The authors’ point is, if a company wants to be a “winner,” they must excel at (a) 4 mandatory areas: strategy, execution, culture, and structure, and (b) any 2 out of the following 4: talent, leadership, innovation, acquisitions and mergers. All the other things, like 360 degree PRS, management training programs, etc. they found are not consistently statistically significant. This is the kind of book I would bring on a plane or car ride where I could skim through it. The writing style is journalistic and sensational. As one Amazon.com reviewer notes, the book uses a “hero” / “villain” format, which although entertaining, is somewhat naïve. The book’s thesis is pretty much articulated in the first chapter. You could read that, and then follow up by reading other business books that expound on one of these areas (e.g., Bossidy).
Monthly Archives: August 2003
The 10 natural laws of successful time and life management: proven strategies for increased productivity and inner peace
Hyrum Smith is the inventor of the Franklin Day Planner! His book is an outgrowth of time management training seminars that he has taught all over the world. I know a few people that definitely NEED to read this book just for those aspects (goes along with my gripes on execution; see Bossidy). Time management turns out to be a small part of this book. Hyrum’s thesis is you will never be happy with managing your time unless your use of time is in sync with your personal values. He elaborates a model of our behavior to show this. Have you ever discovered a belief or prejudice that you had to unlearn the hard way? And once you did, relationships with your significant other, coworkers, and/or friends got better? Hyrum’s model attempts to explain these “aha”s and epiphanies. I found my reading of this book very timely for myself; others who are not so introspective may find it profound, while I would expect some to find it boring.
Theory of Constraints and Its Implications for Management Accounting (Eric W. Noreen, Debra A. Smith, James T. MacKey)
Not the best book out there on the Theory of Constraints. Part of TOC is the principle that the accounting which is done for GAAP and the IRS, for example, should not be used to make business decisions. This isn’t a new concept to accountants. Many an MBA has glossed over this fine print though. Several case studies are given where using TOC accounting to make business decisions provides significantly superior profits, capital expenditure plans, offshore trades, etc.
Management challenges for the 21st century
One of Peter Drucker’s last books. He was originally going to write a life’s work summary, but changed his mind to write a prophetic type of book. His two big topics are (1) the declining birth rate in developed countries, and (2) the transition from skilled laborers (“tin bending”) work to the knowledge worker (“technologists”). His discussions are fascinating and I won’t steal any of his thunder other than to say that he feels traditional management techniques based on time and motion studies (Total Quality Management is the latest rendition) do not motivate the knowledge worker. I will say that his second big point is in extreme harmony with Marcus Buckingham’s work (which I would read first). Drucker has a similar message as Buckingham, motivated from a completely different viewpoint. The book is also part self help. Do you know what your boss’ learning style is? Don’t you think you should have asked that on the first day? Drucker thinks so, and explains why.
Execution : the discipline of getting things done
Note that one of the 4 required areas in the “4 + 2 Formula” is execution. This book really hammers away at that point. I put this first on the sub-list for a good reason. Our site is terrible at this. All of my trips to Orlando were to work on programs that were not executing. And don’t get me started on our IT department!