Execution - A Book Summary

You've got the bright ideas and the smart people, and the market is just ready for you. But why hasn't your business taken off as you predicted? Maybe the problem is in your execution. What does it really take to get a business going? You need the right people combined with realistic strategies to create effective operating procedures. Let Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan tell you how.

A business leader's most important job is the execution of plans, the "detail work," making sure that the staff is getting results. This is the sort of responsibility that cannot be delegated. It is the leader's primary duty to see that every member of the team is carrying out his part of the big plan to ensure the whole company's success. There are no excuses for failure: the market will always be tough. What spells the difference between successes and failures is the ability to execute plans.

Too often, too much intellectualizing and philosophy occurs at the planning level. The leaders are busy with their dreams and plans for success but there is little focus on implementation, thus the promised result is not delivered. The emphasis on execution as an integral part of the business process has not received enough attention in terms of accumulated knowledge and literature.

The Building Blocks of Execution

The Leader's Seven Essential Behaviors

1. Know Your People and Your Business.

2. Insist on Realism.

3. Set Clear Goals and Priorities.

4. Follow Through.

5. Reward the Doers.

6. Expand People's Capabilities through Coaching.

7. Know Yourself.

Creating the Framework for Cultural Change

You can't just institute changes for the sake of shaking things up at your company. Your changes must be geared towards getting results. Be specific: what sort of behavior is acceptable in your company? What's unacceptable? Change must begin at the top-level, to set an example down the line. Don't just expect it to happen either. Reward successful implementation of your plans to instigate change.

The Job No Leader Should Delegate-Having the Right People in the Right Jobs

Hiring the right people is as important as planning ahead; you need people who are not only capable, but also full of potential for growth as your business expands. Take time to focus on your staff, because in effect your business is in their hands. Take time to develop your staff's leadership capabilities so that they can bring results to your plans and visions. Assess individual capabilities and determine if you can further develop your employee through training, coaching and exposure, or if he's better off elsewhere. If you can properly develop your people, you should be able to fill top administrative posts from within. Hire a talented person and she will hire a talented person.

The Processes of Execution

A. Linking People to Strategy and Operations

Break your strategy down into manageable near-, medium- and long-term goals. Determine kinds of skills you need for the upcoming goals and start laying the foundations early. Then design an action plan for each step of your big plan.

B. Developing the Leadership Pipeline Through Continuous Improvement, Succession Depth and Reducing Retention Risk

Meeting your goals depends on the quality of the people you have. Assess today those who can be leaders in the future through the following: The Leadership Assessment Summary, The Continuous Improvement Summary, Succession Depth, and Reducing Retention Risk Analysis.

C. Dealing with Non-performers

Non-performers are people who aren't meeting their established goals. This does not mean that they're unqualified or incapable. It just means they aren't performing at the level required for your company's success. Sometimes you just need to coach a person to get them better acquainted with a job. Sometimes they just need to be transferred to another division or responsibility that's better suited to their capabilities. Other times there's no choice but to let him go. However, do so in a manner that allows the person to keep his dignity.

D. Linking HR to Business Results

The role of the HR department in a company is different now. The HR function must set out to fill the positions that are and will be important as projects and plans progress over the upcoming months-even years. Use the HR division to keep track of your company's top people across the whole organization, to see who can be groomed, or even promoted already, for key positions. HR should not only be able to assess people in their current jobs but also the people below them-if one person is to be promoted, someone should be adequately qualified to fill the upcoming void.

Examine all your strategies and determine the sorts of skills you need for these plans. If you can't develop the right people in time, determine if you need to hire from outside. Identify which jobs are critical, and which ones will be critical down the line. Are they filled with the right people? Monitor also the top positions in the company and spell out criteria for filling them. If there is a sudden vacancy, is there someone you haven't considered who might be more than qualified? If you know your people and their capabilities, filling the vacancy should be a small problem, especially if you've done your job in developing them for leadership.

The Importance of Hows

Even brilliant strategies are bound to fail if not grounded in realities-regarding the competition, the capabilities of the company's own people, the market, the product offerings. When creating strategies, consider not only the current realities of all relevant factors, but also unexpected-if unlikely-turns of events. There must always be backup plans, or at least people who can quickly think up alternative plans to make the best of a botched situation. Adaptability to change should always be a consideration: constantly review your plan to see if it is being executed properly, if current and future steps are still feasible, and if the people in charge are still getting results.

Building the Operating Plan

1. Set the targets: Keep your targets realistic. Base them on track records and histories.

2. Develop action and contingency plans: Study the possible outcomes that might leave the company most vulnerable and base your contingency plan on that. In other words, plan for the worst.

3. Get agreement and closure from all participants: Communicate agreed-upon goals to the people concerned after the meeting, to reiterate your expectations and what they promised to deliver.

Outcomes of the Operations Process

Think carefully: what does your business want to achieve? Think of this vis-à-vis what your company is likely to achieve. Watch how the operations affect your company, especially for the need to reallocate resources. Conduct quarterly reviews to see if you're still on track, who's keeping you there, and if you should even be there in the first place.

By: Regine P. Azurin and Yvette Pantilla Regine Azurin is the President of BusinessSummaries.com, a company that provides business book summaries of the latest bestsellers for busy executives and entrepreneurs.

http://www.bizsum.com "A Lot Of Great Books... Too Little Time To Read" Free Book Summaries Of Latest Bestsellers for Busy Executives and Entrepreneurs

Mailto: mailto:freearticle@bizsum.com
BusinessSummaries is a BusinessSummaries.com service.
(c) Copyright 2001- 2005 ,BusinessSummaries.com - Wisdom In A Nutshell

____________________

Advertisement: Honest Riches - Click Here!

Advertisement: Lost AdWords - Click Here!

Advertisement: Get $1 Million A Month In Google Pay-Per-Click Ads Free! - Click Here!

Advertisement: Who Loves Money? - Click Here!

Advertisement: SEO Elite, the GrandDaddy of SEO Software - Click Here!

---

The New Art of War, Tactics, and Power

To rise and flourish in the world, you need to act according to how things really are, and you need to be a good strategist and manager.... Read More

Rat Race Blues E-book Review

RAT RACE BLUES: How To Break The Stranglehold Darlene Arechederra DAR N-Centives 25 Della, Fenton, MO 63026, 636-343-5495 October 2002, ISBN: None, Format: E-book 92 pages, $16.95... Read More

Are You Using Both Sides of the GoogleCoin?

By now most of you realise that Google can give our websites the ability to appear within their results pages using a Pay Per Click model (PPC).... Read More

How to Survive Sudden Leadership Challenges - Covey Has Some Clues

I have decided to start with this text as simply far too many people have said to me I should - it clearly has an enormous following... Read More

Product Review: Affiliate Mistakes Special Report

In his ebook "Affiliate Mistakes Special Report," Chuck McCullough teaches you how to spot and avoid or correct ten simple, yet costly errors that can seriously damage... Read More

The Power of 2 - AchieveMax® Top Ten Book Review

The Power of 2: Win Big with People in Your Work and in Life by Anthony C. ScireHere is another in a growing number of "mini-books," 170... Read More

Story Structure - Three Heroes

Three Heroes Story Structure follows the Hero's Journey mould but distinguishes itself by making both the hero and the shape shifter both likeable and deserving of the... Read More

The Bible Code II: The Countdown, by Michael Drosnin

Sir Isaac Newton knew about the Bible code 300 hundred years ago when he described it as "a cryptogram set by the Almighty?.The riddle of the God-head,... Read More

Book Review: Money Without Matrimony

MONEY WITHOUT MATRIMONY: The Unmarried Couples Guide to Financial Security, Sheryl Garrett and Debra Neiman, Dearborn Trade Publishing. Paperback $21.95 (248p) ISBN 1-4195-0688-9)Who knew? If you were... Read More

Book Summary: Effective Networking For Personal Success

We are all "self-employed" now.Today there is absolutely no job security. We are living in an age of corporate downsizing, and freelance consultants, or self-employed workers are... Read More

Pandemonium - Book Review

"Within the first few pages, I was engrossed and deeply moved by Apina Hrbek's eloquent writing skills. Tears of compassion were in my eyes at several points... Read More

The Laid Daughter

There has been a lot of publicity lately centered on the issue of child molestation. Child molestation is a horrific form of child abuse that leaves its... Read More

Book Summary: EVEolution

For any business to survive today, it needs to understand how to market to women. The fact is women make 80% of all purchasing decisions. Women are... Read More

Book Summary: How To Work With Just About Anyone

"I just can't seem to get along with this person!"Every office has that one difficult person to work with, who affects productivity due to a terrible attitude,... Read More

What is the Emperor Wearing - A Book Summary

What is the Emperor Wearing?Once upon a time, an emperor who loved clothes was approached by two con men who made him an offer he couldn't refuse.... Read More

Unspoken Dreams - Book Review

"Carol Bennett writes a stunning mystery-thriller. Her chilling entrance is one I have encountered only rarely in a book. Here, we have a victim who looks like... Read More

How Would You Move Mount Fuji? - AchieveMax® Top Ten Book Review

For a number of reasons, today's hiring managers from Wall Street to the Silicon Valley are totally restructuring their approach to interviewing job prospects. Few will admit... Read More

The Storyteller - Fiction Books!

Review by Jessica Dearborn Tolucan Times / Canyon Crier - California"The Storyteller, Volume I" by Martha Whittington AuthorHouse, Paperback, 514 Pages, $24When inspiration hits, it is usually... Read More

The 18 Immutable Laws of Corporate Reputation - A Book Summary

Everything an individual or company does or produces contributes to its reputation. Reputation is an intangible asset, but a very important one. In some ways it is... Read More

What Really Works - AchieveMax® Top Ten Book Review

If you watch television, read the newspaper and/or magazines, frequent the Internet, or simply move in any kind of a business circle, you must have, at one... Read More

Geeks & Geezers - AchieveMax® Top Ten Book Review

Geeks & Geezers: How Era, Values, and Defining Moments Shape Leaders by Warren G. Bennis & Robert J. ThomasMost every organization today employs members of the younger... Read More

Albany, NY Family History Reference Now Available Thanks To Author Joseph Yakel

"Personal research references, especially for families who once lived in the South End area of Albany, are very difficult to come by", said Yakel. "Lower Albany had... Read More

The Seventh Jewel - Book Review

The Seventh Jewel is a fantasy-adventure fiction geared for youth (ages 11 and up). J.J. Pritchard crammed several tantalizing elements in only 278 pages. The reader is... Read More

A Monster Named Criney who Makes Kids Whiney - Review

Excellent! The best children book of this genre that I have had the pleasure to review!A Monster Named Criney Who Makes Kids Whiney by Heather Zuckerman can... Read More

The Road of Silk: Book Review

"The Road of Silk is an adventure fantasy, with mystical and magical elements and a high energy feel to it that any reader will enjoy. Although this... Read More

Going Deeper - Book Review

Going Deeper by Jean-Claude Koven is certainly a nicely presented, hard-cover book. This fiction fantasy has an obvious inclination to aid readers who are embarking on their... Read More