Confronting Reality will change the way you think about and run your business. It is the first book that shows how to connect the big picture of the new era of business with the nitty-gritty of what to do about it. Through a completely new way to understand and use the business model as the primary tool for confronting reality—a breakthrough that will become the management innovation of this decade—you’ll know sooner rather than later whether your fundamental business premise is under assault, where your best opportunities lie, what you should change and what you should leave alone, and how to realistically plan the future of your business. The fundamentals of how a business makes money are being rapidly and permanently altered by sweeping structural changes. With their extraordinary depth and breadth of experience, Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan are the ideal guides for everyone—entrepreneur, mid-level manager, or CEO—about what is to be done so you can get things right in this challenging, radically changed world. They start by showing you how to understand the most fundamental element of any business: whether you can realistically make the money you hope to in the game you’re playing. Bossidy and Charan show how to use the business model to develop a robust, reality-based process for thinking about the speci?cs of your business in a holistic way. They show how to tie together the financial targets you must meet, the external realities you face, and internal activities such as strategy development, operating tactics, and selection and development of people. Through the lens of the business model, as well as the skillful use of initiatives and development of people with the right leadership characteristics, you’ll see how Robert Nardelli at Home Depot, Jim McNerney at 3M, Dick Harrington at the Thomson Corporation, Michael Wisbrun at KLM, Joseph Tucci at EMC, and John Chambers at Cisco confronted reality. Whether they faced crisis or opportunity, all made the right kinds of changes through a combination of business savvy (the art of understanding the fundamentals driving a business) and business model thinking.
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"A should-read book on change management for knowledge workers, managers, executives, and entrepreneurs."
— Lori (4 out of 5 stars)
" Transferrable lessons from business. "
— Dolly, 4/12/2011" This seemed more like a missing chapter from Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done than a book in its own right. Although the discussion of the business model and how it needs to react to external variables was interesting, a lot of the other content felt like filler. "
— Mike, 8/6/2009Larry Bossidy is chairman and former CEO of Honeywell International, a Fortune 100 diversified technology and manufacturing leader. Earlier in his career he was chairman and CEO of AlliedSignal, chief operating officer of General Electric Credit (now GE Capital Corporation), executive vice president and president of GE’s Services and Materials Sector, and vice chairman of GE.
Ram Charan is a distinguished business advisor, business strategy expert, and speaker. For over thirty-five years, he has worked with top executives at some of the world’s most successful companies, including GE, Verizon, Dupont, and Bank of America. He is the coauthor of What the CEO Wants You to Know and Confronting Reality, among others. His articles have appeared in publications such as Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, Director’s Monthly, and Strategy and Business. Charan has served on the Blue Ribbon Commission and was elected a distinguished fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources. Currently on the board of Austin Industries and Tyco Electronics, he resides in Dallas, Texas.