The difference between successful organizations is not between the business and the social sector, the
difference is between good organizations and great ones.
Customer Reviews:
Thought-provoking for non-profits.......2007-09-06
A friend mentioned Good to Great in a sermon and I thought it might be a worthwhile read for me as the executive director of a non-profit association facing the challenge of how take the organization to the next level.
I found the book fascinating and will share it with my Board of Directors as a roadmap for how we will move our organization from good to great.
The monograph provides a great overview of the concepts developed in the book and is of a very manageable length.
I would strongly recommend it to leaders of non-profits as a basis for a conversation about their organization making the great leap forward.
A must read for anyone in a leadership position.......2007-09-05
This is a great companion for Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't for anyone that works in the social sector. As an assistant principal in a large, suburban high school, this book helped to bring into focus the principles reviewed in Good to Great.
Great Principles make for Great Outcomes.......2007-09-04
The social sector does not need to be more business like; it needs to implement more great business principles tailored for the social entities economic engine - so says Collins in this 35 page, add-on for a future "Good to Great" update. In addition to tailoring some of the Great principles
* Define Great by calibrating success without business (monetary) metrics
* Lead thru a blend of personal humility and professional will to get things done within a diffuse power structure
* Get high quality people with a personal commitment to the cause on-board the bus
* Find the intersection of the social entity's Passion, Best at, and its Resource Engine
* Build brand recognition
to the specifics of the social entity, Collins suggests that the leadership principle of managing within a diffuse power structure is something for the business sector to learn; as business executives do not have the same concentration of pure executive power they once enjoyed.
All in, a useful bit of thinking for those in a not-for-profit enterprise, as well as for business leaders who like to look at organizational effectiveness from different perspectives. Dennis DeWilde, author of The Performance Connection
Good to GREAT.......2007-08-10
Jim Collins is always spot on. The insights he presents are presented with such clarity and ease of reading that I look forward to anything he does. I use it as a key part of the extensive Strategic Visioning work I do. While I enjoy all of his work, being in the social service sector, I can personally and professionally validate this offering with enthusiasm.
Book review of Good to Great.......2007-06-30
I thought the book was awesome. The concepts of how to become a Great Leader was quite helpful. These are concepts that I'll use to try and move my organization "From Good to Great.
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
Five years ago, Jim Collins asked the question, "Can a good company become a great company and if so, how?" In Good to Great Collins, the author of Built to Last, concludes that it is possible, but finds there are no silver bullets. Collins and his team of researchers began their quest by sorting through a list of 1,435 companies, looking for those that made substantial improvements in their performance over time. They finally settled on 11--including Fannie Mae, Gillette, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo--and discovered common traits that challenged many of the conventional notions of corporate success. Making the transition from good to great doesn't require a high-profile CEO, the latest technology, innovative change management, or even a fine-tuned business strategy. At the heart of those rare and truly great companies was a corporate culture that rigorously found and promoted disciplined people to think and act in a disciplined manner. Peppered with dozens of stories and examples from the great and not so great, the book offers a well-reasoned road map to excellence that any organization would do well to consider. Like Built to Last, Good to Great is one of those books that managers and CEOs will be reading and rereading for years to come. --Harry C. Edwards
Book Description
The Challenge
Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the verybeginning.
But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?
The Study
For years, this question preyed on the mind of Jim Collins. Are there companies that defy gravity and convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiority? And if so, what are the universal distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great?
The Standards
Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. How great? After the leap, the good-to-great companies generated cumulative stock returns that beat the general stock market by an average of seven times in fifteen years, better than twice the results delivered by a composite index of the world's greatest companies, including Coca-Cola, Intel, General Electric, and Merck.
The Comparisons
The research team contrasted the good-to-great companies with a carefully selected set of comparison companies that failed to make the leap from good to great. What was different? Why did one set of companies become truly great performers while the other set remained only good?
Over five years, the team analyzed the histories of all twenty-eight companies in the study. After sifting through mountains of data and thousands of pages of interviews, Collins and his crew discovered the key determinants of greatness -- why some companies make the leap and others don't.
The Findings
The findings of the Good to Great study will surprise many readers and shed light on virtually every area of management strategy and practice. The findings include:
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Level 5 Leaders: The research team was shocked to discover the type of leadership required to achieve greatness.
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The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity within the Three Circles): To go from good to great requires transcending the curse of competence.
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A Culture of Discipline: When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great results. Technology Accelerators: Good-to-great companies think differently about the role of technology.
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The Flywheel and the Doom Loop: Those who launch radical change programs and wrenching restructurings will almost certainly fail to make the leap.
“Some of the key concepts discerned in the study,” comments Jim Collins, "fly in the face of our modern business culture and will, quite frankly, upset some people.”
Perhaps, but who can afford to ignore these findings?
Customer Reviews:
A very thought-provoking book for people trying to grow their business........2007-10-02
This was a very interesting book for me to read. I have to imagine that I am in a pretty narrow target market for this book, though the concepts may be broadly applied. I work for a small business and can see many opportunities to put this book's findings to work.
The book tells the various stories of companies that made a transition from a market participant to market leader and saw sustained success for at least 15 years. The author was able to identify a few common factors between these companies, and he and his research team present them as a model for us to follow.
I had but one small issue, which is probably not information that contributes to the rest of the research. They detail radical decisions made by upper management, sometimes completely changing the face of an established business. I figure there must be a largely disproportionate number of business that fail when they made the same or a similar move. I would have liked to see some detail behind how those successful companies came to make that decision. The decision itself was largely overlooked.
Like many "business" books, I feel that much of what was written here was largely common sense. They weren't necessarily ideas that I have had or would have come up with on my own, but as I read them they seemed mundane in analysis. It made the reading slow going, but there was a silver lining -- for instant gratification, each chapter ends with a few pages of main concepts extracted from the text.
There was some very insightful research in Good to Great. The common elements identified were relevant and practical. It would not be an easy model to follow, but if it were it would defeat its own purpose to isolate those corporate characteristics that set successful companies apart. If you have ever wondered what steps you should follow to take your company from Good to Great, this is a book you should read (even if it is just the chapter summaries).
"Good" is not "good enough"........2007-10-02
"Good" is not "good enough". When organizations and/or individuals settle for "good" as "good enough" they set themselves up to become obsolete. "Good to Great" looks at those organizations that decided never to settle for "good enough" and became "Great". How about you? Are you striving to become great at what you do, or have you settled for being good enough to get by? Does the organization that you work for have a plan to move from good to great? Are you a part of the change that will take your company to the next level or do you believe that your company is "good enough" right where it is?
I believe there is more value to be gained by pushing good organizations to become great than trying to turn mediocre organizations into good ones. The data presented in "Good to Great" shows just how much value can be gained by those willing to make the leap to Great. The book also shows you what principles of business those companies that made the leap had to adopt.
My favorite chapters are chapter two (Level 5 Leadership) and three (First Who...Then What). Level 5 Leadership address the benefits of having personal humility combined with a strong will to build something great. We have to many leaders at the top that have let their egos become more important than the organizations they run. "Good to Great" explains how the leaders of those companies that made the leap avoided the ego trap while having great ambitions for building something exceptional. Everyone who wishes to become a leader that makes a difference should read this chapter.
"First Who...Then What" does a good job of showing how great companies put "talent" at the top of the agenda. Any leader who wants to build a strong organization must put "talent" at the top of their agenda. Jim Collins address two critical issues companies need to address when it comes to recruiting and developing their talent. He shows us why it is important to get the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus. And then goes on to explain how great companies get the people in the right seat. How many people in your organization are in the wrong seat? How many should be taken off the bus entirely? Companies are not good at hiring the right people and then are terrible at assigning them to the right job. This chapter is a must for anyone involved in the hiring of talent.
I also recommend spending some time at jimcollins.com. I have visited and revisited this site to get more information on the concepts presented in "Good to Great". Buy the book, then go to the website and start your own journey from good to great.
Larry Kevin Adams
theactionator.com
Good To Great.......2007-09-28
Our company is taking the advice of the book to heart. We have formed our "hedgehog" group and all are excited. We want to work in an environment of greatness. The book shows us the way. We have 7 of our employees who have agreed to "donate their time" at lunch several times a month to help us identify our circles. I would recommend this book to any company or organization that truly wants to have their maximum impact in the arena in which they operate!
My Business Bible.......2007-09-24
If I have a bible for business, this is it. First who then what is the only way to go!
Still applicable in 2007.......2007-09-19
I enjoyed the thought provoking aspect of this book. The different levels of leadership, the hedgehog concept are the two takeaways from this book.
How many of us fall into the trap of being everything to everyone? Most I suspect from the findings presented in the book.
Read this book to find out how you can strive to be a Level 5 leader. I found the book very insightful. Jim Collins and his team hit a homerun!
Book Description
In Leading Change, John Kotter examines the efforts of more than 100 companies to remake themselves into better competitors. He identifies the most common mistakes leaders and managers make in attempting to create change and offers an eight-step process to overcome the obstacles and carry out the firm's agenda: establishing a greater sense of urgency, creating the guiding coalition, developing a vision and strategy, communicating the change vision, empowering others to act, creating short-term wins, consolidating gains and producing even more change, and institutionalizing new approaches in the future. This highly personal book reveals what John Kotter has seen, heard, experienced, and concluded in 25 years of working with companies to create lasting transformation.
Customer Reviews:
Effectively Managing Change.......2007-08-17
In this book, Kotter methodically and carefully explains his eight-step process for creating major change in business organizations. He notes that the rate of organisational change has been increasing in recent years. The rapid and continual innovation in technology is driving changes to organisational systems and processes. There are also increased expectations of employees as they move more freely between organisations.
Kotter highlights the critical importance of leadership in any change programme. Strong, sustained leadership is crucial to changing deeply rooted corporate cultures and successfully implementing the change process.
John Kotter describes a helpful eight step model for understanding and managing change. Each stage acknowledges a key principle identified by Kotter relating to people's response and approach to change, in which people see, feel and then change.
In spite of the importance and permanence of organisational change, most change initiatives fail to deliver the expected organisational benefits. This book should help those involved in the change process to avoid the pitfalls and follow the eight steps that are explained in detail in the book.
Anyone planning or implementing a change programme will find the book useful, helpful and handy. The author presents the subject in a simple, concise, and easy to follow format.
Wow - thoughtful AND useful.......2007-06-28
Kotter's book is a roadmap of how to introduce a culture change effectively into an organization. Similar to "Good to Great" (Jim Collins), the book is much better organized and thorough.
Amazing!!.......2007-06-26
Have no further words to describe how increrable John Kotter brings in a easy way a subject so complex and important now-a-days. Indeed, it is recommend for all leaders who wants to take right decisions during turbulent times.
Still the definitive work on Change.......2007-06-13
I have been working in the change arena for the last 15 years and Kotter's book on Leading Change is still the definitive work. Based on his seminal 1994 HBR article "Leading Change: Why Transformations efforts fail" this is the best down-to-earth guide for both consultants and managers leading change. It has good practical examples and straightforward arguments - no psychological mumbo jumbo.
Envision, introduce, sustain change. or die........2007-05-09
Kotter gives us here a valuable handbook on how to visualize, introduce, and sustain change in an organization. Here are a few quotes:
"Handling new initiatives quickly is not an essential component of success in relatively stable or cartel-like environments. The problem for us today is that stability is no longer the norm. And most experts agree that over the next few decades the business environment will become only more volatile."
"Useful change tends to be associated with a multistep process that creates power and motivation sufficient to overwhelm all the sources of inertia."
Customer Reviews:
Thank you .......2007-02-01
This is my first time to order anything off of Amazon and it was a good experience.
Excellent Seller.......2006-03-20
I recommend this seller for more items. Seller was reliable and shipped product quickly. I would purchase more items from this seller. Plus, cost was low. :)
Book Description
"CHANGE OR DIE. What if you were given that choice? We're talking actual life and death now. Your own life and death. What if a well-informed, trusted authority figure said you had to make difficult and enduring changes in the way you think, feel, and act? If you didn't, your time would end soon—a lot sooner than it had to. Could you change when change mattered most?"
This is the question Alan Deutschman poses in Change or Die, which began as a sensational cover story by the same title for Fast Company. Deutschman concludes that although we all have the ability to change our behavior, we rarely ever do. In fact, the odds are nine to one that, when faced with the dire need to change, we won't. From patients suffering from heart disease to repeat offenders in the criminal justice system to companies trapped in the mold of unsuccessful business practices, many of us could prevent ominous outcomes by simply changing our mindset.
A powerful book with universal appeal, Change or Die deconstructs and debunks age-old myths about change and empowers us with three critical keys—relate, repeat, and reframe—to help us make important positive changes in our lives. Explaining breakthrough research and progressive ideas from a wide selection of leaders in medicine, science, and business (including Dr. Dean Ornish, Mimi Silbert of the Delancey Street Foundation, Bill Gates, Daniel Boulud, and many others), Deutschman demonstrates how anyone can achieve lasting, revolutionary change.
Change or Die is not about merely reorganizing or restructuring priorities; it's about challenging, inspiring, and helping all of us to make the dramatic transformations necessary in any aspect of life—changes that are positive, attainable, and absolutely vital.
Customer Reviews:
Change or Die ... you gotta buy!.......2007-09-27
I consume an enormous amount of books - many of them audio to help expand my brain during commute time - for professional and personal development. This book was a jaw-dropper for me.
There are a lot of concepts thrown out in the idea playground, but few that hit the heart of transformation in the way this one does. Alan D. busts apart several deeply ingrained beliefs by dissecting case studies that destroy "the conventional wisdom."
It's easy ... the lazy way ... to simply state that people don't change, or can't change. What he does masterfully is shows why we hit the walls of resistance, and how to pull it down brick by brick if we really want to.
There is nothing more exhilarating for me to read a book that literally changes the way you look at the world when you finish it. "Change or Die" is a must read for anyone seeking to expand their thinking and view of the world ... enough said!
Why We Need More Change.......2007-09-08
Change or Die deserves a wide audience, not as a self-help book, but as an important way to understand why so many elements of our society are not working.
We label more and more acts as criminal. We build more prisons. But crime doesn't go away.
We keep asking, "Who should pay for health care?" when in fact over nearly 80% of health "care" costs could be reduced (or even eliminated) by iifestyle changes.
Psychologists have long known that change is rarely a matter of willpower. Karen Pryor's Don't Shoot The Dog warns that most of our education and training systems are not based on sound psychological guidelines.
Deutschman, as a journalist, presents case studies showing how groups of people changed following a few key principles. They identified with a person, leader or community. They got to practice, over and over again. They learned to think "as if" they had already changed. And they learned to reframe their experiences.
So prisoners at Delancey Street become members of a community. They learn to act "as if" they're ordinary, law-abiding citizens. They develop what Deutschman calls a middle-class mindset.
Dieters who followed Dean Ornish's program first joined a support group. They practiced new styles of eating and exercise. And they reframed their views about health, moving from helpless patients to strong achievers who took charge of their own health.
These two examples are most powerful, although Deutschman includes a few others (a parole officer learns to talk to clients a new way and businesses absorb cultures). In fascinating first-person narratives, he recounts his own struggles with mastering college French and with his own weight loss. In each case, he failed with credentialed teachers at Princeton and a high-priced gym, respectively, but mastered French and exercise when he connected to teachers with whom he shared interests.
As a former professor myself, I would add that the university system combines learning with assessing. Sometimes those goals conflict. Faced with limited time and an expectation that not everyone can earn A's, not to mention consequences of getting too friendly with students, few teachers can create the connection that Deutschman describes.
Ironically, as a society, collectively we're like the patients in the Dean Ornish study. His patients knew they should lose weight and exercise. We know we're implementing programs that don't work. Why do we keep doing it? Why do we keep building prisons and creating health programs that don't address the causes of the problem?
And do we really need to learn from credentialed experts? Ornish's own change agent was the man who taught his sister's yoga class. It seems that relationships lead to therapy, not a particular set of techniques. It's little wonder that lightly-trained coaches, without the cloaks of power and professionalism, have been successful as change agents for many of their clients.
If institutions and widely held beliefs don't change, more of us may die, literally or metaphorically. That the unintended lesson of this deceptively simple book.
A terrific book.......2007-05-07
If at all possible I purchase the audio CD version of books, and the hard copy of the book as well. Being a frequent traveler, being able to listen to the book gets my creative thought flowing. I then can use the book to drill down on more information as time permits. I found Change Or Die to be a very interesting and helpful book. Being involved in organizational change initiatives, I found the book to provide insights as to why change is difficult, and most often why change initiatives fail before they can bare fruit. The book offers helpful strategies for helping people work through the process of change. Despite the negative statistics that the author cites regarding success rates of change initiatives, I found the book to be very hopeful - in that there are concrete things that we can do to help the change process along. I found the examples that the author uses to be very interesting. The book and the CD is worth multiple readings and listenings.
You might not die, but if you don't have that attitude you might not change.......2007-03-30
I was first attracted to this book when I spotted its stark black and white cover with the simple words "Change or Die". It was enough to get my attention on a flight layover, and I made a note to myself to check out the book when I got home.
I judge a book on if it's able to accomplish what it sets out to do. If it does at least that I'll give it 4 stars. If I feel the author went above and beyond the tour of duty to get his point across, I'll give it 5. That being said, this book is a solid 4, 4 still being very good.
Did this book get the point across that if you don't change you'll die? Actually, yes. The author uses several well-laid out case examples from heart patients to career criminals to demonstrate why change is so important; he also retells his own personal "change or die" story, which lets you know that he doesn't just talk the talk, he also walks the walk. Even though you may not be able to relate to all the people in the book (I am neither a criminal nor a heart patient), he brings their stories close down to a personal level and then details how they each used some version of the 3-steps to change (Relate, Repeat, Reframe) to bring their life and outlook to a new, positive level.
The case studies (stories really), the application of the 3-steps, and the simplicity are really the strong points of the book. I'm not sure if Mr. Deutschman is a psychiatrist or not, but the writing style came across as very down-to-earth and easy to read. It wasn't bogged down in any psycho babble, just 3 steps and how different people applied them to their lives, and the lives of others to change. That's it. Unlike other books covering the topics of change or psychology, it doesn't get cheesy or sugar-coated or cliched, and I was glad for it. This may also be a weakness of the book, since it really wasn't inspirational nor used "go-get-'em" language. That's not say it isn't, it is inspirational in its own way because you get to see how change is possible for even the most ordinary or hopeless situations. But I feel the author could have used a little more enthusiasm in his writing, that's a very minor quibble though.
Another small issue i have with the book, which is purely subjective, is that I wish the author spent a little more time on personal change, or at least gave more examples. There were perhaps 25-30 pages on personal change, and I bought this book expecting more of that. HOwever, I know this book was meant for the topic of change on a personal, corporate, and organizational levels so the author really did cover what he wanted. Hopefully, in the future he'll come out with a follow up dealing solely with the topic of personal change.
Overall, if you are interested in changing yourself, your company, or group, this is a solid book. You can read it in a few days, and not feel overwhelmed with complex psycholiteral language. Instead, there's a lot to learn from the many stories and cases presented here. You really will learn how the 3-steps to change (Relate, Repeat, Reframe) are applied, but it is still up to you to use them.
Change or Die CD.......2007-03-24
The CD was very imformative and very well done, however I would have loved to see a little more "how to" included. It talks about the 3 keys to change but could use more information regarding how to go about changing yourself, changing a loved one and changing a corporation. Still worth buying, I learned a lot and I think it is very accurate.
Book Description
Getting a new job or a big promotion is like building a house: You need to get the foundation right for both. With a job, the quick-drying cement is how well you do in your first hundred days, since they establish the foundation for long-term momentum and great performance.
Tom Neff and Jim Citrin are two of the world’s leading experts on leadership and career success. As key figures at Spencer Stuart (hailed by the Wall Street Journal as the number one brand name in executive search), they must understand the criteria for success when they recruit top executives for new leadership positions.
Through compelling, first-hand stories you will hear from people such as Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of GE, on how his career has been a series of successive first hundred days. Larry Summers, president of Harvard University, talks candidly about what he could have done differently in his early days to avoid dissipating goodwill among the diverse constituencies important for his future success. Gary Kusin of Kinko’s shares the specifics of the hundred-day action plan he crafted for himself before he started his new job. Paul Pressler of Gap Inc. shows how he developed a general strategic agenda that established fundamental principles and goals, waiting to prepare a more detailed strategic plan until later in his tenure.
Tom Neff and Jim Citrin’s actionable eight-point plan will be the foundation for your success—whether you are moving to a new organization or being promoted—showing how to:
• Prepare yourself mentally, physically, and emotionally from the time you accept until the time you begin
• Manage others’ expectations of you—bosses, colleagues, and subordinates
• Shape and build the team that will work with you
• Learn the lay of the land and find out how things “really work around here”
• Communicate your story effectively to people inside and outside the organization
• Avoid the top ten traps that confront every new leader, such as disrespecting your predecessor, misreading the true sources of power in the organization, or succumbing to the “savior syndrome”
When you start a new job you are in what AOL’s Jon Miller calls a “temporary state of incompetence,” faced with having to do the most when you know the least. But with the eight-point plan of You’re in Charge—Now What? you’ll understand and be able to take action on the patterns that will build your success.
Also available as an eBook
Customer Reviews:
Czarnecki's "You're In Charge..What Now?" Better for non-CEOs.......2007-06-17
When I saw the "Recommended for You" email, I thought Gerald Czarnecki had come out with a sequel. Instead, I find a not as elegant knock-off.
Czarnecki offers a much better, more digestible plan for those who are newly appointed in positions of management. His "Seven Essential Steps for Work Leader Success" are useful and proven techniques for those who need it the most: the everyday people in an organization who get the job done, not the Stanford-grad CEOs who have already spent years in management and academia learning the ropes. I have recommended his book to friends in just about every industry, from IT to the military. I, myself, found Czarnecki's book extremely useful as a new senior non-commissioned officer in dealing with people who became my subordinates overnight. Unfortunately, this book did not address that sort of issue.
This book isn't a terrible book by any means, and perhaps for a CEO or high-level manager it is something good. As I am neither, I didn't find it appealing. It's essentially the same information you can find elsewhere, and as a previous reviewer pointed out, the tips and techniques are more for those already in the boardroom. Go back to Czarnecki's original if you are a new manager, especially one who was promoted from within, or looking for a gift for the grad or newly promoted.
You're In Charge...What Now?
Very Helpful in Starting Off on the Right Foot.......2007-06-04
My executive coach recommended this book and she was right. It is very well organized with lots of examples on how to get started as the new leader in a large organization. Suitable for small but oriented towards large business of all types. Did not provide Government examples but was still very helpful. I read the book cover to cover and made lots of notes. Try to read at least 3 weeks before reporting. I am three weeks into a Government IT job with a staff of 650 and $100M in budget and all the signs are there that this book was helpful for accelerating my early take-off.
Good Guide.......2007-05-01
I bought You're in Charge... on Amazon.com. I am interested in the leadership process, how to approach new roles, some of the pitfalls, etc and thought this was a good book on the subject. I do believe that the best place to get leadership ideas and tips is from Michael Watkins' The First 90 days, but I think Thomas Neff and James Citrin provide aspiring leaders with a worthwhile book.
The best feature, although sometimes over done are the real life examples of CEO's who took the reigns, and what they did. Whether it was a turnaround situation, or continuing a legacy of success, there are some standard approaches that each of these leaders used. The premise of the book is that there are 8 steps to the new leadership process -
1. Prepare yourself before taking over
2. Align expectations (internally, externally)
3. Build a management team you can rely on
4. Build a strategy (Which includes just refining the old one)
5. Transform the culture to aling it with your expectations
6. Manage up and where influence lies (Board, boss, whoever has more power... and also manage those who have institutional influence.)
7. Communicate your vision, your steps in the process, strategy
8. Avoid common pitfalls.
Nothing really earth shattering here, but certainly good advice. The focus of the book are the steps every leader should take within the first 100 days of your tenure.
One of the more interesting parts of the book goes back to the CEO's and what they did. Since this was published in 2005, some of the CEO's haven't turned out to be the captains fo industry that they are potrayed to be (At least from a market perception perspective.). You read about Paul Pressler and Bob Nardelli and what they did in their first 100 days. Needless to say, as time passed, their reputations are somewhat tarnished now. There are others referenced as well that haven't been treated very kindly by the marketplace.
Anyhow, there is no harm in picking this up, although like I referenced before, I think there are other leadership books out there that I more worthwhile. You're in Charge tends to get a bit over done, but if you can overlook that, there are some worthwhile tips to pick up.
Written only for CEOs.......2007-01-09
If you are a brand new CEO and need to know how to run your organization, buy this book. If you are at any lower level, this book is not meant for you.
The authors state directly from the beginning that they focus more on CEOs than most other positions but the lessons learned are applicable to anyone. This is not true. The author focus too much on the role of a CEO. The examples and suggestions are unique to that role. In one section the book describes how to find your management blind spots such as research and development, marketing, etc. If you are a software development manager in a large firm, your knowledge of marketing or R&D will most likely do little for your career. Yet this book highlights that as areas you should improve.
Another example on how the book focuses too much on CEO is displayed in the how-to-work-with-your-boss chapter. They entire chapter discusses how you should interact with the board of directors! This is a complely different relationship than what 99.9% of workers engage in. The relationship you have with your boss is possibly the most important relationship in your career. To focus this chapter on working with the board makes it absolutely useless to anyone who is not an officer or anyone that does not work for a private firm.
Useful handbook for the new leader.......2006-01-09
The immediate task for CEOs who land a dream job is making sure it doesn't turn into a nightmare. Authors Thomas J. Neff and James M. Citrin provide a marvelous "executive how-to kit" that draws on their extensive management and consulting experience. They explain everything you need to know about getting off to an excellent start now that you're ensconced in the corner office. While the book is targeted to CEOs, it applies to anyone stepping up to a higher level of leadership. Taking over a new role often means enduring what AOL's Jon Miller describes as a "temporary state of incompetence." Even if your promotion becomes a trial by fire, we believe this book will help you direct the flames and propel your organization to new heights of achievement.
Book Description
Under Andy Grove's leadership, Intel has become the world's largest chip maker and one of the most admired companies in the world. In
Only the Paranoid Survive, Grove reveals his strategy of focusing on a new way of measuring the nightmare moment every leader dreads--when massive change occurs and a company must, virtually overnight, adapt or fall by the wayside.
Grove calls such a moment a Strategic Inflection Point, which can be set off by almost anything: mega-competition, a change in regulations, or a seemingly modest change in technology. When a Strategic Inflection Point hits, the ordinary rules of business go out the window. Yet, managed right, a Strategic Inflection Point can be an opportunity to win in the marketplace and emerge stronger than ever.
Grove underscores his message by examining his own record of success and failure, including how he navigated the events of the Pentium flaw, which threatened Intel's reputation in 1994, and how he has dealt with the explosions in growth of the Internet. The work of a lifetime,
Only the Paranoid Survive is a classic of managerial and leadership skills.
The Currency Paperback edition of
Only the Paranoid Survive includes a new chapter about the impact of strategic inflection points on individual careers--how to predict them and how to benefit from them.
Customer Reviews:
Enriching Personal Real-Life Account by Someone Who Had Managed a Mega-Size Corporation!!! .......2007-03-20
The real value of this book is that it is written by someone, Andrew Grove, who has actual experiences and managed a start-up right up to a mega successful corporation. There are tons of management and marketing books written by people, based on case-studies and analysis, but lack actual experiences managing or working in a corporation.
The main concept of this book is on strategic inflection point, which is a time in the life of the business when its fundamentals are about to change. This change can either infer an opportunity to rise to new heights or signal the beginning of the end. Hence, this book is about the impact of changing rules, guidelines to assist in identifying those situations and about finding your way through those uncharted territories. This book serves to raise our awareness of going through cataclysmic changes and to provide a framework in which to deal with them.
This book uses Porter's competitive analysis strategy in terms of the 6 forces as a base. The 6 forces are
1. Power, vigor and competence of existing competitors
2. Power, vigor and competence of complementors
3. Power, vigor and competence of customers
4. Power, vigor and competence of suppliers
5. Power, vigor and competence of potential competitors
6. Power, vigor and competence of substitutes
Once a very large change happens in one or several of these 6 forces, a "10X" force is in effect. Very often the transition from a normal business environment to that of a "10X" business environment is very gradual and thus, it is difficult to pinpoint the exact time in which the "10X" force came about. Strategic inflection point comes about when this balance of forces shifts from the normal environment to that of the new "10X" environment and it is difficult to pinpoint its exact occurrence.
The circumstances that help to identify this strategic inflection point are
1. Presence of troubling sense that something is different such as changes in customers' attitudes, entrant of new competitors, etc.
2. Growing dissonance or misalignment between corporate statements and operation actions.
3. Emergence of new framework or actions.
4. New set of corporate statements is generated.
Andrew gave an analogy of working your way though a strategic inflection point to be just like venturing into the valley of death, the perilous transition between the old and the new environments. It is difficult to know the right moment to execute the appropriate actions. Since timing is everything, it is attractive to undertake these changes when the company is in a healthy financial state. This means "acting when not everything is known, when the data aren't in.", merely relying on "instinct and personal judgments" (Chapt 2). Hence it is a matter of training your instincts to pick up a different set of signals.
The only way we know whether a change signals a strategic inflection point is through the process of clarification that comes from broad and intensive debate. This debate should involve technical discussions, marketing discussions and considerations of strategic repercussions (how will it affect our business if we make a dramatic move; how will it affect if we don't?). The more complex the issues are, the more levels of management should be involved because people from different levels of management bring completely different points of view and expertise. The debate should involve people from outside the company, customers and partners with different areas of expertise and interests. When dealing with emerging trends, you may very well have to go against rational extrapolation of data and rely instead on anecdotal observations and your instincts. (chapter 6). Constructively debating tough issues and getting somewhere is only possible when people can speak their minds without fear of punishment.
Andrew offers a few guidelines to discern "signal" from "noise"
1. Is your key competitor about to change? Suggested using the "silver bullet test": If you had just one bullet, whom among your many competitors would you save it for? When the answer to this question stops being as crystal clear, it is time to sit up and pay special attention.
2. Is your key complementor about to change? Does the company that in the past years mattered the most to your business seem less important today? Does it look like another company is about to eclipse them? If so, it may be a sign of shifting industry dynamics.
3. Does it seem that people who for years had been very competent have suddenly gotten decoupled from what really matters? If key aspects of the business shift around us, the very process that got us where we were might retard your ability to recognize the new trends.
Generally you cannot judge the significance of the strategic inflection point by the quality of the first version or release of the product. You will need to draw on your experiences to discern its possible impacts.
Strategic dissonance is the divergence between actions and statements; saying one thing and doing another. Strategic dissonance is an automatic reaction to a strategic inflection point that probing for it is perhaps the best test of one.
Clarity of direction, which includes describing what we are going after, as well as, describing what we will not be going after, is exceedingly important at the late stage of a strategic transformation. This book defines strategic plans as statements of what we intend to do, whereas strategic actions as steps we have already taken or are taking. Strategic plans are abstract and are usually couched in language meant for the company's management. Strategic actions matter because they immediately affect people's lives. The most effective way to transform a company is through a series of incremental changes that are consistent with a clearly articulated end result.
This book mentions the "Taillight" approach - some companies may profitably wait for others to test the limits of technological possibilities or market acceptance and then commit to following, catching up and passing them.
A question that often comes up at times of strategic transformation is whether you should pursue a highly focused approach, betting everything on one strategic goal or should you hedge. It takes every erg of energy in your organization to do a good job pursuing one strategic aim, especially in the face of aggressive and competent competition. It is hard to lead the organization out of the valley of death without a clear and simple strategic direction. Demoralized organizations are unlikely to be able to deal with multiple objectives. Thus, hedging is expensive and dilutes commitment, and is not recommended.
"Most companies don't die because they are wrong; most die because they don't commit themselves... The greatest danger is in standing still" (Chapter 8).
The leader needs to show interest in the elements leading to the strategic direction, by getting involved in details that are appropriate to the new direction and by withdrawing attention, energy and involvement from those things that do not fit. At times like this, the calendar is the most important strategic tools in communication. Andrew emphasizes that communicating strategic change in an interactive exposed fashion is important and necessary such as corporate email announcements and meetings, etc.
Companies that successfully navigate through strategic inflection points tend to have a good dialectic between bottom-up and top-down actions. Bottom-up actions come from the ranks of middle managers, who by the nature of their jobs are exposed to the first whiffs of the winds of change, who are located at the peripheral of the action where change is first perceived and who catch on early. But by the nature of their work, they can only affect things locally. Their actions must meet halfway the actions generated by senior management. While those managers are isolated from the winds of change, but once they commit themselves to a new direction, they can affect the strategy of the entire organization. The best results seem to prevail when bottom-up and top-down actions are equally strong. When the top management lets go a little, the bottom-up actions will drive towards chaos by experimenting, by pursuing different product strategies, by generally pulling the company in a multiplicity of directions. After such creative chaos reigns and a direction becomes clear, it is up to senior management to reign in chaos. A pendulum-like swing between the 2 types of actions is the best way to work your way through a strategic transformation. What is needed is a balanced interaction between the middle managers, with their deep knowledge but narrow focus and senior management, whose larger perspective could set a context.
An organization that has a culture that can deal with these 2 phases - debate (chaos reign) and a determined march (chaos reined in) is a powerful, adaptive organization. Such an organization has 2 important attributes:
1. It tolerates and even encourages debates. These debates are vigorous, devoted to exploring issues, indifferent to rank and include individuals of varied backgrounds.
2. It is capable of making and accepting clear decisions, with the entire organization then supporting the decision.
This book emphasizes on the concepts by reliving a few of Intel's crisis; the mid-80s shift from memory to microprocessors business, RISC vs CISC architecture and during the fall of 1994 the floating point bug associated with Intel's flagship device; the Pentium processor. The magnitude of this crisis is so significant in that a tiny flaw in the microprocessor's floating point unit could mushroom into half a billion dollars' worth of damage in less than 6 weeks. This was later narrowed down to 2 key factors. First the success of Intel's merchandising "Intel Inside" program, which has projected a strong Intel image right to the end-user, became a double-edge sword in that end users directly contact Intel for a replacement microprocessor. In a normal incidence, it is likely to be the computer manufacturers who will perform the recall and replacement. But Intel's identity is so strong with the end-users that they became the ones asking for a recall and replacement. Second, the other factor is attributed to Intel's sheer size. Intel had become gigantic in the eyes of the computer buyers. And thus the huge cost in replacement.
This book also relates the transition of the computer industry in the 80s vertical alignment to that in the 90s; the horizontal alignment. This came about with the appearance of the microprocessor and then the personal computer. The "10X" force came about when the technology permitted the integration of several chips into one single chip and this same microprocessor enabled the production of all kinds of personal computers. As the microprocessor became the basic building block, economics of mass production worked its charm giving extremely cost-effective PCs. Over time, this changed the entire structure of the industry and a new horizontal industry emerged. As a result of this trend, companies previously successful in the vertical alignment, but who failed to adapt or recognize this "10X" force failed and no longer existed today. Examples are Wang and Cray. At the same time, this change also spelled opportunities for new entrants such as Dell and Compaq. Thus when an industry goes through a strategic inflection point, the practitioners of the old industry may have trouble, while on the other hand, this new environment provides opportunities for new entrants into this industry.
The key characteristics of horizontal industries is that they live and die by mass production and mass marketing, bringing cost-effective solutions and more specialization, i.e the best in class for that particular market segment such as TV monitors, memory, storage devices, etc.
The new rules of the horizontal industry are
1. Do not differentiate without a difference. Do not introduce improvements whose only purpose is to give you an advantage over your competitor without giving your customer a substantial advantage. Example is a "better PC" departed from the mainstream standard and hence giving rise to software incompatibility.
2. Grab opportunity when there is a technology break or change coming along.
3. Price for what the market will bear. Price for volume. Work like the devil on your costs so that it becomes profitable. This leads to economies of scale whereby by being a large-volume supplier, you can spread and recoup those costs. In contrast, cost-based pricing will often lead you into a niche position.
To be a leader or survivor in a horizontal and commoditized industry, this book provides some food for thought. A prime example is Intel exiting the commoditized memory industry in which they were once in the lead, until the entrance of the Japanese manufacturers.
Rhetoric and boring!.......2007-01-11
This book is rhetoric and boring with a few examples of successful and unsuccessful ventures so I started reading about Grove and his background.
The influence of communism in his early years seems to have put Grove in the paranoia groove. The culture of paranoia is clearly seen in Intel's business today- slow decision making, trust issues with employees and even customers!
Hire and fire culture has made the remaining employees work the system to `survive' rather than innovate and thrive.
Compare and contrast this Apple or for that matter even AMD and you will realize these companies are more in tune with their customers and employees (and hence their stock holders) in terms of basic trust.
We are not in a communist environment anymore. By being paranoid Grove's Intel has proved, you can only survive and barely at that.
Only for business managers?.......2006-08-28
Contrary to popular opinion on this website, I found this book to be boring, repetitive and badly written. It was so boring I struggled to finish it during a journey where I had little else to do. This book summarizes a few events that were significant to Intel and offers advice on how similar business changes should be handled. Being an engineer, and not a manager, I found this to be vague and rambling. However I do agree with the book's title - Only the Paranoid survive. I think this outlook is useful for everyone, and not just business types.
Lengthy Writing.......2006-01-27
I picked up this book after seeing some good reviews about it.
The whole book is about "Strategic Reflection Point".
I was disappointed that Andy Grove didn't try to explain SRP in a more concrete manner. After finishing the book, I still have very vague & abstract knowledge on SRP.
Nevertheless, Andy Grove is still one of the best CEOs I admired.
How to survive in the new economy.......2006-01-22
This a good book based on facts. Andrew Grove goes on describing how Intel managed to shift from a semiconductor to the microprocessor company while he was the CEO... (now it is shifting again under Paul Otellini).
Although the example a bit outdated since it was written in 1996, the same principles still apply. A must read if you want to understand why some great and big companies suddenly go down while others emerge quickly.
You always need to learn the history to understand the future.
Book Description
This book provides the most current, thorough, and contemporary account of the factors affecting the organizational design process, making important organization theories accessible and interesting. It addresses the many issues and problems that are involved in managing the process of organizational change and transformation, providing direct and clear managerial implications.
Topics covered in this comprehensive book are the organization and its environment; organizational design; organizational change; and finally, interesting case studies that illustrate the concepts presented.
A useful book that is appropriate for managers in any organization.
Customer Reviews:
Capture the art of scenario planning in hours .......2006-02-23
Scenario thinking is not science but an "art," which is a disciplined way of foreseeing alternative futures and difficult decisions in this complex and uncertain world. This popular book written by Peter Schwartz, a renowned futurist and business strategist, aims to help readers learn the art and methodology of scenario planning. Scenario is defined as "a tool for ordering one's perceptions about alternative future environments in which one's decisions might be played out (Schwartz, 1996, p.4)." The purpose of scenario building is not a clear picture of tomorrow, but sound decisions about the future. Its method that uses individuals as a filter to study the evolution of the future is able to let individuals, organizations or countries reduce the unpredictability and act with a knowledgeable sense of risk and reward.
Perceiving future in the present, scenario builders write stories that give meaning to multifaceted and complicated events. The storytelling of scenarios is based on both facts and imagination. On the one hand, since scenarios are not fictions, their production process involves rigorous research and skilled information hunting and gathering. For instance, Schwartz encourages scenario researchers to look at "fringes" because new knowledge usually originates there. On the other hand, imagination is the vital ingredient to forecast alternative futures with reasonable gallantry. Writing scenarios, researchers attempt to influence perceptions inside the heads of decision makers and further change their attitudes and/or behaviors toward future.
The key contribution of this book is clearly elaborating the process and method about scenario building. According to Schwartz, the building blocks of scenario creation encompass driving forces (society, technology, economic, politics, environment), predetermined elements (i.e. slow-changing phenomena, inevitable collisions, demographics), and critical uncertainty. There are eight steps to build a scenario: 1) identifying focal issue or decision; 2) listing key forces in the local environment; 3) listing the macro-environment and micro-environment driving forces; 4) ranking key forces and driving trends by importance and uncertainty; 5) deciding the axes to select scenario logics and plots; 6) fleshing out the scenarios; 7) looking at implications; and 8) selecting leading indicators and signposts. Besides, scenario planners have to avoid assigning probabilities to different scenarios, to name scenarios cleverly, and to establish an open-minded and participatory scenario development team.
A good scenario has to be simple, plausible and surprising. The intriguing scenarios that Schwartz uses in this book are not only corporations in western countries, like Royal Dutch/Shell, but also various cases in Asia and Europe. He suggests readers explore two to three alternative scenarios at one time and avoid single prediction. The most common types of scenarios addressed here are: 1) more of the same, but better; 2) worse (decay and depression); and 3) different but better (fundamental change). In later chapter, he provides three scenarios (new empires, market world, and change without progress) as examples to demonstrate how to write scenarios of forecasting about the world in 2005. Although, in reality, it is impossible to know which scenario will take place, the preparation for three let people rehearse the future and look for hints to recognize which drama is unfolding. Accordingly, individuals, organizations, or countries can avoid unpleasant surprises and know how to react to the uncertain happenings shortly.
In sum, "An Art of a Long View" is a reader-friendly book that allows novices to quickly grasp the gist of scenario writing. It concretely depicts the scenario art and the methods to mimic its practices. By reading this book, I obtain the "freedom" to create scenarios for alternative futures, to recognize the unfolding events, and hopefully respond to the unpredictable guardedly. It is valuable to learn scenario planning as it can be extensively used for forecasting futures at micro-level (i.e. individuals, family, community) and at macro-level (i.e. organization, society, nation, globe). Although not everyone is gifted in mastering the art of scenario creation, this great book opens a door for those who are willing to absorb its fundamental principals and polish their skills by practicing. Thus, I highly recommend it!
Pleasant, provacative, and easily read........2005-02-18
There should be only two criteria for the quality of a book: whether it provokes thought, and how easy it is to read. The Art of the Long View is both an easy read, and provocative. It coerces, challenges, and invites you to examine your own perceptual barriers to envisioning the future. It provides a slew of anecdotes, stories, and scenarios that illustrate approaches to future studies, and each person's inherent connection to the field. Finally, it can be thoroughly read in one or two days.
Every human has an innate desire, and skill, at perceiving the future. This pervasive theme is brought up continually, every instance highlighting ways in which the people of the world are often caught unawares of future that, while adjacent to us, we blind ourselves from. Interspersed among Schwartz's easy, conversational style are hard and fast pointers that will probably help even the more detail-oriented readers to figure out what the author is talking about when he talks about the "long view". Additionally, Schwartz discusses ways in which we can increase our capacity to open our perceptions. Some people are born to be brilliant forecasters, but everyone can learn, he contends.
Pragmatic creativity is perhaps the keystone to the long view, with a curiously settling notion that this optimism is central to any successful person, if not forecaster or businessman. The development of this creativity is perhaps one of the other things I found particularly exciting in Long View. When we increase the diversity of our knowledge, we can learn to develop these scenarios that encourage the decisive, robust action that Schwartz seems to genuinely feel will make our world a better place. His notions of optimistic future scenario preparedness, as well as my own enjoyable experience with this book, prompt me to recommend it without reservation.
Denial is the first step.......2004-12-24
A very good friend of mine recommended this book to me, as Schwartz's technique on scenario planning became the backbone of his research topic in urban planning. I was very eager to see what Schwartz had to say about his livelihood.
There are complaints about his examples being outdated. I think they serve the point of illustration. The three thing that are critical, as Schwartz pointed out, are
1) Denial - which drives even the biggest companies to the ground,
2) Strategic conversation - think of it as those "business" meetings that in Godfather (with less blood), and
3) Technological trends - this one is self-explanatory.
The deatils for each area, I will let you find out.
Incidentally, I read Schwartz's "Inevitasble Surprises" before reading this book, so this is contrary to the chronlogical order of publication. Nevertheless, they complement each other, and should be read concurrently.
What a great book?.......2004-02-16
You have to buy The Art of the Long View. I don't know how to explain how great the book is. Don't hesitate to grap one
Open Your Brain and Reperceive the World.......2004-02-16
This book will help you to learn the scenario planning process. At the beginning, the author presents a short but insightful example how scenario playing an important role for starting up a gardening tool company. The author also shares an "information hunting and gathering process" which tell you where to get some helpful data. Various factors influencing the futures are also discussed (including socials, politics, economic, technologies, and environment). In addition, at the end of the book, the author provides a user's guide (eight steps of how to hold a strategic conversation) and eight steps to develop scenarios which I found very useful. The book enables us to use scenario planning as a tool to deal with uncertain futures. Scenarios help us to awake and "reperceive" others possible and impossible alternative futures including both short and long term. The author also believes that a good scenario leads you to ask better questions. The point of scenario-planning is "to help us suspend our disbelieve in all the futures: to allow us to think that any on of them might place. Then, we can prepare for what we DO NOT think is going to happen." (p.195)
However, one annoying thing in this book is that the author keeps referring to chapters (e.g. look in chapter 7) but physically, there are just no chapters number indicated in the book. There are just short titles in the table of content and at the beginning of each chapter. You have to go back and forth between the TOC and chapters to to see which one is actually being referred. However, I consider this is a minor issue comparing to what you will learn from this book.
You may find this book useful if you are preparing for your strategic plans, making decisions having critical impacts to your firm or your personal life, or even you are just an ordinary reader, this book will open your mind to a new level of critical thinking and imagination about unfolding futures. Highly recommend.
Book Description
Misaligned companies, like cars out of alignment, can develop serious problems if not corrected quickly. They are hard to steer and don't respond well to changes in direction. This groundbreaking book shows you how to get -and keep -all the vital elements of your organization aligned and headed in the same direction at the same time.
Managers must now keep their people centered in the midst of change, deemphasize hierarchy, and distribute leadership by distributing authority, information, knowledge, and customer data throughout their organization. Alignment is a response to the new business reality where customer requirements are in flux, where competitive forces are turbulent, and where the bond of loyalty between an organization and its people has been weakened. The old linear approach to management has given way to one of simultaneity -to alignment.
As pioneers of the alignment concept, the authors have developed this unique approach based on their work with leading companies throughout the world. The Power of Alignment is packed with war stories and the firsthand perspectives of industry leaders. You'll learn how world-class organizations, including Federal Express, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Columbia/HCA Healthcare, Citizens Utilities, AirTouch, and UNUM achieved extraordinary business results. Now, through the authors' expertise, you'll see how alignment can work for your organization.
In essence, alignment links the five key elements of an organization -people, process, customers, business strategies, and, of course, leadership -to obtain breakthrough results, chief among them, sustained growth and profit, loyal customers, and a high-performing work force. The Power of Alignment:
* Offers a clear framework for aligning and linking the crucial elements that build and sustain a company's success
* Provides self-assessment tools as well as benchmarking measures for evaluating an organization's critical competencies
* Enables managers to create a work force where each employee can relate his or her activities to the goals and strategic objectives of the company
* Helps a company determine when and where it is out of alignment, and gives descriptions of such common company pathologies as "The Phantom Limb Syndrome," "Strategy Interruptus," and "Dead Man Walking"
* Prescribes specific steps for getting an organization back on track toward a single, shared vision of its goals
Essential reading for all managers and executives, The Power of Alignment offers a new way to reestablish focus and sustained energy, and is a dynamic approach for staying balanced and achieving extraordinary levels of performance.
"This book is savvy, detailed, timely, and clearly written. I highly recommend it for any leader facing the challenges posed by global business today." - Dana Mead Chairman and CEO, Tenneco Former Chairman National Association of Manufacturers
"It's not only the stars that have to be in alignment to reach your destination, it's all the internal processes, rewards, and drivers. Read The Power of Alignment, and while you may not unlock the secrets of the universe, you will overcome the barriers to corporate success." - William L. Boyan President and COO John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company.
"This important book goes beyond TQM and reengineering by creating a new approach called Alignment. The authors show that great companies manage to link strategy and people and integrate customer needs with continuous improvement processes." - Peter Augustsson President and Group Chief Executive AB SKF.
"The Power of Alignment gets to the heart of a critical element of organizational leadership, namely focus. Every leader who reads it will undoubtedly do some serious soul-searching about the consistency of corporate vision, goals, management systems, and incentive mechanisms." - Louis E. Lataif Dean Boston University School of Management.
Customer Reviews:
As significant today as it was when first published.......2007-08-26
After reviewing several books on Strategic Execution, I was continuously left with the feeling that the authors had ommitted a key ingredient. This book has convinced me that that key ingredient was "Alignment".
This book was published 10 years ago (OK, I am embarrassed that I have only just got around to reading it) but it is as significant today as it was when it was first published. Probably more so considering the rapid state of change that most companies are faced with today.
It is a simple read, and the concepts are easy to follow. What I enjoyed most about the book is that the suggestions are practical and you can take them and implement them immediately within an organization.
I noticed that one of the readers who has reviewed the book said that the book was required reading for his MBA course. 10 years on, I still think it should be required reading for any business executive.
This Is a Great Resource!.......2007-07-10
I'm always looking for visual ways of understanding critical elements of strategy. The Power of Alignment offers a very helpful way of thinking about four important ingredients in keeping the main thing, the main thing. Vertical alignment, the relationship between your strategy and the people on your team, "energizes...provides direction, and offers opportunity for involvement." Horizontal alignment refers to the connection between your processes and customers. Taken together the two measures provide some great insight into the development of genuine alignment.
One of the most interesting elements of the book is a 16 question diagnostic tool that is designed to provide a graphic view of your organization's alignment. Very helpful!
Make Sure That Everything You Do Points To Success !.......2006-05-03
Great book! The basic premise is that once a business has a raison d'etre, or a 'main thing', that profits are maximized by the alignment of four key business areas: Strategy, Processes, People, and Customers. Built on this premise are actionalbe ways to build a self-aligning organization. I got the sense of discovering truth while I read this book. Leadership isn't really about power, it is about responsibility. This book shows a manager at any level how to align his area to the overall strategy of the company and to the end products of the company. It shows how processes should be designed and what factors should be used to reward, recognize and evaluate employees. Great food for thought and realistic to implement.
Five Stars
Powerful Organizational Focus.......2003-05-28
Quite simply, this book was one of the best business management and leadership books I have ever read. It was well-written and expertly balanced management and leadership concepts with real-world examples of effectively aligned organizations, such as Federal Express and Southwest Airlines. This book should be read and discussed by leaders and managers at all levels, especially by mid- to senior-level executives.
In brief, alignment deals with the relationships among the people, processes, strategy, and customers of an organization relative to that organization's purpose, or what the authors called "the main thing." Alignment is both a noun, a state of being, and a verb, a set of actions. Vertical alignment connects organizational strategy with the people responsible for transforming that strategy into meaningful work. Horizontal alignment deals with understanding your customers' wants and then creating processes to deliver what your customers want, when and how they want it. Effective leadership nurtures the organizational culture that is built around and upon "the main thing," and it is this culture and leadership combination that drives and sustains self-aligning organizations in turbulent times.
The authors' analogy of landing a plane helped me to visualize the dynamics involved with organizational alignment. To land a plane, a pilot must adjust and react to multiple simultaneous factors and conditions (i.e. air speed, altitude, angle of approach, wind speed and direction, etc.) and then understand how a change in one will affect the others. Likewise, to align an organization, a leader must adjust and react to feedback about his people, processes, strategy, and customers, and then understand how a change in one will affect the others.
The authors clearly and thoroughly explained the alignment factors and conditions throughout the book. They followed their explanations with incisive questions for readers to ask about themselves and their organizations to assess their degree of alignment. Those questions were definitely a highlight of the book for they really helped to stimulate my thinking and should help inspire organizational progress to alignment. Another highlight was the appendices that contained examples of actual tools and products used and created by some of the aligned organizations studied by the authors.
The inside back cover jacket sums up why I give the book my highest recommendation: "Essential reading for all managers and executives, "The Power of Alignment" offers a new way to reestablish focus and sustained energy, and is a dynamic approach for staying balanced and achieving extraordinary levels of performance."
Alignment is Key Essential Usually Overlooked.......2001-07-13
I found this book easy reading, concise, and presented it's basic premise well with specific examples and good suggestions for creation and implementation.
Working as a Director in Managed Care for several pharmaceutical companies, it creates a focus for any organization and a roadmap for the future(physician, health plan, pharmaceutical company) to avoid many of the mistakes and pitfalls that have already been experienced in an attempt to align with the ever changing healthcare landscape.
For those who do account management, it provides a construct and roadmap to use to optimize alignment with internal customers and maximize resources to create value and return with the external customers (....and their customers.) As the authors point, alignment is a continuing process, not a single event in time. Many companies become quickly aligned with the past, and misaligned with the present & future, and can not sustain the competitive edge because they forget this basic premise that the authors reinforce.
The concepts are basic and fundamental, but usually overlooked and forgotten in the day to day business of rapidly growing companies and changing environments.
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