Download or read book Why Good Companies Go Bad and how Great Managers Remake Them written by Donald Norman Sull and published by Harvard Business Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a revised edition of Revival of the Fittest published in Harvard Business Review's "OnPoint" feature in 2003. Sull (formerly at Harvard Business School; now at London Business School) emphasizes making/honoring/remaking commitments as an attribute behind great managers and businesses. He presents case examples, data on commitment life cycles and risks, and a Commitment Inventory. Annotation 2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).
Download or read book Revival of the Fittest written by Donald Norman Sull and published by H B S Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Will Your Organization Still Be Here in Ten Years? It's a familiar story: A company rises to become an industry leader. Competitors try to emulate it. Analysts rave about it. The CEO's picture is splashed across magazine covers. Then the company stumbles, profits erode, and the stock plummets. How does this happen? Why do good companies so often go bad? More important, what can you do to prevent it from happening to your company? In Revival of the Fittest , Donald N. Sull takes a provocative look at corporate failure and proposes a practical new model for effecting change that can vastly increase your organization's lifespan. Ironically, argues Sull, leaders sow the seeds of failure during a company's most successful times, when they make a set of commitments-whether to a core strategy, a key customer, or an innovative manufacturing method-that constitute the company's success formula . Managers become so married to the formula that they can't divorce themselves from it when the competitive situation changes. They respond to the future by doing more of what worked in the past-a phenomenon Sull calls "active inertia." Based on extensive global research into successful and failed transformations across many industries, Revival of the Fittest introduces a three-step model for making transforming commitments-actions that prevent managers from reinforcing old behaviors in the face of change. Sull identifies five areas in which transforming commitments can be anchored-strategic frames, processes, relationships, resources, and values-and provides diagnostic tests, hands-on tools, and real company examples to show how managers can: Gauge their company's susceptibility to active inertia Determine which commitment is right for a specific situation Appoint the best person to lead the charge Ensure that the new commitment sticks Avoid common mistakes that can sabotage the transformation effort Weigh the personal risks associated with leading corporate change In an unpredictable marketplace, commitments can make and break a company. But Sull shows that corporate demise is not inevitable. Through transforming commitments, revival of the fittest is possible-and managers can make the difference. Donald N. Sull is Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the Entrepreneurial Management area at Harvard Business School.
Download or read book Leading Change written by John P. Kotter and published by Harvard Business Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the ill-fated dot-com bubble to unprecedented merger and acquisition activity to scandal, greed, and, ultimately, recession -- we've learned that widespread and difficult change is no longer the exception. By outlining the process organizations have used to achieve transformational goals and by identifying where and how even top performers derail during the change process, Kotter provides a practical resource for leaders and managers charged with making change initiatives work.
Download or read book Ask a Manager written by Alison Green and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2018-05-01 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the creator of the popular website Ask a Manager and New York’s work-advice columnist comes a witty, practical guide to 200 difficult professional conversations—featuring all-new advice! There’s a reason Alison Green has been called “the Dear Abby of the work world.” Ten years as a workplace-advice columnist have taught her that people avoid awkward conversations in the office because they simply don’t know what to say. Thankfully, Green does—and in this incredibly helpful book, she tackles the tough discussions you may need to have during your career. You’ll learn what to say when • coworkers push their work on you—then take credit for it • you accidentally trash-talk someone in an email then hit “reply all” • you’re being micromanaged—or not being managed at all • you catch a colleague in a lie • your boss seems unhappy with your work • your cubemate’s loud speakerphone is making you homicidal • you got drunk at the holiday party Praise for Ask a Manager “A must-read for anyone who works . . . [Alison Green’s] advice boils down to the idea that you should be professional (even when others are not) and that communicating in a straightforward manner with candor and kindness will get you far, no matter where you work.”—Booklist (starred review) “The author’s friendly, warm, no-nonsense writing is a pleasure to read, and her advice can be widely applied to relationships in all areas of readers’ lives. Ideal for anyone new to the job market or new to management, or anyone hoping to improve their work experience.”—Library Journal (starred review) “I am a huge fan of Alison Green’s Ask a Manager column. This book is even better. It teaches us how to deal with many of the most vexing big and little problems in our workplaces—and to do so with grace, confidence, and a sense of humor.”—Robert Sutton, Stanford professor and author of The No Asshole Rule and The Asshole Survival Guide “Ask a Manager is the ultimate playbook for navigating the traditional workforce in a diplomatic but firm way.”—Erin Lowry, author of Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together
Download or read book Jack written by Jack Welch and published by Business Plus. This book was released on 2003-10-01 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most widely respected CEO in America looks back on his brilliant career at General Electric and reveals his personal business philosophy and unique managerial style. Nearly 20 years ago, former General Electric CEO Reg Jones walked into Jack Welch's office and wrapped him in a bear hug. "Congratulations, Mr. Chairman," said Reg. It was a defining moment for American business. So begins the story of a self-made man and a self-described rebel who thrived in one of the most volatile and economically robust eras in U.S. history, while managing to maintain a unique leadership style. In what is the most anticipated book on business management for our time, Jack Welch surveys the landscape of his career running one of the world's largest and most successful corporations.
Download or read book The New Tycoons written by Jason Kelly and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-09-11 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inside the Trillion Dollar Industry That Owns Everything What do Dunkin' Donuts, J. Crew, Toys "R" Us, and Burger King have in common? They are all currently or just recently were owned, operated, and controlled by private equity firms. The New Tycoons: Inside the Trillion Dollar Private Equity Industry That Owns Everything takes the reader behind the scenes of these firms: their famous billionaire founders, the overlapping stories of their creation and evolution, and the outsized ambitions that led a group of clever bankers from small shops operating in a corner of Wall Street into powerhouse titans of capital. This is the story of the money and the men who handle it. Go inside the private worlds of founders Henry Kravis, Steve Schwarzman, David Bonderman, and more in The New Tycoons, and discover how these men have transformed the industry and built the some of the most powerful and most secretive houses of money in the world. With numerous private equity firms going public for the first time, learn how these firms operate, where their money comes from and where it goes, and how every day millions of customers, employees, and retirees play a role in that complex tangle of money Author Jason Kelly tells the story of how thirty some years ago a group of colleagues with $120,000 of their own savings founded what would become one of the largest private equity shops in the world, completing the biggest buyout the world has ever seen, and making them all billionaires in the process Presents a never-before-seen look inside a secretive and powerful world on the verge of complete transformation as the industry and its leaders gain public profiles, scrutiny, and political positions Analyzing the founders and the firms at a crucial moment, when they've elevated themselves beyond their already lofty ambitions into the world of public opinion and valuation, New Tycoons looks at one of the most important, yet least examined, trillion-dollar corners of the global economy and what it portends for these new tycoons.
Download or read book Finish Big written by Bo Burlingham and published by Portfolio. This book was released on 2015-11-05 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "No two exit experiences are exactly alike. Some people wind up happy with the process and satisfied with the way it turned out while others look back on it as a nightmare. The question I hope to answer in this book is why. What did the people with 'good' exits do differently from those who'd had 'bad' exits?" When pioneering business journalist and" Inc." magazine editor at large Bo Burlingham wrote "Small Giants," it became an instant classic for its original take on a common business problem--how to handle the pressure to grow. Now Burlingham is back to tackle an even more common problem--how to exit your company well. Sooner or later, all entrepreneurs leave their businesses and all businesses get sold, given away, or liquidated. Whatever your preferred outcome, you need to start planning for it while you still have time and options. The beautiful part is that if you start early enough, the process will lead you to build a better, stronger, more resilient company, as well as one with a higher market value. Unfortunately, most owners don't start early enough--and pay a steep price for their procrastination. Burlingham interviewed dozens of entrepreneurs across a range of industries and identified eight key factors that determine whether owners are happy after leaving their businesses. His book showcases the insights, exit plans, and cautionary tales of entrepreneurs such asRay Pagano founder of a leading manufacturer of housings for security cameras. He turned down a bid for his company and instead changed his management style, resulting in a subsequent sale for four times the original offer.Bill Niman founder of the iconic Niman Ranch, which revolutionized the meat industry. He learned about unhappy exits when he was forced to sell to private equity investors, leaving him with nothing to show for his thirty-five years in business.Gary Hirshberg founder of organic yogurt pioneer Stonyfield Farm. He pulled off the nearly impossible task of finding a large company that would buy out his 275 small investors at a premium price while letting him retain complete control of the business. Through such stories, Burlingham offers an illuminating and inspirational guide to one of the most stressful, and yet potentially rewarding, processes business owners must go through. And he explores the emotional challenges they face at every step of the way. At the end of the day, owning a business is about more than selling goods and services. It's about making choices that shape your entire life, both professional and personal. "Finish Big" helps you figure out how to face your future with confidence and be able to someday look back on your journey with pride.
Download or read book Angel Customers Demon Customers written by Larry Selden and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2003 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Selden and Colvin show readers how to analyze customer data to understand how to get the most out of the most critical customer segments. The authors reveal how some companies (such as Best Buy and Fidelity Investments) have already moved in this direction, and what customercentric strategies are likely to become widespread in the coming years.
Download or read book Disrupted written by Dan Lyons and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2016-04-05 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An instant New York Times bestseller, Dan Lyons' "hysterical" (Recode) memoir, hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "the best book about Silicon Valley," takes readers inside the maddening world of fad-chasing venture capitalists, sales bros, social climbers, and sociopaths at today's tech startups. For twenty-five years Dan Lyons was a magazine writer at the top of his profession--until one Friday morning when he received a phone call: Poof. His job no longer existed. "I think they just want to hire younger people," his boss at Newsweek told him. Fifty years old and with a wife and two young kids, Dan was, in a word, screwed. Then an idea hit. Dan had long reported on Silicon Valley and the tech explosion. Why not join it? HubSpot, a Boston start-up, was flush with $100 million in venture capital. They offered Dan a pile of stock options for the vague role of "marketing fellow." What could go wrong? HubSpotters were true believers: They were making the world a better place ... by selling email spam. The office vibe was frat house meets cult compound: The party began at four thirty on Friday and lasted well into the night; "shower pods" became hook-up dens; a push-up club met at noon in the lobby, while nearby, in the "content factory," Nerf gun fights raged. Groups went on "walking meetings," and Dan's absentee boss sent cryptic emails about employees who had "graduated" (read: been fired). In the middle of all this was Dan, exactly twice the age of the average HubSpot employee, and literally old enough to be the father of most of his co-workers, sitting at his desk on his bouncy-ball "chair."
Download or read book Go Long written by Dennis Carey and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2018-05-08 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Go Long, authors Dennis Carey, Brian Dumaine, Michael Useem, and Rodney Zemmel take you behind the scenes to witness the business decisions that are enabling leading organizations to outsmart and outlast the competition.
Download or read book Dead Companies Walking written by Scott Fearon and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2015-01-06 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hedge fund manager Scott Fearon explains why failure in business is not only common, but necessary—and how spotting it early can pay off
Download or read book Strategic Thinking written by Irene M. Duhaime and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-03-22 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are many strategy books available in the marketplace for today’s student or business professional; most of them view strategy from the 10,000 foot level, while Strategic Thinking looks at this important business topic through a different lens. Written from the perspective of a manager, this book builds on theories of managerial and organizational cognition that have had a powerful influence on many business fields over the last two decades. As other books on business policy and strategy cover a broad range of topics, models, frameworks, and theories, the unique feature of this book is that it covers all this, but also focuses on how managers of business firms understand their business environments, assess and marshal their firms’ resources, and strive for advantage in the competitive marketplace. It examines the economic, structural, and managerial explanations for firm performance. Offering professors and business people who are intrigued by the ideas introduced in Peter Senge’s books ways to apply those ideas and principles in the classroom and in the companies in which they work, the book puts managers front and center.
Download or read book Advancing Strategy through Behavioural Psychology written by Pontus Wadström and published by Kogan Page Publishers. This book was released on 2022-04-03 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Accelerate strategy and achieve desired results with this guide to understanding and influencing employee behaviour, based on the theory and practice of strategic management, behavioural psychology and change. The realisation of strategy is entirely dependent on employee behaviour, so in order to achieve business results it is vital that managers and leaders develop an understanding of human behaviour. Advancing Strategy through Behavioural Psychology shows that by identifying which behaviours should be measured and encouraged, organizations can succeed in implementing strategies for continuous adaptation in a rapidly changing business environment. Grounded in practitioner experience and academic research, this book argues that to achieve set goals organizations should spend less time planning and sending out instructions and more time on providing feedback on implementation and drawing out key points to be learned. By focusing on behaviour in this way, organizations can create a culture where innovation is encouraged and employees want to contribute to the company's future. Ensure long-term success and seize competitive advantage with this essential guide to identifying the key behaviours which will create business results and what influences them.
Download or read book Managing for Success written by Morgen Witzel and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-04-23 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The damage that incompetent managers do is incalculable. Every year they wipe tens of billions off the value of companies around the world. But the routinely incompetent behaviour that leads to failure is often covered up, incompetent managers are paid off and the causes of failure are swept under the carpet. Yet, most of these failures could have been avoided if only we knew how to spot the signs of incompetence in advance, and take steps to prevent it happening. Prevention is always better, and cheaper, than cure. Morgen Witzel tackles the problem of incompetence in the round by exploring the political, cultural, psychological and personal factors that lead to incompetency at every level of business. Arrogance, excessive reliance on formal plans and metrics, lack of professional pride, and poor and misguided business education and training are among the problems that drag businesses down. Using international case studies from Ford Motor Company, Royal Ahold and Lehman Brothers, practical solutions are provided for avoiding incompetence by changing the culture within organizations and the ways in which managers are trained and developed to truly manage for success and minimise failure.
Download or read book Information Knowledge and Agile Creativity written by Stéphane Goria and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2019-09-20 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Information, Knowledge and Agile Creativity will enlighten entrepreneurs, and is ideal for facilitating an organization’s ability to react and adapt to its environment. Creativity is a system that engenders innovation. While integral at the conception stage, it is also important before and after this phase. This book offers a collection of tools, as well as a methodology, to estimate the agility of an organization to generate and transform ideas into solutions that are not only new but also adapted to their users. To this end, this book presents strategic foresight and problem comprehension methods; tools of sharing and visual information formatting; animation tips for creativity workshops; techniques for generating ideas; and tools for visualizing and mapping ideas, information, and knowledge.
Download or read book The Leader s Guide to Storytelling written by Stephen Denning and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2010-06-03 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his best-selling book, Squirrel Inc., former World Bank executive and master storyteller Stephen Denning used a tale to show why storytelling is a critical skill for leaders. Now, in this hands-on guide, Denning explains how you can learn to tell the right story at the right time. Whoever you are in the organization CEO, middle management, or someone on the front lines you can lead by using stories to effect change. Filled with myriad examples, A Leader’s Guide to Storytelling shows how storytelling is one of the few available ways to handle the principal and most difficult challenges of leadership: sparking action, getting people to work together, and leading people into the future. The right kind of story at the right time, can make an organization “stunningly vulnerable” to a new idea.
Download or read book Joy at Work written by Dennis W. Bakke and published by PVG. This book was released on 2010-08-03 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Imagine a company where people love coming to work and are highly productive on a daily basis. Imagine a company whose top executives, in a quest to create the most "fun" workplace ever, obliterate labor-management divisions and push decision-making responsibility down to the plant floor. Could such a company compete in today's bottom-line corporate world? Could it even turn a profit? Well, imagine no more. In Joy at Work, Dennis W. Bakke tells the true story of this extraordinary company--and how, as its co-founder and longtime CEO, he challenged the business establishment with revolutionary ideas that could remake America's organizations. It is the story of AES, whose business model and operating ethos -"let's have fun"-were conceived during a 90-minute car ride from Annapolis, Maryland, to Washington, D.C. In the next two decades, it became a worldwide energy giant with 40,000 employees in 31 countries and revenues of $8.6 billion. It's a remarkable tale told by a remarkable man: Bakke, a farm boy who was shaped by his religious faith, his years at Harvard Business School, and his experience working for the Federal Energy Administration. He rejects workplace drudgery as a noxious remnant of the Industrial Revolution. He believes work should be fun, and at AES he set out to prove it could be. Bakke sought not the empty "fun" of the Friday beer blast but the joy of a workplace where every person, from custodian to CEO, has the power to use his or her God-given talents free of needless corporate bureaucracy. In Joy at Work, Bakke tells how he helped create a company where every decision made at the top was lamented as a lost chance to delegate responsibility--and where all employees were encouraged to take the "game-winning shot," even when it wasn't a slam-dunk. Perhaps Bakke's most radical stand was his struggle to break the stranglehold of "creating shareholder value" on the corporate mind-set and replace it with more timeless values: integrity, fairness, social responsibility, and a sense of fun.
