Excelente livro para liderança de uma empresa refletir sobre executação (cumprir o que promete, e ser realista ao definir metas), liderança e a relação entre gestão de pessoas, operações e estratégia.

O livro traz casos de grandes multinacionais estrangeiras para ilustrar reflexões de Ram Charam e Larry Bossidy acerca de suas principais ideias. As que mais me marcaram foram:

- Estabelecer a disciplina de execução é a atividade mais importante de um líder e o líder deve estar profundamente envolvido na tarefa de execução (delegando as tarefas e fazer follow up)
- É necessário traduzir as grandes idéias em passos concretos para ação
- De nada adianta pessoas que trabalham muito e são brilhantes mas que não são eficazes e não honram seus compromissos;
- Estratégia, pessoas e operações devem ser ligados a realidade diária do negócio e integrados entre si
Comportamentos essenciais do líder: conhecer seu pessoal e sua empresa, insistir no realismo, estabelecer metas e prioridades claras, recompensar quem faz, orientar pessoas para ajuda-las em seu desenvolvimento e conhecer a si próprio.
- 40% do tempo de um gestor deve ser usado na gestão de pessoas
- Muitos cargos estão preenchidos com as pessoas erradas porque os líderes que as promovem se sentem bem com elas.
- Critérios inegociáveis de seleção devem ser cumpridos sempre
- É necessário confrontar as pessoas que têm mau desempenho, pois elas contaminam a organização e podem destruí-la
- É necessário ligar o processo de pessoal ao plano estratégico e seus marcos de curto, médio e longo prazos e à meta do plano operacional, incluindo metas financeiras específicas
- É necessário desenvolver um pool de liderança através da melhoria contínua, profundidade na sucessão e redução do risco de retenção
- É necessário tomar decisões sobre o que fazer com colaboradores que tem mau desempenho
- Um bom processo de planejamento estratégico requer (também) enfoque nos comos da execução da estratégia
- É essencial avaliar constantemente a qualidade das premissas que o plano estratégico depende. Exemplo: capacidade, habilidades, flexibilidade, estrutura, etc
- Se uma estratégia não abordar os "comos", é candidata ao fracasso
- Para ser eficaz, uma estratégia tem de ser elaborada e pertencer àqueles que vão executá-la (Líderes dos Negócios e Pessoal de Linha)
- Processo de Discussão Estratégica x Formalização: Discutir o negócio, o ambiente externo, a concorrência gera energia e consenso e fortalece o processo
No livro são apresentadas perguntas que devem ser respondidas para criar um plano estratégico
-Na construção de uma estratégia é necessário decompor os resultados de longo prazo em metas de curto prazo e executar
- No plano operacional, o líder é responsável pela supervisão da transição direta da estratégia para operações: estabelecer objetivos, interligar processos, liderar revisões operacionais, realizar os trade-offs operacionais, ensinar as pessoas à executar

Rating - 7
Has some solid points, especially on how people, operations, and strategy are all tied to execution but at the end it became too preachy and example-specific that I started skimming through

The passage on meeting deliverables is something that I will start using, but when I compare the epiphanies of the Five Fables, I have no choice but to give this one a lower rating

Interesting Thoughts
Most strategies fail because they are not executed well. Gap is in what the organization wants to achieve and the ability of the organization to achieve it

Execution is a discipline and is integral to strategy
Execution is the major job of the business leader
Execution must be a core element of an org culture

Execution is a systematic way of facing reality and acting on it. Requires a comprehensive understanding of a business, its people, and its environment.

How people talk to each other will determine how the organization will function? Politics and butt-kissing lead to failure

Leaders energize - they know every detail about their business and they are passionate about results

Involve all stakeholders in putting together a plan, identify how you will execute the plan, set milestones, and develop contingencies for unexpected shifts in the market

Do not go into too many directions at once but listen to tomorrow’s customers as well as today’s

People imitate their leaders - what you did yesterday does not mean that you have to do it tomorrow

Seven Building Blocks

- Know your people and your business
- Insist on realism
- Set clear goals and priorities
- Follow through
- Reward the doers
- Expand people’s capabilities
- Know yourself

Leaders have to live their businesses
Always try and get the fresh perspective of newcomers

Does not matter who wins or loses in a debate - the most important part is that the debate happened

Realism is the heart of execution but too many orgs try to avoid reality

Questions to ask

- What are we doing right and wrong
- What do you like and not like about the org

Leaders who execute speak simply and directly - simplify so others can understand, evaluate, and act

Good orgs not only reward doers but also make sure that the staff understands that only doers are rewarded

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime

80% of teaching occurs outside the classroom, - every leader has to be a teacher

Good leaders learn their strengths and weaknesses, build on their strengths, and correct their weaknesses

Authenticity - you are real not fake - inner and outer are one

Humility - exhibit the attitude that you can learn from anyone, anytime - acknowledge your mistakes

As you gain experience in self-assessment, insights get converted into improvements that expand your personal capacity

The hardware of an organization (strategy/structure) is useless without the software (beliefs/behaviors)

Cultural change has to be linked with improving business outcomes

- Define the goals
- Plan to attain goals
- Reward for goals achieved
- Coach on goals missed


Teamwork, knowledge sharing, and co-operation are essential to winning in the marketplace - competition is external not internal

Always be a better listener

Do not reward on strong achievements on numbers but on desirable behavior as well

Leaders who create disproportionate awards for high-achievers and high-potential are creating social software - people will look to differentiate themselves

No one person has all the ideas and answers

Robust dialogue starts when people go in with open minds - do not be trapped by pre-conceptions or armed w a personal agenda

Informality gets the truth out - people are more relaxed

Businesses that are consistently successful focus on people selection

Non-negotiable criteria - what has to be present to succeed

Comfortable promotions are a recipe for disaster

Determination is more valuable than intelligence

Getting things done through others is a fundamental leadership skill

Micromanagers block initiative and make all key decisions whereas independents abandon without coaching

Never finish a meeting without clarifying what the deliverables are, who will do it, and when by
You have to show energy in execution not just talk about it

If your boss has not identified a weakness then go back because everyone has a weakness

Have to exceed not only on performance but also behavior

Identifying high-potential people avoids the dangers of org inertia (keeping people in the same job for too long) and promoting people too quickly

Preserving the dignity of people who leave jobs is an important part of reinforcing the positive nature of performance culture

A good strategic planning process pays attention to the hows of the execution

Good Strategic Plan

- Assesses external environment
- Understands existing customer
- Identifies growth and obstacles to growth
- Identifies the competition
- Balance between short and long term
- Identifies critical issue

People look at their businesses from the inside out - focus on making and selling and ignore the needs and behaviors of consumers

Most companies under-estimate a competitors responses

Do not take on too many projects and always ask questions

Budget should be the financial expression of the strategic plan but usually it is backwards - numbers are set without reason

SECTION ON BUDGET

Focus not only on the consumer, but the customer’s customer

If I recall correctly, this book became necessary reading while working as Director Marketing, Internet at Molson Coors Canada very early in my career there. Current CEO Dan O'Neill became a big believer in the advantages and performance benefits that could arise if we could just inch by inch become much better at EXECUTION of not only the smallest local tactical promotions but ALL efforts everyday. Great ideas and the perfect promotional campaign only fails or certainly falls way short if poorly executed. Bossidy became the master of hiring and aligning the right teams with a shared commitment to amazing execution and measurement such that he made his entire career through the discipline and best practices of achieving consistent and best in class execution across his organizations which included GE, Allied Signal and others. Leading by example in the hiring, training, succession planning and linking of key people should be a consistent practice of top managers and team leaders such that the business doesn't skip a beat when someone moves on, up, or out.

Knock it out of the park results time and time again, or save a failing effort from losing money, 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." And... "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." Key take away for me was and is to this day is that the people/execution component of any idea or business model is actually beyond core even more important than the idea or business potential itself and should be considered not at time of implementation but hand-in-hand with the development of the new business idea or service. Short read and great book to pass along to new employees or colleagues.

Not an easy read, but great stuff. Must be read several times.

I might have missed the point of this book, but what I came away with was:
- This is a book based in a different time and while execution is as fundamental to business success the "incarnation" in this book and its implementation is obsolete.
- It's hard to take it too seriously when statements that are key to the message of the book are based upon bad data.
- Most of what's usable in this book is just "re-branded" common sense. While they are good reminders they do not inspire nor impress.
- Stop trying to dazzle me with large figures. I simply do not care.

Great book and is also available as a talking book.

This is definitely a business book and I am certainly not a business person. I learned, but it wasn’t really written for me as an audience.

I was intrigued by the title but after reading it came away with nothing I could apply to my own work which for me is the true measure of any business book does it have real life application. All of the anecdotes were of big business nothing that I felt was suitable for small business or a one man operation.

If you see this book on the shelf of the guy interviewing you for your next job, leave.

Terrible book by reckless and mean managers who give corporations a bad name. Some useful lessons in the first 60 pages devolve into a tirade against responsible management. The authors believe that the only purpose of a manager is to maximize profits in the next quarter.

What a completely over-rated book. I suspect this made the top 20 best-ever booklist that led me to it on the basis that the title sounds good, like something a knowledgeable business person should advocate. Bossidy has earned the right to write on this topic, but the story lacks any sense of instructive meat. It's really more suited to a motivational speech or a Tom Peters interview. Reading 250+ pages was painful. Some business books are thoughtful; others make me really dislike business culture in general. This was exemplary of the latter. Bossidy and Charan's pompous tone was omnipresent, but the pinnacle came with Bossidy's way of explaining that every employee assessment should include something developmental, since even "The Good Lord had some development needs." I was slightly amused at their summary of the typical strategy review (a boring 4-hour sleeper that ends up decorating a credenza), but then sobered by the discussion about the engagement and discussion that should happen. Their 3 fundamental tasks where the leader must see execution: picking leaders, setting strategic direction, and running operations. They also made uncomfortable points about "emotional fortitude."

This was one of my least favorite business books. Obviously, the author cares a great deal about emphasizing "execution", and he gave many examples of leaders who are/were skilled executors. But he gave no concrete steps to guide the reader to how to execute in the manner of the example leaders. The book left me uninspired.

It is easy to get lost in the weeds of this book if your expertise dose not fall in the context of managing a large US corporation. I had a hard time translating much of it into my field of work. Still, there were helpful nuggets, applicable to any leader in any context. These insights made it worth struggling through some of the more detailed and less relevant sections. There were growth areas in my leadership style exposed by this book.