The Speed of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

Book Description

From Stephen R. Covey's eldest son comes a revolutionary new path towards productivity and satisfaction. Trust, says Stephen M.R. Covey, is the very basis of the new global economy, and he shows how trust—and the speed at which it is established with clients, employees and constituents—is the essential ingredient for any high-performance, successful organization.

For business leaders and public figures in any arena, The Speed of Trust offers an unprecedented and eminently practical look at exactly how trust functions in our every transaction and relationship—from the most personal to the broadest, most indirect interaction—and how to establish trust immediately so that you and your organization can forego the time-killing, bureaucratic check-and-balance processes so often deployed in lieu of actual trust.

Customer Reviews:

Instant Classic - Top Shelf.......2007-10-08

Within minutes of reading this book I knew it was going to be great. The book explains how trust is the driving force behind all efficient, successful businesses. Covey gets into different types of trust and some self assessments to determine what areas the reader is strong or weak in. The book can be applied to business, community and family. Without a doubt it goes on the short list of powerful, life-changing books!

All hype, no protein.......2007-09-19

Lots of anecdotes about the author's years in the business world. The author testifies that trust is great and makes things work. Little of substance in this book.

Trust is Fundamental in Relational Management.......2007-08-24

Trust may be the missing ingredient for the relational management model to succeed, but Trust (confidence + credibility) is an outcome, not an input. To get a Trust outcome requires the right inputs and in this book, the next generation's spokesperson for the Covey dynasty, Stephen M. R. Covey, tells us what trust means as well as provides plenty of examples of how important trust is when it comes to delivering business performance.

M.R. uses the "ripple effect" metaphor with Self at the center and waves rippling from the inside out to describe the "5 Waves of Trust." Using this metaphor, the first trust wave is Self-Trust (credibility driven), then comes the Relationship-Trust (consistent behavior driven) wave, an Organizational-Trust (alignment driven) wave, a Market-Trust (reputation driven) wave, and finally a Societal-Trust (giving back or contribution driven) wave.

Staying with the emphasis on managing `Self' first, Covey then provides the substance of the Self-Trust wave; the 4 cores of Credibility - integrity, intent, capability, and results. For the Relationship-Trust wave he identifies 13 critical behaviors. With the remaining trust waves, the dialogue continues the book's main theme - understanding the cost of mistrust and the value of trust - as it discusses organizational alignment, market reputation, and societal contribution. As M.R. says, "the dividends of trust can significantly enhance the quality of every relationship on every level of your life". If you doubt that, read this book.

The Ultimate Trust Model.......2007-08-23

I speak around the world on building Trust in Selling. "The Speed of Trust" gives you a roadmap on how to master trust and the real economic value of trust.

Stephen gives you insights that anyone can use in their quest to excel at building trust in business relationships.

The Speed of Trust gets to the core roots of integrity and how 'trusted' leaders and organizations thrive.

Everyone should make the time to read this book."

Joe Heller, Trust Cycle Selling

Author Lost My Trust Immediately, So Why Would I Listen To Anything He Has To Say?.......2007-08-01

I checked out this book from the library, read the 1st chapter - then immediately put it by the door so I could return it the next day. Why? Mr. Covey has no credibility himself. At least not with me. Here's why.

The 1st Chapter is basically his How I Learned About The Importance Of Trust saga. The problem is that it's an unintentional unmasking of a narcissist. His only admitted mistake in establishing trust with the Franklin side of the Franklin-Covey merger is his assumption that all the Franklin people were as well-informed on how great he is as the Covey people.

Mr. Covey then proceeds to take things further by showing how stricken he is with Rich Offspring Disease. He expresses shock that anyone assumed he was in top position at Covey just because of his name. Apparently Mr. Covey wants us to believe that he was interviewed for his job at Covey by people who had No Idea he was related to THE Covey family. Please.

Mr. Covey is one more person who has been handed the keys to the corner office without having to earn it first. His family is free to do that if they like. However, swallowing his insistence that he would've had the job even if he hadn't been related is too much to swallow.

A man who can't admit he's gotten breaks in life is not a man who can be trusted. Nor is he a man who knows much about trust. At least that's my opinion.

I guess we're also intended to believe that Mr. Covey got his book deal the hard way - soliciting agents and publishing houses with an unsolicited manuscript, with no help from or trading on the connections of his famous author father. Just like J.K. Rowling.

Does someone who trades in these delusions sound like he understands real, lasting trust and credibility?

The Power of Alignment: How Great Companies Stay Centered and Accomplish Extraordinary Things

Average customer rating:

As significant today as it was when first published
This Is a Great Resource!
Make Sure That Everything You Do Points To Success !
Powerful Organizational Focus
Alignment is Key Essential Usually Overlooked

The Power of Alignment: How Great Companies Stay Centered and Accomplish Extraordinary Things
George Labovitz , and Victor Rosansky
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Strategy & Competition | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Decision-Making & Problem Solving | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Systems & Planning | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Human Resources & Personnel Management | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Organizational Change | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

All Amazon Upgrade | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Business & Investing | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Business & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0471177903

Book Description

Misaligned companies, like cars out of alignment, can develop serious problems if not corrected quickly. They are hard to steer and don't respond well to changes in direction. This groundbreaking book shows you how to get -and keep -all the vital elements of your organization aligned and headed in the same direction at the same time.

Managers must now keep their people centered in the midst of change, deemphasize hierarchy, and distribute leadership by distributing authority, information, knowledge, and customer data throughout their organization. Alignment is a response to the new business reality where customer requirements are in flux, where competitive forces are turbulent, and where the bond of loyalty between an organization and its people has been weakened. The old linear approach to management has given way to one of simultaneity -to alignment.

As pioneers of the alignment concept, the authors have developed this unique approach based on their work with leading companies throughout the world. The Power of Alignment is packed with war stories and the firsthand perspectives of industry leaders. You'll learn how world-class organizations, including Federal Express, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Columbia/HCA Healthcare, Citizens Utilities, AirTouch, and UNUM achieved extraordinary business results. Now, through the authors' expertise, you'll see how alignment can work for your organization.

In essence, alignment links the five key elements of an organization -people, process, customers, business strategies, and, of course, leadership -to obtain breakthrough results, chief among them, sustained growth and profit, loyal customers, and a high-performing work force. The Power of Alignment:
* Offers a clear framework for aligning and linking the crucial elements that build and sustain a company's success
* Provides self-assessment tools as well as benchmarking measures for evaluating an organization's critical competencies
* Enables managers to create a work force where each employee can relate his or her activities to the goals and strategic objectives of the company
* Helps a company determine when and where it is out of alignment, and gives descriptions of such common company pathologies as "The Phantom Limb Syndrome," "Strategy Interruptus," and "Dead Man Walking"
* Prescribes specific steps for getting an organization back on track toward a single, shared vision of its goals

Essential reading for all managers and executives, The Power of Alignment offers a new way to reestablish focus and sustained energy, and is a dynamic approach for staying balanced and achieving extraordinary levels of performance.

"This book is savvy, detailed, timely, and clearly written. I highly recommend it for any leader facing the challenges posed by global business today." - Dana Mead Chairman and CEO, Tenneco Former Chairman National Association of Manufacturers

"It's not only the stars that have to be in alignment to reach your destination, it's all the internal processes, rewards, and drivers. Read The Power of Alignment, and while you may not unlock the secrets of the universe, you will overcome the barriers to corporate success." - William L. Boyan President and COO John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company.

"This important book goes beyond TQM and reengineering by creating a new approach called Alignment. The authors show that great companies manage to link strategy and people and integrate customer needs with continuous improvement processes." - Peter Augustsson President and Group Chief Executive AB SKF.

"The Power of Alignment gets to the heart of a critical element of organizational leadership, namely focus. Every leader who reads it will undoubtedly do some serious soul-searching about the consistency of corporate vision, goals, management systems, and incentive mechanisms." - Louis E. Lataif Dean Boston University School of Management.

Customer Reviews:

As significant today as it was when first published.......2007-08-26

After reviewing several books on Strategic Execution, I was continuously left with the feeling that the authors had ommitted a key ingredient. This book has convinced me that that key ingredient was "Alignment".
This book was published 10 years ago (OK, I am embarrassed that I have only just got around to reading it) but it is as significant today as it was when it was first published. Probably more so considering the rapid state of change that most companies are faced with today.
It is a simple read, and the concepts are easy to follow. What I enjoyed most about the book is that the suggestions are practical and you can take them and implement them immediately within an organization.
I noticed that one of the readers who has reviewed the book said that the book was required reading for his MBA course. 10 years on, I still think it should be required reading for any business executive.

This Is a Great Resource!.......2007-07-10

I'm always looking for visual ways of understanding critical elements of strategy. The Power of Alignment offers a very helpful way of thinking about four important ingredients in keeping the main thing, the main thing. Vertical alignment, the relationship between your strategy and the people on your team, "energizes...provides direction, and offers opportunity for involvement." Horizontal alignment refers to the connection between your processes and customers. Taken together the two measures provide some great insight into the development of genuine alignment.

One of the most interesting elements of the book is a 16 question diagnostic tool that is designed to provide a graphic view of your organization's alignment. Very helpful!

Make Sure That Everything You Do Points To Success !.......2006-05-03

Great book! The basic premise is that once a business has a raison d'etre, or a 'main thing', that profits are maximized by the alignment of four key business areas: Strategy, Processes, People, and Customers. Built on this premise are actionalbe ways to build a self-aligning organization. I got the sense of discovering truth while I read this book. Leadership isn't really about power, it is about responsibility. This book shows a manager at any level how to align his area to the overall strategy of the company and to the end products of the company. It shows how processes should be designed and what factors should be used to reward, recognize and evaluate employees. Great food for thought and realistic to implement.

Five Stars

Powerful Organizational Focus.......2003-05-28

Quite simply, this book was one of the best business management and leadership books I have ever read. It was well-written and expertly balanced management and leadership concepts with real-world examples of effectively aligned organizations, such as Federal Express and Southwest Airlines. This book should be read and discussed by leaders and managers at all levels, especially by mid- to senior-level executives.

In brief, alignment deals with the relationships among the people, processes, strategy, and customers of an organization relative to that organization's purpose, or what the authors called "the main thing." Alignment is both a noun, a state of being, and a verb, a set of actions. Vertical alignment connects organizational strategy with the people responsible for transforming that strategy into meaningful work. Horizontal alignment deals with understanding your customers' wants and then creating processes to deliver what your customers want, when and how they want it. Effective leadership nurtures the organizational culture that is built around and upon "the main thing," and it is this culture and leadership combination that drives and sustains self-aligning organizations in turbulent times.

The authors' analogy of landing a plane helped me to visualize the dynamics involved with organizational alignment. To land a plane, a pilot must adjust and react to multiple simultaneous factors and conditions (i.e. air speed, altitude, angle of approach, wind speed and direction, etc.) and then understand how a change in one will affect the others. Likewise, to align an organization, a leader must adjust and react to feedback about his people, processes, strategy, and customers, and then understand how a change in one will affect the others.

The authors clearly and thoroughly explained the alignment factors and conditions throughout the book. They followed their explanations with incisive questions for readers to ask about themselves and their organizations to assess their degree of alignment. Those questions were definitely a highlight of the book for they really helped to stimulate my thinking and should help inspire organizational progress to alignment. Another highlight was the appendices that contained examples of actual tools and products used and created by some of the aligned organizations studied by the authors.

The inside back cover jacket sums up why I give the book my highest recommendation: "Essential reading for all managers and executives, "The Power of Alignment" offers a new way to reestablish focus and sustained energy, and is a dynamic approach for staying balanced and achieving extraordinary levels of performance."

Alignment is Key Essential Usually Overlooked.......2001-07-13

I found this book easy reading, concise, and presented it's basic premise well with specific examples and good suggestions for creation and implementation.

Working as a Director in Managed Care for several pharmaceutical companies, it creates a focus for any organization and a roadmap for the future(physician, health plan, pharmaceutical company) to avoid many of the mistakes and pitfalls that have already been experienced in an attempt to align with the ever changing healthcare landscape.

For those who do account management, it provides a construct and roadmap to use to optimize alignment with internal customers and maximize resources to create value and return with the external customers (....and their customers.) As the authors point, alignment is a continuing process, not a single event in time. Many companies become quickly aligned with the past, and misaligned with the present & future, and can not sustain the competitive edge because they forget this basic premise that the authors reinforce.

The concepts are basic and fundamental, but usually overlooked and forgotten in the day to day business of rapidly growing companies and changing environments.

Average customer rating:

loved it

must like stores like radio shack

Useless - not worth the money

Greasy Kids' Stuff

More for kids

Sneaky Uses for Everyday Things: How to Turn a Penny into a Radio, Make a Flood Alarm with an Aspirin, Change
Cy Tymony
Manufacturer: Andrews McMeel Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Reference | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Experiments & Projects | Experiments, Instruments & Measurement | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
Look Inside Science Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Sneakier Uses for Everyday Things: How to Turn a Calculator into a Metal Detector, Carry a Survival Kit in a Shoestring, Make a Gas Mask with a Balloon, ... a Styrofoam Cup into a Speaker, and Make

Backyard Ballistics: Build Potato Cannons, Paper Match Rockets, Cincinnati Fire Kites, Tennis Ball Mortars, and More Dynamite Devices

Gonzo Gizmos: Projects & Devices to Channel Your Inner Geek

The Art of the Catapult: Build Greek Ballistae, Roman Onagers, English Trebuchets, and More Ancient Artillery

Electronic Gadgets for the Evil Genius : 28 Build-It-Yourself

ASIN: 0740738593

Book Description

Do you know how to make something that can tell whether the $20 bill in your wallet is a fake? Or how to generate battery power with simple household items? Or how to create your own home security system?Science-savvy author Cy Tymony does. And now you can learn how to create these things¿and more than 40 other handy gadgets and gizmos¿in Sneaky Uses for Everyday Things. More than a simple do-it-yourself guide, this quirky collection is a valuable resource for transforming ordinary objects into the extraordinary. With over 80 solutions and bonus applications at your disposal, you will be ready for almost any situation. Included are survival, security, self-defense, and silly applications that are just plain fun.You¿ll be seen as a superhero as you amaze your friends by:¿ Transforming a simple FM radio into a device that enables you to eavesdrop on tower-to-air conversations.¿ Creating your own personalized electronic greeting cards.¿ Making a compact fire extinguisher from items typically found in a kitchen pantry.¿ Thwarting intruders with a single rubber band.By using run-of-the-mill household items and the easy-to-follow instructions and diagrams within, you¿ll be able to complete most projects in just a few minutes. Whether you use Sneaky Uses for Everyday Things as a practical tool to build useful devices, a fun little fantasy escape, or as a trivia guide to impress friends and family, this book is sure to be a reference favorite for years to come.

Customer Reviews:

loved it.......2007-10-13

an intesting book on home made things. I like most dissign exept the one that trips a camra. If i was a burgler i would take the camra. survival sution rives the boy scout book it sulf. i was and still is a very happy with book and plan to buy the whole sires.

must like stores like radio shack.......2007-06-15

This book describes how to make gadgets. If you already know about electricity and magnetism and basic physical science, buy this book and impress your young cousins/nephews/ nieces. there is survival stuff like collecting water from plants, safety stuff like making a fire extinguisher, and cool stuff like building a magnetic ring or wand to do things (hence the radio shack title).

Also a good purchase for budding mad scientist and science teacher.

Useless - not worth the money.......2007-05-23

I found this book to be useless and lacking in creativity. I think I'm actually dumber for reading the section on how to connect things. It says to twist wires together or tape things together. I hate the fact that my first review is negative, but I felt compelled to write because I don't want others to be as disappointed as I was.

Greasy Kids' Stuff.......2007-03-10

Color me disappointed. This would be a fun book for pre-teens to early teens, but the Make magazine / Burning Man crowd should stay away. Anyone with a basic grasp of physics or electronics probably won't find much to astound or amaze here.

More for kids.......2007-01-05

The theme of this book is more for kids with nothing to do and have a little MacGyver in them. Not a bad bathroom read, but I don't really see myself ever using more than one or two of the projects described in the book. The theme is more for sneaking around which may be better for child thieves than survival tips.

The Lawyer's Career Change Handbook: More Than 300 Things You Can Do With a Law Degree, Updated and Revised

Average customer rating:

Excellent Resource
Repetitive Rehash
Good Resource That WIll Make You Think
Packed With Great Information
This book can be a LIFECHANGER!

The Lawyer's Career Change Handbook: More Than 300 Things You Can Do With a Law Degree, Updated and Revised
Hindi Greenberg
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Job Hunting & Careers | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Guides | Job Hunting & Careers | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Job Hunting | Job Hunting & Careers | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Law | Subjects | Books

General | Legal Education | Law | Subjects | Books

Legal Profession | One-L | Law | Subjects | Books

Accessories:

ResumeMaker Deluxe 7.0

ASIN: 0380795728

Book Description

There Are More Than One Million Lawyers in America

A law degree is not necessarily a ticket to succes, wealth and happiness. Perhaps it's dissatisfaction with the hours, the firm, or the work itself, but every year, more and more lawyers want out. Now there's a real-world primer that can help virtually anyone in this position. Wheather you're merely considering a change or firmly committed to one, The Lawyer's Career Change Handbook provides all the tools and information you need. A surprising number of lawyers in this country have discovered that a law degree is not necessarily a ticket to wealth, success and happiness, and now they want out.

Hindi Greenberg -- founder and president of Lawyers in Transition -- has written an indispensable quidebook for those in that position. Chock full of helpful advice, exercises, listings of resources and real-life stories, The Lawyer's Career Change Handbook provides all the tools needed to help the unsatisfied many who are either considering a new career or actively pursuing one.

This one-of-a-kind volume can help legal professionals identify, target, and get new jobs that best suit their abilities, background, personality and interests, while offering them ways to cope with the inevitable stress of changing fields. And those who wish to remain in the law world will discover invaluable methods for creating more satisfaction in their current fields, for exploring other areas of the law that they may not have previously considered, and for determining if a solo or small practice is the right way to go.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Resource.......2006-03-26

I purchased "The Lawyer's Career Change Handbook" along with other books written for people who have (or will soon have) law degrees, but are not sure they want to practice law. This book has been an invaluable tool in helping me realize where I want to go with my life. What I like most about it is that it includes exercises to make its readers think critically about their own skills, interests, and requirements in the workplace. I find that the book is very practical, and although I am just begining my job search, it has been helpful as a tool to prioritize what I'm looking for in an employer.

When considering whether to purchase this book, I read some highly critical reviews, but bought the book anyway. If you are serious about looking for a job which is more suited to you, I would encourage you to buy it too - and read it with a pencil and pad of paper close at hand.

For those of you who, like me, are very frustrated with law - whether you are already practicing or not, I want to share this passage, which summed up everything I feel about my experiences in the field of law. On page 12, Hindi Greenberg writes:

"One of my clients recently wrote a stinging evaluation of law practice, listing the things he dislikes. In his words: 'I disilke (1) the interpersonal nastiness of litigation, (2) the combatitiveness of litigation, (3) the win-at-all-cost attitude of litigation, (4) the crisis mentality of litigation, (5) that my goal is to defeat my opponent and my opponent's goal is to defeat me, (6) the pressure of being expected to do work that my oponent can never criticize - an absolutely unrealistic expectation, (7) that I am always around people who are angry at someone, (8) that I cannot be fair or reasonable, as I see fairness and reason, but have to fight for every advantage I can get out of a situation, (9) that I cannot spend my life working with a group of dedicated people to achieve a common goal but instead must constantly fight other people to achieve success.'"

Particularly with respect to number 7, this has been my experience over two summers of clerking for law firms.

The afternoon before I began reading this book, I went out for coffee with a fellow law student. I tried to explain to her all of the reasons that I am uninterested in a career as a lawyer - but no matter what I said, she was adamant that I will be able to find a fulfilling legal career, telling me, "not all law firms are like the ones you have worked for. There are plenty of areas of law where you never have to fight at all. There are better lawyers to work for. There are better areas of law to practice in." This book made me realize that I'm not being subborn or overly emotional, or closed-minded about career options. I am grateful to Hindi Greenberg for showing me that I am not alone, and that, frankly, there is nothing wrong with me for not wanting to spend the next 30 or 40 years of my life fighting for a living, or trying to do perfect work which can never be criticized.

In addition to giving me much-needed affirmation that I am not being an idiot, because being a lawyer is not for everyone, this book provides many practical tools for developing a job search, and for finding a career which suits my personality.

Another great resource in this book is the resume writing guide. As a first year law student, Career Services held a (mandatory) resume-writing workshop, teaching us how to make legal resumes - which are vastly different from non-legal resumes. On the brink of looking for a non-legal job, I found myself perplexed as to what a non-legal resume was supposed to look like. This book has examples of functional resumes versus legal resumes, as well as interviewing tips which I found to be infinetly more helpful than the tips provided by Career Services over the past few years.

I was very happy with this book, and would highly recommend it to anyone who is unhappy with his or her legal career, and definetly to law students who find themselves wondering whether there might be more worthwhile careers out there.

Repetitive Rehash.......2003-09-03

This is a book like the dozens of other career change ones out there - you can find this information in publications from years ago, and with much better advice. No new information, and would only help lawyers who would lack the imagination to think of "legal publishing" or "in-house counsel" as career options. Truly unhelpul.

Good Resource That WIll Make You Think.......2003-06-21

When I picked up this book I knew that I had always had an interest in law, but was unsure if I wanted to work for a law firm. Before going to law school I wanted an idea of exactly what my options might be after school.

This book helped me a lot. I have not made a final decision, but I am definitely closer than when I picked up the book. The two most helpful sections to me were the assessment exercises that helped me think about what skills I have and the last 2 sections on actual jobs available.

If you just want someone to tell you what job is right for you then don't choose this book. If you want/need to think about yourself, your life, your skills, and what you want your job and your life to be then this book is a tool that will help you on your journey.

Packed With Great Information.......2003-06-13

As a psychologist who works with lawyers, I have found this book to be an invaluable resource for my clients. It addresses the full range of issues that confront someone questioning whether to leave a legal career altogether or to switch to a different legal environment. No book should give clients the "answer" to their dilemma, and this one does not pretend to. I have found it extremely helpful in how it poses important questions to consider, offers wise advice, and provides in-depth help with resources and information. My clients have found it reassuring, encouraging and informative. It's an inexpensive resource that every lawyer or law student considering a shift in career direction should review.

This book can be a LIFECHANGER!.......2003-05-07

I read ýThe Lawyerýs Career Change Handbook,ý and found Ms. Greenbergýs ideas and advice extremely useful. I found the self-assessment exercises, which most of us lawyers try to avoid, extremely helpful in clarifying why my previous work was unsatisfying and in what direction I needed to move in order to find work that would better fit my needs. The job ideas, extensive resource listings, and insightful comments by Ms. Greenberg also greatly benefited me in deciding upon my next career incarnation. The final assist was when I consulted individually with Ms. Greenberg. She gave me creative guidance, solid advice and wonderful support to pursue my current work. ... She is an insightful, generous human being.

Confronting Reality: Doing What Matters to Get Things Right

Average customer rating:

Play Where the Puck Is Going to Be
Strategic solutions for a familiar problem
Confronting Reality : Doing What Matters to Get Things Right
Look! A FOREST!!!
Excellent Business Book!

Confronting Reality: Doing What Matters to Get Things Right
Larry Bossidy , and Ram Charan
Manufacturer: Crown Business
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Organizational Change | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Confronting Reality: Doing What Matters to Get Things Right | Top 30 | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1400050847
Release Date: 2004-10-19

Amazon.com

In their 2002 bestseller, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan identify why people don't get results: they don't execute. Bossidy and Charan are back with another stellar study on organizational behavior that shows how companies can succeed if they return to reality and examine every part of their business. Confronting Reality is based on a simple concept, but many companies approach strategy and execution in a surprisingly unreal manner and even the simplest of measurement methods, like the business model, are not applied correctly.

Cisco, 3M, KLM, Home Depot, and the Thomson Corporation are just a few of the companies that Bossidy and Charan examine. To demonstrate how to examine a business using the business model, Bossidy and Charan map out external variables, financial targets, internal activities, and an iteration stage (defined as a time to "make tradeoffs, apply and develop business savvy") to prove how a dynamically evolving business model will help improve performance.

"The version of the business model we have developed is a robust, reality-based process for thinking about the specifics of your business in a holistic way. It shows you how to tie together the financial targets you must meet, the external realities of your business and internal activities such as strategy development, operating tactics, and selection and development of people."

Larry Bossidy, retired chairman and CEO of Honeywell International and Ram Charan, author of What the CEO Wants You to Know and Profitable Growth Is Everyone's Business, have once again shed industrial-strength light on how to run a successful business. --E. Brooke Gilbert

Amazon.com Exclusive Content

Amazon.com Interview: Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan

Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan are back with Confronting Reality to show how companies can succeed if they get back to reality and examine every part of their business. Amazon.com senior editor E. Brooke Gilbert interviewed Bossidy and Charan to discuss the current business climate, their new book, and future projections.
Read the interview.

Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan Discuss the Airline Industry

Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan discuss the airline industry's failure to confront reality based on a recent Wall Sreet Journal article and their new book as a backdrop.
Read their comments.

Book Description

Confronting Reality will change the way you think about and run your business. It is the first book that shows how to connect the big picture of the new era of business with the nitty-gritty of what to do about it. Through a completely new way to understand and use the business model as the primary tool for confronting reality—a breakthrough that will become the management innovation of this decade—you’ll know sooner rather than later whether your fundamental business premise is under assault, where your best opportunities lie, what you should change and what you should leave alone, and how to realistically plan the future of your business.

The fundamentals of how a business makes money are being rapidly and permanently altered by sweeping structural changes. With their extraordinary depth and breadth of experience, Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan are the ideal guides for everyone—entrepreneur, mid-level manager, or CEO—about what is to be done so you can get things right in this challenging, radically changed world. They start by showing you how to understand the most fundamental element of any business: whether you can realistically make the money you hope to in the game you’re playing.

Bossidy and Charan show how to use the business model to develop a robust, reality-based process for thinking about the speci?cs of your business in a holistic way. They show how to tie together the financial targets you must meet, the external realities you face, and internal activities such as strategy development, operating tactics, and selection and development of people.

Through the lens of the business model, as well as the skillful use of initiatives and development of people with the right leadership characteristics, you’ll see how Robert Nardelli at Home Depot, Jim McNerney at 3M, Dick Harrington at the Thomson Corporation, Michael Wisbrun at KLM, Joseph Tucci at EMC, and John Chambers at Cisco confronted reality. Whether they faced crisis or opportunity, all made the right kinds of changes through a combination of business savvy (the art of understanding the fundamentals driving a business) and business model thinking.

Customer Reviews:

Play Where the Puck Is Going to Be.......2007-10-06

"Avoiding reality is a basic and ubiquitous human tendency," write Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan. Leaders often tilt that way also and lack the discipline to confront reality. They comment, "Exercising the power of realism requires an open and inquisitive mind, intense curiosity, the intellectual ability to sort out complexity, the ability to persuade others, and--undergirding it all--the courage of inner strength. People who lack these qualities can't be considered leaders. They should look for other work." Yikes!

This is no quick-read novelette with three points and a poem. It's a thinking person's serious book with an innovative business model as the reward for your reading diligence. When programs, products and services all start to look alike (cell phones, music, churches, hamburgers, conferences, airlines, eNewsletters, etc.) the authors quote IBM's CEO with this warning, "Either you innovate or you're in commodity hell."

Why do leaders fail to confront reality and change? There are six habits of highly unrealistic leaders, suggest Bossidy and Charan: 1) Filtered information, 2) Selective hearing, 3) Wishful thinking, 4) Fear, 5) Emotional overinvestment and 6) Unrealistic expectations of capital markets.

How can you anticipate change before it's too late? The authors reference hockey great Wayne Gretsky's famous answer, "A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be."

Strategic solutions for a familiar problem.......2006-12-11

Authors Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan start with what you know: the business world has dramatically, irrevocably changed. Companies confront the new reality of globalization, free capital flows and powerhouse retailers. The book's strength lies in its relentless insistence on a basic fact that business leaders know but have apparently been trying to deny: you must see the economic world as it really is. This is not new. You know the ground has shifted, but have you figured out everything that you need to do now? Most of today's business models describe how companies made money in the past - but survival now requires more than a model based on the old economy. You need that elusive, intuitive attribute Bossidy and Charan call "business savvy." Even if they can't quite seem to nail down a precise definition, their case studies illustrate how this super sense works, and why you need it. We recommend their book to managers and executives who want to learn how to rethink their businesses in today's environment.

Confronting Reality : Doing What Matters to Get Things Right.......2006-03-13

Clearly a reality check around the problems we all face as our customers and shareholders expectations are changing. In reviewing three major telecom institutions, Larry reminds us of the fundementals of we are in business. It's a good model for use when we're looking in the mirror at our own situation.

Definately worth the investment to read.

Look! A FOREST!!!.......2006-01-11

Instead of peicemealing a business to death: strategy, marketing, finance, etc. Bossidy and Charan give us a view of a whole business, from the chair of the savvy Entrepreneur or that of the CEO. They show hot to fit all the peices of a business together.

Bossidy and Charan use well-known examples and analyze the pitfalls and successes of these examples (Home Depot, Walmart, Thompson) according to a three-part business model: external environment, internal operations and financial targets. They also show you how to integrate by juggling the three simultaneously!

This was a great introductory book to orient businesspersons of any trade, level and experience to the whole shebang of business.

But. . .

Truthfully, i have read this 'business model' stuff before, with more depth and more analysis. I read the book "The Escher Cycle" by F. Jackson a couple of years back. That book goes into much more detail about most of Bossidy and Charan's three-part business model. Couple that book with "Value Migration" and you'll have a much better handle on the hurly-burly world of business.

Excellent Business Book!.......2005-12-25

Confronting Reality" is a gold-mine of perspective on how to get an organization properly focused - starting by confronting reality. It belongs on the bookshelf of every manager with bottom-line responsibility.

Bossidy begins by stating that any plan for a business has to answer three questions: 1)What's the nature of the game we're in? 2)Where is it going? 3)How do we make money in it? Incredibly, says Bossidy, in many organizations they rarely get asked, much less adequately answered.

Strategic plans of most companies don't work. A key reason is that little time, if any, is spent harmonizing the facts of the external environment, the financial targets that are set, and the internal capabilities of the business. People with a well-developed sense of business savvy seldom have a strategy ahead of time - instead, they devise their strategies as a means of meeting financial targets, not the other way around.

Buyers have much greater power today than in past years. Globalization + overcapacity (in many business lines) have shifted power to large buyers and intermediaries (Wal-Mart).

Questions that help detail the answers to the first three include: 1)Is the how of making money in my business and industry changing? 2)Who is winning in my industry, who is not, and why? 3)How, specifically, are the winners making money? 4)If my business is a winner, what do I need to do to stay on top? Conversely, if I need to change my game, what specifically should I be doing? 5)Am I in a growth industry or not? If not, and I want to continue, how do I change it or play it better than the competition? 6)Is my organization moving quickly to spot and take advantage of growth opportunities generated by these changes? 7)How do major customers see my products? 8)Am I bound by legacy costs (eg. pensions, healthcare) that make competing difficult?

Bossidy then identifies behaviors as common causes of failure to confront reality. (President Bush needs to read this section VERY CAREFULLY.) 1)Filtered Information: Possibly due to getting information only from those with the same point of view - typically in organizations looking at the world from the inside out rather than outside in. 2)Selective Hearing: The most common reasons are preconceived notions or the arrogance of past success. 3)Wishful Thinking: The merger will succeed because we need it to work (or have the best people on it). 4)Fear: Some tyrants fire people for disagreeing with them; more common is a situation where companies force-rank executives and use "attitude" as one of the criteria.

Summarizing - a well thought-out framework for realistic planning is provided by a highly credible former top executive.

True Change: How Outsiders on the Inside Get Things Done in Organizations

Average customer rating:

A refreshing new look at change

True Change: How Outsiders on the Inside Get Things Done in Organizations
Janice A. Klein
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Organizational Change | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

All Amazon Upgrade | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Business & Investing | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0787974730

Book Description

Drawing on her own long-term research and extensive work experience, Janice Klein reveals how the power of people (insiders who are able to see problems from outsider's perspective), approach ("pulling change"), and system (support infrastructure) combine to turn new ideas and concepts into institutionalized practices. In particular, certain people inside organizations "outsiders on the inside" are key to driving innovation, adaptation, and real change. Using examples from leading companies in MIT's Leaders for Manufacturing (LFM) and System Design and Management (SDM) Partnership -- such as Boeing, Intel, Motorola, Alcoa, Ford, Kodak, and others -- she shows how employees at all levels can learn how to become "an outsider on the inside," and be in the right place at the right time to discover opportunities to "pull" into their organization. Throughout, we grow to understand the perspectives of numerous "outsiders on the inside," by hearing their voices and observing their actions. The strategy Klein provides is relevant for any company that hopes to build a change capability, rather than attempt only to manage change.

Download Description

Worldwide shipments of new comput" The Emotionally Intelligent Nurse Leader offers nurse managers, health care leaders, and emerging leaders a useful guide for identifying, using, and regulating their emotions (emotional intelligence). As the author clearly demonstrates, harn Building Donor Loyalty is a hands-on guide written for professional fundraisers that outlines the factors that drive donor retention, explains how to keep donors committed to an organization, and offers suggestions for developing donor value over t Drawing on her own long-term research and extensive work experience, Janice Klein reveals how the power of people (insiders who are able to see problems from outsider's perspective), approach ('pulling change"), and system (support infra

Customer Reviews:

A refreshing new look at change .......2004-11-01

This is a book for anyone interested in improving either their company, their career or their effectiveness in an organization. Although the examples come primarily from manufacturing, the concepts are equally applicable to my business which is financial services. Whether you are in senior management or an entry level employee, this book will give you a new perspective on how to facilitate the process of change within your organization and make you more valuable. Enjoy!! A worthwhile book that is easy to read and has specific ideas you can use.

Don't Give Me That Attitude!: 24 Rude, Selfish, Insensitive Things Kids Do and How to Stop Them

Average customer rating:

A Little Helpful
Not so great
An action-oriented book for parents who are sick of ATTITUDE
Realistic & practical ways to boost kids' character.
Highly Recommended For All Parents

Don't Give Me That Attitude!: 24 Rude, Selfish, Insensitive Things Kids Do and How to Stop Them
Michele, Ed.D. Borba
Manufacturer: Jossey-Bass
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Discipline | Parenting | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books

General | Parenting | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books

General | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Parenting Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Accessories:

Health o Meter HDC100-01 "Grow with Me" Teddy Bear Scale for Babies and Toddlers

ASIN: 0787973335

Book Description

Does your kid never take no for an answer and demand things go his way?
Do her theatrics leave you drained at the end of the day?
Are you resorting to bribes and threats to get your kid to do chores?
Does he cheat, complain, or blame others for his problems?
Do you feel you’re running a hotel instead of a home?
Are you starting to feel like your child’s personal ATM machine?

What happened? You thought you were doing the best for your child and didn’t set out to raise a selfish, insensitive, spoiled kid. In her newest book, Don’t Give Me That Attitude! parenting expert Michele Borba offers you an effective, practical, and hands-on approach to help you work with your child to fix that very annoying but widespread youthful characteristic, attitude. If you have a child who is arrogant, bad-mannered, bad-tempered, a cheat, cruel, demanding, domineering, fresh, greedy, impatient, insensitive, irresponsible, jealous, judgmental, lazy, manipulative, narrow-minded, noncompliant, pessimistic, a poor loser, selfish, uncooperative, ungrateful, or unhelpful, this is the book for you!

Download Description