EXECUTION

Over 150 weeks on the WSJ bestseller list!

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The book that shows how to get the job done and deliver results . . . whether you're running an entire company or in your first management job

Larry Bossidy is one of the world's most acclaimed CEOs, a man with few peers who has a track record for delivering results. Ram Charan is a legendary advisor to senior executives and boards of directors, a man with unparalleled insight into why some companies are successful and others are not. Together they've pooled their knowledge and experience into the one book on how to close the gap between results promised and results delivered that people in business need today.

After a long, stellar career with General Electric, Larry Bossidy transformed AlliedSignal into one of the world's most admired companies and was named CEO of the year in 1998 by Chief Executive magazine. Accomplishments such as 31 consecutive quarters of earnings-per-share growth of 13 percent or more didn't just happen; they 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.

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.

The leader's most important job — selecting and appraising people — is one that should never be delegated. As a CEO, Larry Bossidy personally makes the calls to check references for key hires. Why? With the right people in the right jobs, there's a leadership gene pool that conceives and selects strategies that can be executed. People then work together to create a strategy building block by building block, a strategy in sync with the realities of the marketplace, the economy, and the competition. Once the right people and strategy are in place, they are then linked to an operating process that results in the implementation of specific programs and actions and that assigns accountability. This kind of effective operating process goes way beyond the typical budget exercise that looks into a rearview mirror to set its goals. It puts reality behind the numbers and is where the rubber meets the road.

Putting an execution culture in place is hard, but losing it is easy. In July 2001 Larry Bossidy was asked by the board of directors of Honeywell International (it had merged with AlliedSignal) to return and get the company back on track. He's been putting the ideas he writes about in Execution to work in real time.

Reviews

"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 tough vexing challenged: How can the leaders of an organization exhort their people to deliver on the most important goals? . . . It's 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 Globe

"A how-to book for the can-do 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."
—BusinessWeek

"Execution was a bestseller and deserved to be."
—Fortune

"The payoff is analogous to buying a couple dollars worth of lottery tickets on the way to work and finding out you won Mega-Millions that night."
—Journal of Business Strategy

"Here's the real deal . . . This is no-nonsense stuff . . . The leaders who sweat the small stuff, hire the right people, make the tough decisions and stick around to see that they're carried out are the real winners . . . Forget the swarmy memories, 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 Herald

"Making 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 must-reading for anyone who cares about business."
—New York Times

"This is a terrific book that will make smart managers rethink how business gets done within every level of their organization or department."
—Publishers Weekly

"If you want to be a CEO — or if you are a CEO and want to keep your job — read Execution and put its principles to work."
—Michael Dell, chairman and CEO, Dell Computer Corp.

"Sound, practical advice on how to make things happen."
—Ralph S. Larsen, chairman and CEO, Johnson & Johnson

"Good practical insight and advice on managing for results at firms of any size. Execution is key, and this book clearly explains what it means and how it brings together the critical elements of any organization — its people, strategies, and operations."
—L.R. Raymond, chairman and CEO, Exxon Mobil

"Captures 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

"For those managers who have struggled to make it happen, fix a problem, get it done — or otherwise transform winning strategies into genuine results — here’s the missing medicine from two who know from long experience what works and what doesn’t. Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan offer a compelling leadership prescription, and it comes down to realism, discipline, and above all, great execution."
—Michael Useem, Professor of Management and Director of the Center for Leadership and Change, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

"A great practitioner and an insightful theorist join forces to write a compelling business story of 'how to get it done.'"
—Jack Welch

Published by Crown Business
June 2002
hardcover / 288 pages
ISBN: 0609610570