Publisher 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.
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"I first heard about this book from Tyler Norton who told us about it when he taught our Esperanza board about strategies. Then I read about it again when I recently read the book, Charter School Board University. It is an excellent book!"
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Barbara (5 out of 5 stars)
About the Authors
Larry 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.
About John Bedford Lloyd
John Bedford Lloyd, Earphones Award–winning narrator, is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama, has appeared in many major motion pictures, including The Bourne Supremacy, Crossing Delancey, The Abyss, The Manchurian Candidate, and Philadelphia. His television credits include Suits, Pan Am, Law & Order, Spin City, and The West Wing.