define a business's direction and
position the organization to move in that direction. The
authors write that this plan must start with identifying and
defining the critical issues behind the strategy, and
linking this strategy to people will add realism to it. The
authors devote a chapter of Execution to the details of
conducting a strategic review.
The operations process makes the link between strategy
and people. The authors explain that an operating plan
provides the path on which people can take the business
where it wants to go. This process breaks long-term output
into short-term targets. To meet these targets, the authors
add, people must make decisions and integrate them across
the organization, putting reality behind the numbers. The
authors write that the leader is primarily responsible for
overseeing the seamless transition from strategy to
operations, setting operational goals, and leading operating
reviews that bring people together around the operating
plan.
Why Soundview Likes This Book
The authors of Execution get to the heart of a new
theory of leadership and organization and provide crucial
advice about how to improve the links between people,
strategy and operations. By offering leaders ways with which
they can improve individual processes, the authors create a
detailed roadmap by which leaders can master the discipline
of execution. Breaking down their ideas into succinct and
vital components, and using relevant examples from years of
experience, they reveal many facets of operational
excellence that can be applied to any business to create a
clearer path to improved performance.
Available also as an
executive summary from Soundview.
Click Here
Copyright (c) 2002 Soundview Executive Book Summaries
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What People Are Saying
Michael Dell
If you want to be a CEO -- or if you are a CEO and want to
keep your job -- read Execution and put its
principles to work.
— Chairman and CEO, Dell Computer Corp.
Richard Schroeder
Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan define the true meaning of
leadership from an implementation point of view. Larry is
the expert on productivity in the world of business, and
this book demonstrates how leadership is the key to
achieving ongoing financial success.
— Co-founder of Six Sigma Academy
Ivan Seidenberg
Larry Bossidy recognizes how execution in a business defines
the true greatness of a company. He captures a lifetime of
building winning formulas and puts them in a simple and
practical context for executives at any level. Read it!
— President and Co-CEO, Verizon
Michael Useem
For those managers who have struggled to make it happen, fix
a problem, get it done -- or otherwise transform winning
strategies into genuine results -- here's the missing
medicine from two who know from long experience what works
and what doesn't. Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan offer a
compelling leadership prescription, and it comes down to
realism, discipline, and above all, great execution.
— Professor of Management, Wharton School, U. of
Pennsylvania
Ralph S. Larsen
The best thought-out plans in the world aren't worth the
paper they're written on if you can't pull them off. And
that's what this book is all about. Execution is well
written and gives sound, practical advice about how to make
things happen. It is well worth the reading.
— Chairman and CEO, Johnson & Johnson
R. L. Raymond
Good practical insight and advice on managing for results at
firms of any size. Execution is key, and this book
clearly explains what it means and how it brings together
the critical elements of any organization -- its people,
strategies, and operations.
— Chairman and CEO, Exxon Mobil
A great practitioner and an insightful theorist join forces
to write a compelling business story of 'how to get it done
— Jack Welch
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