Execution may very well be the best business book of the year, and one of the most useful to have come around in a long time. This smart and pithy book focuses on a simple though vexing challenge: How can the leaders of an organization exhort their people to deliver on the most important goals?....Its rare to find a book like this that blends smart practice with intelligent articulation of how to get things done. Do yourself a favor. Buy it. The Boston GlobeMaking all of the moving parts of an organization function smoothly together is just plain hard work. By describing how he has done it, Mr. Bossidy has come up with a valuable and practical management guide that is mustreading for everyone who cares about business. The New York TimesIf you want to be a CEOor if you are a CEO and want to keep your jobread Execution and put its principles to work. Michael Dell, chairman and CEO, Dell Computer Corp.A howto book for the cando boss....If even half the corporations in America pondered their suggestions, the economy would be in much better shape. Moreover, Bossidy and Charan boast an impressive enough track record that anyone who wants to stay sharp at the helm will welcome their assistance. BusinessWeekSound, practical advice on how to make things happen. Ralph S. Larsen, chairman and CEO, Johnson JohnsonHeres the real deal.... This is nononsense stuff.... The leaders who sweat the small stuff, hire the right people, make the tough decisionsand stick around to see that theyre carried out are the real winners.... Forget the swarmy memoirs, cheesy parables, advice for idiots, and leadership secrets of despots and barbarians. Getting it done is, according to Bossidy and Charan, the only way to grow. The Miami HeraldCaptures a lifetime of building winning formulas and puts them in a simple, practical context for executives at any level. Ivan Seidenberg, president and CEO, Verizon
[...]... only the leader can make execution happen, through his or her deep personal involvement in the substance and even the details of execution The leader must be in charge of getting things done by running the three core processes—picking other leaders, setting the strategic direction, and conducting opera tions These actions are the substance of execution, and leaders cannot delegate them regardless of the. .. how, and they usually start out well enough “It’ s about getting things done, ” they’ll say “It’s about running the 20 THE GAP NOBODY KNOWS company, versus conceiving and planning It’ making our s goals.” Then we ask them how to get things done, and the dialogue goes rapidly downhill Whether they’re students or senior executives, it is soon clear—to them as well as to us—that they don’t have the foggiest... explanation is that the CEO’s strategy was wrong But the strategy by itself is not often the cause Strategies most often fail because they aren’t executed well Things that are supposed to happen don’t happen Either the organizations aren’t capable of making them happen, or the leaders of the business misjudge the challenges their companies face in the business environment, or both Former Compaq CEO... promised results Then when they announce the shortfall, investors dump their stocks and enormous market value is obliter ated Managers and employees are demoralized And increasingly, boards are forced to dump the CEOs The leaders of all the companies listed above were highly regarded when they were appointed—they seemed to have all of the right qualifications But they all lost their jobs because they didn’t... team are deeply engaged in all three They are the owners of the processes—not the strategic plan ners or the human resources (HR) or finance staffs 23 EXECUTION Execution Is the Job of the Business Leader Lots of business leaders like to think that the top dog is exempt from the details of actually running things It’s a pleasant way to view leadership: you stand on the moun taintop, thinking strategically... and appraising people 8 INTRODUCTION Part 3 is the how-to section of the book Chapters 6 to 9 discuss the three core processes of people, strategy, and operations We show what makes them effective, and how the practice of each process is linked to and integrated with the other two Chapter 6 covers the people process, which is the most important of the three Done well, it results in a leadership gene pool... distraction and uncertainty of the merger effort had taken a toll Good people had left or were leav ing But the discipline of execution had unraveled The intensity of the core processes had waned Honeywell wasn’t getting things done Before I left the company, for example, we had devel oped a turbogenerator product that I thought was a very promising entry into the market for standby power It would be perfect... process, the strategy process, and the opera tions process Every business and company uses these processes in one form or the other But more often than not they stand apart from one another like silos People perform them by rote and as quickly as possible, so they can get back to their perceived work Typically the CEO and his senior leadership team allot less than half a day each year to review the plans—people,... and how they get firsthand the benefit of his experience, wisdom, and expert feedback It’s no different for a business leader Only a leader can ask the tough questions that everyone needs to answer, then manage the process of debating the information and making the right trade-offs And only the leader who’s intimately engaged in the business can know enough to have the comprehensive view and ask the tough... incisive questions Only the leader can set the tone of the dialogue in the organization Dialogue is the core of culture and the basic unit of work How people talk to each other absolutely determines how well the organization will function Is the dialogue stilted, politicized, fragmented, and buttcovering? Or is it candid and reality-based, raising the right questions, debating them, and finding realistic . is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bossidy, Larry. Execution : the discipline of getting things done / Larry Bossidy &. understanding of a business, its people, and its environment. 7. The way to link the three core processes of any business— the people process, the strategy, and the oper- ating plan—together to get things. achieve and the ability of their organizations to deliver it. 4. Not simply tactics, but a sys- tem of getting things done through question- ing, analysis, and follow-through. A discipline for meshing