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Execution: The Discipline of Getting
Things Done by
Larry Bossidy,
Ram Charan, Charles Burck (Contributor)
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- Hardcover: 256 pages ; Dimensions (in
inches): 1.07 x 9.54 x 5.78
- Publisher: Crown Pub; ; 1st edition (June
11, 2002)
- ISBN: 0609610570
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Pricing &
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Book Description
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.
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
Book Info
Authors demonstrate the ultimate difference between
a company and its competitor. Shows how to get the job done and deliver
results, whether you're running an entire company or in your first management
job.
From the Inside Flap
"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." -Michael Dell, chairman and CEO, Dell
Computer Corp.
"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." -L. R. Raymond,
chairman and CEO, Exxon Mobil
"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: The Discipline of Getting Things
Done is well written and gives sound, practical advice about how to make
things happen. It is well worth the reading." -Ralph S. Larsen, chairman
and CEO, Johnson & Johnson
"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!" -Ivan Seidenberg, president and
co-chief executive officer, Verizon
"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." -Michael Useem,
professor of management and director of the Center for Leadership and
Change, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
"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." -Richard
Schroeder, cofounder of Six Sigma Academy
From the Back Cover
“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.”
—Michael Dell, chairman and CEO, Dell Computer Corp.
“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.” —L. R. Raymond, chairman and CEO,
Exxon Mobil
“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: The Discipline of Getting Things Done is well written
and gives sound, practical advice about how to make things happen. It
is well worth the reading.” —Ralph S. Larsen, chairman and CEO, Johnson
& Johnson
“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!” —Ivan Seidenberg, president and co–chief executive officer,
Verizon
“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.”
—Michael Useem, professor of management and director of the Center for
Leadership and Change, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
“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.” —Richard Schroeder, cofounder
of Six Sigma Academy
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