9780131018846

Today's business leaders need a radically different skill from their recent predecessors: they must know how to know how to manage through adversity while preparing their companies for a new rebirth of success. InRuthless Execution, Amir Hartman, author of the bestsellingNETREADY, identifies the central ingredients that help certain companies to get beyond the wall and thrive--and show how to instill these ingredients in your organization. You will learn when and how to recalibrate the balance between performance and growth; how to define a coherent, tightly-drawn business philosophy that maps to specific actions; new ways to promote accountability and business alignment; and how to use performance metrics without burying people in meaningless trivia. Also discover how to promote real discipline: the ability to get the job done quickly, efficiently, and effortlessly--without bureaucracy. Next, you learn how to develop stronger "critical capabilities" for understanding and managing complexity. Along the way, the authors present case studies of world-class enterprises that have used these strategies to achieve breakthrough success. Watch John Chambers maneuver Cisco through the telecom collapse; Lou Gerstner impose powerful new discipline at IBM; Harry Kraemer realign Baxter with transformed markets; Dan Vasella transform Novartis through mergers; and many more...all unified by one central factor:ruthless execution.

A leading global authority on corporate and technology transformations, Amir Hartman is on the faculty at Berkeley's Haas School of Business. He is the Founder and Managing Director of Mainstay Partners in Redwood City, California

I. MANAGING IN UNCERTAIN TIMES.

1. Introduction.

II. LEADERSHIP: DEALING WITH THE RUDE AWAKENINGS.

2. Leadership: Strategic Recalibration and the Business Philosophy.
3. The Competitor: Jack Welch's Burning Platform: Building the Most Competitive Company on Earth.
4. The Recalibrator: John Chambers' Maneuvers the Cisco Systems Growth Engine through Stormy Times.

III. HOW TO PLAY THE GAME.

5. Governance: Building accountability and discipline.
6. The Executioner: Lou Gerstner Imposes a New Discipline at IBM.
7. Mr. Consistency: Harry Kraemer and the Aligning Of the New Baxter.

IV. BREAKING THROUGH THE WALL.

8. Critical Capabilities: The Actions That Make the Difference.
9. The Acquisition Man: the Steve Kaufman Case.
10. The Merger Man: Dan Vasella Brings Novartis to Great Success.
11. Mr. Productivity: Larry Bossidy Uses Information Technology to Mold a New Honeywell.

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PrefaceRuthless execution is the method and strategies that businessleaders employ to break through performance walls. My friend and formerpartner, John Sifonis, and I first employed this term in 1996 when wewere doing work for Hewlett-Packard (HP). Subsequently, the phraseappeared prominently in our bookNet Ready(McGraw-Hill, 2000) as a wayto sum up the actions key to getting a company "Internet-ready." Duringthe research process for this book, and in searching for a way to"package" my findings, it became clear to me that the same term capturedthe essence of the strategies that business leaders execute to overcometough times.Few books exist on tough times and how to deal with them. Books onAmerican corporate life have tended to proffer advice on how to steer abusiness to success and glory. For the past two or three decades, as thestock market drove skyward, as the economy went from strength tostrength, as business theorists argued that growth was good, businessleaders craved roadmaps that assured them of the same success thatothers were enjoying.Authors of business books have focused on the strategies and thekinds of culture a business needs to do well. They have largely skippedover the topic of how to cope with business reversals. As long as theeconomy prospered, no one cared to write about--or read about--the morbidsubject of business reversals.That has all changed now.With the advent of a turbulent economy, with the increasingrealization that business resembles a roller coaster more than a rocketship, with more and more companies plummeting from their peaks, a new,painful fact of life in business has become clear: Companies no longercan assume a steadily upward pattern of growth. Invariably, companiesare going to get into trouble from time to time, enough trouble for theups and downs to become a consistent pattern. Accordingly, books onbusiness subjects must deal honestly and realistically with thesereversals and offer some practical ways to overcome these setbacks. Thatis precisely whatRuthless Execution: What Business Leaders Do WhenTheir Companies Hit the Walldoes.To be clear, this book is not about fixing companies in crisis.Crises such as fraud or bankruptcy often require a slash-and-burnapproach and intense media management. This book is about gettingstalled companies performing again. Companies are going to get intotrouble for all sorts of reasons, scandal being just one of them. Theplain truth is that most large corporations--over 90 percent of allpublic companies--suffer rude awakenings from time to time; indeed,setbacks happen to these large enterprises frequently. Large,established companies can become compla-cent; they may become toobureaucratic to innovate; innovative enterprises may favor hyper-growthat the expense of discipline and rigor. When companies find themselvesstagnating, it becomes time for their leaders to engage in ruthlessexecution.What is meant by ruthless execution? It means the way leaders andtheir teams behave, or in other words, the strategies they must adopt tobreak through the wall.The strategies of ruthless execution are framed in three distinctcategories that are already part and parcel of every executive's dailylife: leadership, governance, and critical capabilities. Within each ofthese categories, a number of practices will be elaborated on throughoutthe book. There is no suggestion that engaging successfully in any oneof these strategies automatically allows you to break through a wall.The idea is to point out the common ingredients (or practices) thatbusiness leaders who have figured out how to break through the wallshare.Leadership frames the specific actions that drive strategicformulations, and to a degree, the characteristics that business leadersneed to overcome business reversals. The focus in the leadershipcategory is on strategic formulation.Governance spells out the rules of the ga

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Ruthless Execution : What Business Leaders Do When Their Companies Hit the Wall

Ruthless Execution : What Business Leaders Do When Their Companies Hit the Wall

0131018841

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Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

Ruthless Execution : What Business Leaders Do When Their Companies Hit the Wall

Ruthless Execution : What Business Leaders Do When Their Companies Hit the Wall

9780131018846

0131018841

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials

Excerpts

Write a Review

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