This is a decent book about implementation and follow through in corporate strategy. The format is the now standard in the genre "buddy system" of teaming a high profile CEO with a consultant/academic to tamp down the bombast and increase the detail and logic flow. Here Bossidy is the exec and Charan is the consultant (who was also at the Kellogg School). Th material is fairly rich and the style is relatively readable - remember the genre!

Tends to get repetitive and loses its luster as it moves ahead. It does provide good use cases and a certain direction but too many times just gives mixed signals and foggy discussions.
Good one time read and should be used as a milestone to move to sterner literature on execution frameworks.

principles of this book still apply even 15+ years after it was written... having said that, i would be curious to re-review the companies they site and see how (and if) they have continued to succeed.

Honestly, the rating would be shy of 4 (if there was an option to go with 3.5, that is what I would choose). Two things I learnt outside of what I read in this book - a) if the Goodreads rating is much less than 4, it is probably for a reason, b) Not all recommendations should be trusted.

The book does make some good points about superior execution through a trifecta of people, strategy and operations. But I feel a lot of this is known ideas - only articulated in words here. The authors also do end up rambling in quite a few places - e.g. when talking about memos sent to leaders in their respective organizations. Plus, stay "high level" in select chapters e.g. operationalization of strategic plan (ironical that that is what they caution leaders against).

For what it's worth, I did make some notes as I went along:

⁃ you cant hand over the people process to HR, you need to manage the reviews / careers
⁃ Fastrack and reward those that do well ; ask questions to open up horizons

Building blocks - 3
Leadership behaviors

⁃ Know your people and your business: reviewing people’s work is a way of showing them that you care
⁃ Insist on realism: dont be disengaged with your company and market realities
⁃ Set clear goals / priorities: leader should have at best 4-5 priorities which guide the organization
⁃ Follow through
⁃ Reward the doers
⁃ Expand people’s capabilities through coaching
⁃ Know yourself : be ready to accept your mistakes / better ideas, avoid building a coterie of yay-sayers, be authentic

Changing the culture of an org
⁃ question the fundamental beliefs (which drive behaviors) than the values (which are rarely wrong)
⁃ Link performance to rewards. You should reward not only the achievement in numbers, but also the right behaviors. Also non financial goals (building the right org, diversity etc.)
⁃ Reward in year performance with cash, reward potential with stock options
⁃ It is important to work on both the hardware and the software of the org

Leader’s role in people development
⁃ Leaders need to spend at least 40 percent of their time and emotional energy in selecting, appraising and developing people
⁃ Leaders need to be high energy
⁃ Leaders need to make tough decisions even if unpopular
⁃ Leaders get things done through others.

Three key processes in the org:

People processes
⁃ most organization’s people processes are backward looking. They evaluate performance rather than potential
⁃ Leadership assessment is a mix of both performance and behaviors (eg collaboration). Plus also looks at continuous improvement (focuses on development needs), retention risk and succession depth (are there high potential people to take over key leadership roles)
⁃ Assessing capability on four key areas : functional skills, business skills, management skills, leadership skills

Strategy process
⁃ It should be possible to describe the strategy of a business unit on a page, listing out its “building blocks”
⁃ Milestones should be clearly laid out
⁃ It is important to balance both near term and long term when building a strategy. The short term actions should provide the fuel for driving long term objectives

Questions to ask in a strategy review
⁃ what is the competition up to and likely to do next eg which people are at the top / have been recently added, and what areas will they focus on.
⁃ Is the org geared up to deliver the strategy?
⁃ Is the plan scattered or focused?
⁃ Are we choosing the right ideas?
⁃ Is the strategic plan accounting for likely operational challenges

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

I tried to listen to the audiobook and it was terrible. What a shame - the subject sounded intriguing. I have up.

If you can successfully navigate through the maze of the authors’ self righteousness, there are quite a few good takeaways in this book on strategies to get things done that have withstood the test of time.

A quality discussion on execution - getting things done. This book interested me as it's a core part of my agency's grade at the end of every fiscal year. Additionally, I am responsible for tracking numerous KPIs thus execution is critical to make our numbers and achieve the desired end state. Towards the back third of the book, the authors had a hilarious, disturbing, but oh so true description of how typical high level strategy sessions are conducted. Having seen this far too many times, it hit close to home. Next time I participate in one of these, I need to re-read this section. Unfortunately, this book did lose my attention at times but it did have some great quotes as listed below.

- The 3 core processes of execution: people, strategy, and operations... the building blocks and heart of good execution.
- Given the many things that businesses can't control, from the uncertain state of the economy to the unpredictable actions of competitors, you'd think companies would pay careful attention to the one thing they can control - the quality of their people, especially those in the leadership pool. PJK: Very interesting statement. Luckily my current boss has keyed in on this over the past year thus I have some experience seeing how to do this well.
- Yet the same leaders who exclaim that "people are our most important asset" usually do not think very hard about choosing the right people for the right jobs. PJK: So true... While I've made two great hires in the past 12 months, I need to rethink how I lead a hiring action.
- Interviewers don't usually dig into the person's record to see how she actually performed in her previous jobs. How, for example, did she set priorities? Did she include people in decision making?
- The first thing I look for are energy and enthusiasm for execution. Does the candidate get excited by doing things, as opposed to talking about them?
- Does she talk about the thrill of getting things done, or does she keep wandering back to strategy or philosophy.
- One of the biggest shortcomings of the traditional people process is that it's backward-looking, focused on evaluating the jobs people are doing today. Far more important is whether the individuals can handle the jobs of tomorrow.
- The first building block of the people process is its linkage to strategic milestones over the near (0-2 years), medium (2-5 years), and long terms, as well as the operating plan targets. The business leaders create this linkage by making sure they have the right kinds and numbers of people to execute the strategy.
- Most companies underestimate their competitors' responses.... Sometimes people have the opposite problem - they overestimate the competition because they haven't asked the right questions.

Execution is an important step in getting things done as per the plan and this books tells exactly what you need to do in getting better in execution. The way 3 core process (People, strategy & Operations) and their linkage is explained very well. Often in the business we see majority of people focus on strategy but what is always missed or given less focus is people and operations which is the reason for not achieving the plans as intended. The purpose of the books is to explain the same and the key behaviors which we must imbibe in order to do well

A fantastic treatise for every business leader from division level through CEO to read and absorb. The three core processes—people, strategy and operations—are the heart and soul of business and the authors bring numerous case studies and business examples to the table for the reader. A must read for anyone aspiring to high level management and leadership in business today.

Un libro que enseña el manejo multidisciplinar sobre los procesos, la gente y estrategias para definir un objetivo y como llevarlo a cabo en la práctica. Hace ver también la importancia global de las cosas para ver de diferente maneras las mejores decisiones a tomar y ejecutarlo.

This book is a completely over-rated book. In short I had lot more expectations from this book and what I got was far less.

Bossidy has earned the right to write on this topic, but the story lacks any sense of instructive meat. Many of the examples are what we normally know and lacks punch in it. Reading 250+ pages was painful. The initial 80-100 pages were kind of decent but then it started to drag on and towards the end I kind of felt - When does this END?

You will find in the book various examples from different organisations illustrating the point of view of authors, sometime pompous about themselves.

Examples such as Know your people, details of the business, expand peoples capability, identifying clear goals - things that already a person in middle-management knows. My expectations were a bit more into HOW rather than the superficial explanations.

There are some good examples from this book no doubt such as Reward the 'doers,' but avoid excessive emphasis on short-term results, Insist on realism are worth mentioning.

On the whole, for a first time manager this is a good book but for those who have been doing this for quiet some time - its a sleep inducing one.