Customer Reviews
Execute optimally!
This book describe a necessary leadership behavior in the Execution paradigm -- Insist on realism. As thinking is the basis of action, this concept requires more exploration and explanation. Prior to the introduction of Optimal Thinking into the corporate world, the pervasive motto was Think Positive. Optimism promotes persistence, but it is a poor strategy when the cost of failure or probability of failure are high. With the current integration of Optimal Thinking into leading corporations, the transformation from AnyCorp (consisting of any thinkers) to Opticorp (consisting of Optimal Thinkers) empowers the corporate culture to practice optimal realism. Optimal Thinkers accept what is out of their control, and optimize what is within their control. Using Optimal Thinking to ask questions like, What is within my/our control here? What are my/our options here? What is the worst event scenario? What is our optimal contingency plan? What is in our best interest? What is our highest priority? What are the best actions we can take to achieve it? What is the best thing you/we can do under the circumstances? empowers us to set clear priorities, and take the most constructive actions to follow through -- essential for optimal leadership and optimized execution. Execution-driven leaders who thrive on accountability and reward performance, must select the right people for the right jobs. This is achieved with Optimal Thinking. Read these two books, get your key people to read them too, and you will OPTIMIZE productivity.
And the gap still exists
In the "Introduction" and the first chapter "The Gap Nobody Knows", the authors did promise their book to be superior to most of the common "leadership", "strategy", "corporate culture" management books with its ability to explain and solve the universal problem of why business outcomes almost always fall short of those predicted under the grand strategic plans laid down by golden parachute protected American top corp CEOs. Though it is fluently written, it just resembles most of its competitors in any book store, except by an author coming from a big enterprise called "Honeywell" carrying an eye catching rare term named "Execution".
Before I conclude my review, I would like to give you a brief summary of what this book is about.
To understand execution, readers have to keep three key points in their mind: 1) Execution is a discipline, and integral to strategy 2) Execution is the major job of the business leader 3)Execution must be a core element of an organisation's culture. The discipline of execution is based on a set of three building blocks that every leader must use to design, install and operate effectively the three core processes rigorously and consistently. The seven essential behavour of Building block I are: know your people and your business, insist on realism, set clear goals and priorities, follow through, reward the doers, expand people's capabilities and know yourself. Building block II is about creating the framework for cultural change whereas building block III is about having the right people in the right place. Meanwhile, the three core processes are those of making links between people, strategy and operations.
Without prejudice, the above ideas are quite fundamental. However, I am not saying that this is a bad management book. After reading tens, if not over a hundred books of the same kind, I really cant agree that this book is exceptionally outstanding. Can be a leisure reading, but definitely not on the priority list.
Leadership for the real world
Reading "Execution" and pondering its theses is a lot like listening to your mother telling you to eat your broccoli: There are other things you'd rather have, but in your heart you know it's the right thing. Much of "Execution" is plain old common sense; to move a business forward, everyone from the CEO downward needs to work to make things happen.
A refreshing departure from the fuzzy style of most leadership books, "Execution" is invaluable for up-and-coming business leaders of all stripes, though its focus is primarily senior management in very large organizations. Some readers will find that Bossidy and Charan spend a lot of time re-stating the obvious. For every "ah-ha!" moment this book presents, there are at least two "well, duh!" moments. But in light of many of the problems facing businesses today, the obvious bears repeating.
Others will find that "Execution" barely scratces the surface of a highly complex series of topics, and will want a greater diversity of business cases. Much time is spent fawning over Jack Welch at the expense of other, equally deserving business leaders. To that end, a sequel or a companion workbook would be helpful. But for getting managers thinking about their jobs in a new and beneficial light, "Execution" accomplishies its goal admirably. Much like broccoli!
