Book Description
Whether challenged with taking on a startup, turning a business around, or inheriting a high-performing unit, a new leader's success or failure is determined within the first 90 days on the job.
In this hands-on guide, Michael Watkins, a noted expert on leadership transitions, offers proven strategies for moving successfully into a new role at any point in one's career. The First 90 Days provides a framework for transition acceleration that will help leaders diagnose their situations, craft winning transition strategies, and take charge quickly.
Practical examples illustrate how to learn about new organizations, build teams, create coalitions, secure early wins, and lay the foundation for longer-term success. In addition, Watkins provides strategies for avoiding the most common pitfalls new leaders encounter, and shows how individuals can protect themselves-emotionally as well as professionally-during what is often an intense and vulnerable period.
Concise and actionable, this is the survival guide no new leader should be without.
"Few companies develop a systematic 'on-boarding' process for their new leaders, even though this is a critical function with major organizational implications. Michael Watkins's The First 90 Days provides a powerful framework and strategies that will enable new leaders to take charge quickly. It is an invaluable tool for that most vulnerable time-the transition."
-Goli Darabi, Senior Vice President, Corporate Leadership & Succession Management, Fidelity Investments
"Every job-private- or public-sector, civilian or military-has its breakeven point, and everyone can accelerate their learning. Read this book at least twice: once before your next transition-before getting caught up in the whirl and blur of new faces, names, acronyms, and issues; then read it again after you've settled in, and consider how to accelerate transitions for your next new boss and for those who come to work for you."
-Colonel Eli Alford, U.S. Army
"Watkins provides an excellent road map, telling us what all new leaders need to know and do to accelerate their learning and success in a new role. The First 90 Days should be incorporated into every company's leadership development strategy, so that anyone making a transition in an organization can get up to speed quicker and smarter."
-Suzanne M. Danielle, Director of Global Leadership Development, Aventis
"Michael Watkins has nailed a huge corporate problem and provided the solution in one fell swoop. The pressure on new leaders to hit the ground running has never been greater, and the likelihood and cost of failure is escalating. Watkins's timing with The First 90 Days is impeccable."
-Gordon Curtis, Principal, Curtis Consulting
"The First 90 Days is a must-read for entrepreneurs. Anyone who's been the CEO of a start-up or early-stage company knows that you go through many 90-day leadership transitions in the course of a company's formative years. In this groundbreaking book, Michael Watkins provides crucial insights, as well as a toolkit of techniques, to enable you to accelerate through these transitions successfully."
-Mike Kinkead, President and CEO, timeBLASTER Corporation, serial entrepreneur, and Cofounder and Trustee, Massachusetts Software Council
Customer Reviews:
Good way to get prepared.......2007-07-04
It just makes sense, and is very thorough. Many things I would not have thought about, or gotten around to thinking about - we live in such a fast paced world that it would have been a challenge to do. Luckily, I had a cross country trip, so this gave me the time to read this book and compile my "list" of notes and apply them to my upcoming job change. Bottom line - many good new perspectives that I simply would not have thought of. Highly recommended.
Practical and Actionable. It is an excellent book on the subject of management transitions........2007-06-22
As a human resources professional, I have seen a great deal of management transition. Many succeed but some do not. Unfortunately for our people and our organizations those that do not leave a stream of damage in their wake.
Recently I wrote a review about Scott Eblin's, "The Next Level" and I called it a real disappointment. This book is not and it is a far more actionable and practical approach to managing transitions.
One of the reasons this book is so practical is that each section not only provides you with clear direction but each section also ends with an action checklist. This make creating a 90-day transition plan doable and improves your prospects for success.
Lastly, the steps from this book create a framework that a company can use to create a "transition strategy" for all its new and upwardly moving managers. This alone will enable a firm to increase their odds that a new hire or promotion will be in the "win" column.
*****First 90 Days.......2007-06-10
I only ordered this for a superior and he is VERY VERY happy with the book...he asked for it by name so we ordered three copies! Thank you for the great service you provide.
A Must Read.......2007-05-30
Great book for all business leaders who are advancing to a new role or coming from the outside into an organization. Simple, easy to read with pertinent lessons for a successful transition.
Some great tips, but often not well developed or organized.......2007-05-28
We bought this book along with the "New Leader's 100-Day Action Plan" and read them side by side.
Pro:
-"STaRS" concept is excellent. Start-ups, Turnarounds, Realignments and Sustaining success are all different scenarios that you might be thrown into, and the environment you join directly affects what you need to do.
-Checklists are helpful, when available, to boil thoughts down to the most essential elements
-There are many good tips interspersed throughout the book that are good reminders of the basics you need to adhere to in order to be successful
-Breaks the "sink or swim mindset" often associated with starting a new position
Con:
-Does not really address the time opportunity BEFORE you start a job and in my experience is a major lost opportunity that I've been able to surprise and delight. Set up pre-meetings, arranging for email/phone and a place to sit, etc. as a chance to listen and learn without the pressure to perform. Any items that can/should be done ahead of time appear to me as afterthoughts, underdeveloped, and often out of sequence in this text.
-Would not serve as a handy reference... better chapter summaries and a stronger introduction with time lines and meaty chapter outline would have been helpful both now and in the future
-I think that many good concepts like "STaRS" were underdeveloped or under leveraged... I sense more detail that was perhaps omitted
-To me, many of the illustrations were filler and did not offer additional information
-Sometimes poor or awkward word choice or idea sequence (e.g. rather than "Promote Yourself" why not just call it "Prepare Yourself" as this is what you are really saying, so why not just say it that way?)
-Real life examples were unnecessarily detailed, consuming time and space that I think could be better used by the author as he's clearly brilliant and has some great observations
-I think that the scope is too narrow, picks up after you've started the job (day 1) and neglects the opportunity (and chaos) beforehand of the interview, moving, doing "pre-work" to get your basics at work set-up
Bottom line: While there were some interesting moments, I was disappointed. The book does offer several cautionary tales of CEOs who crashed and burned, and if nothing else serves as both warning and motivation to be smarter about your transition.
Book Description
A short, up-to-date, practical and readable guide to strategy formulation, this book is designed for practicing executives who are getting ready to assume broader responsibilities. By focusing on strategic thinking and using real-life examples and historical references, this book is a must-read for the serious executive strategist. The first chapter defines strategy and its effect on a corporation's effectiveness; and then in subsequent chapters covers the external strategic environment, the analysis of a firm's physical assets, the development of a competitive strategy, different industry environments, corporate strategy and competition, different strategy choices, global strategy, and implementing and controlling a chosen strategic direction. For CEOs, senior executives, general managers, vice-presidents, divisional managers, and consultants.
Customer Reviews:
Can get a perspective through overview of strategy.......2007-10-15
This book is very helpful to get a understanding about strategy.
Because of this book offers quick review whole about strategy.
Brief and to the Point.......2007-10-02
The book is a concise exposition of the most important concepts and techniques in strategic management. The book provides a sound overview of strategic management, focusing on basic concepts and their application in the real world of business. The book covers all the essential topics in strategic management such as environmental scanning, industry analysis, strategy formation, competitive strategies, strategy implementation and global strategy.
Those interested in strategic management and corporate strategy will find the book useful and handy. This is particularly the case with the busy executives who need a concise book packed with all the useful concepts that can be applied in formulating strategies in their organizations.
All-in-all, a short but readable textbook filled with ideas and strategies to help managers become more competent, effective and valuable to their organizations.
Didn't do me any good........2007-01-09
It was a book required for my MBA course, but it speaks to what seems like common sense. Read the Wall Street Journal if you want some insight on real world strategy.
An overview of concepts used in Business Strategy.......2005-12-08
This book is a good overview of the several approaches used in the discipline of Business Strategy. It covers most of the current approaches and concepts.
Usually the major concepts are presented with sufficient detail so that it is possible to understand the basics. The concepts and tools related to strategy are put in the context that is most applicable, i.e., scenario analysis is part of Chapter 2 - Change and Uncertainty in the External Strategic Envinronment.
A good thing is that the book reduces "the marketing or hype" around some tools or concepts to its real dimension or importance, helping the practioner understand its applicability in real world situations.
I would say the book is a good introduction on the topics covered and can be used both as a starting point or an overview by an experienced person that has been exposed to a particular set of techniques and concepts and wants to complements his/her knowldedge.
Good reference for modern strategy theories.......2002-12-17
Thin (140pages), but comprehensive introduction of strategy theories from SWOT to Porter's thoughts. Best to capture the concept of Strategy.
Book Description
In this groundbreaking book, Mary O'Hara-Devereaux -- an internationally renowned business forecaster -- shows how organizations can hone their competitive edge during these uncertain times. Using the metaphor of traveling through the badlands of the American West, Navigating the Badlands offers the principles, tools, transformative strategies, and essential understanding executives and business leaders need if they are to weather the rugged, global business landscape of the future. Throughout the book O'Hara-Devereaux reveals how business leaders can seize the opportunity to create new value from successful alliances, reach global markets, and find top talent.
Download Description
In this groundbreaking book, Mary O'Hara-Devereaux -- an internationally renowned business forecaster -- shows how organizations can hone their competitive edge during these uncertain times. Using the metaphor of traveling through the badlands of the American West, Navigating the Badlands offers the principles, tools, transformative strategies, and essential understanding executives and business leaders need if they are to weather the rugged, global business landscape of the future. Throughout the book O'Hara-Devereaux reveals how business leaders can seize the opportunity to create new value from successful alliances, reach global markets, and find top talent.
Customer Reviews:
Navigating the Badlands.......2007-01-17
I have tracked the global environment for over twelve years and have learned much more about this environment by reading Mary O'Hara-Devereaux's book. In my opinion, it's a must read for educators and business professionals.
Highly Recommended!.......2005-04-11
Every few hundred years, the Western world takes itself apart and puts itself together again. Peter Drucker observed that this process of dissolution and reconstitution occurs so decisively that, afterward, people who live in the new world cannot even imagine the world of their parents or grandparents. Author Mary O'Hara-Devereaux believes that we are about three-quarters through a 75-year period of such disruptive innovation. She calls the transition "the Badlands." Like the barren Dakota Badlands of the Old West, they are a painful trial that makes or breaks people, and either way leaves them with a new sense of identity. The author identifies several distinct transitional pains for which she prescribes an equal number of palliatives. Her analyses and prescriptions can be thought provoking, though they are seldom trail blazing. While the book may be more smoke than fire, we find that smoke signals can be useful for the long-range vistas in the Badlands. (And, by the way, the author includes a chapter on China that seems almost as parenthetical as this sentence, though interesting enough. In reality, China looks like the pivot point of Badlands transitions, and how it comes through may affect how your neighborhood comes through, as well.)
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.
Book Description
Creativity, new ideas, innovation -- in any age they are keys to success, but in today's whirlwind economy they are essential for survival itself. Yet, as Robert Sutton explains, the standard rules of business behavior and management are precisely the opposite of what it takes to build an innovative company. We are told to hire people who will fit in; to train them extensively; and to work to instill a corporate culture in every employee. In fact, in order to foster creativity, we should hire misfits, goad them to fight, and pay them to defy convention and undermine the prevailing culture. Weird Ideas That Work codifies these and other proven counterintuitive ideas to help you turn your workplace from staid and safe to wild and woolly -- and creative.
Stanford professor Robert Sutton is an authority on innovation and a popular speaker. In Weird Ideas That Work he draws on extensive research in behavioral psychology to explain how innovation can be fostered in hiring, managing, and motivating people; building teams; making decisions; and interacting with outsiders. Business practices like "hire people who make you uncomfortable," "reward success and failure, but punish inaction," and "decide to do something that will probably fail, and then convince yourself and everyone else that success is certain" strike many managers as strange or even downright wrong. Yet Weird Ideas That Work shows how some of the best teams and companies use these and other counterintuitive practices to crank out new ideas, and it demonstrates that every company can reap sales and profits from such creativity.
Weird Ideas That Work is filled with examples of each of Sutton's 11 1/2 practices, drawn from hi- and low-tech industries, manufacturing and services, information and products. More than just a set of bizarre suggestions, it represents a breakthrough in management thinking: Sutton shows that the practices we need to sustain performance are in constant tension with those that foster new ideas. The trick is to choose the right balance between conventional and "weird" -- and now, thanks to Robert Sutton's work, we have the tools we need to do so.
Download Description
Creativity, new ideas, innovation -- in any age they are keys to success, but in today's whirlwind economy they are essential for survival itself. Yet, as Robert Sutton explains, the standard rules of business behavior and management are precisely the opposite of what it takes to build an innovative company. We are told to hire people who will fit in; to train them extensively; and to work to instill a corporate culture in every employee. In fact, in order to foster creativity, we should hire misfits, goad them to fight, and pay them to defy convention and undermine the prevailing culture. Weird Ideas That Work codifies these and other proven counterintuitive ideas to help you turn your workplace from staid and safe to wild and woolly -- and creative. Stanford professor Robert Sutton is an authority on innovation and a popular speaker. In Weird Ideas That Work he draws on extensive research in behavioral psychology to explain how innovation can be fostered in hiring, managing, and motivating people; building teams; making decisions; and interacting with outsiders. Business practices like "hire people who make you uncomfortable," "reward success and failure, but punish inaction," and "decide to do something that will probably fail, and then convince yourself and everyone else that success is certain" strike many managers as strange or even downright wrong. Yet Weird Ideas That Work shows how some of the best teams and companies use these and other counterintuitive practices to crank out new ideas, and it demonstrates that every company can reap sales and profits from such creativity. Weird Ideas That Work is filled with examples of each of Sutton's 11 1/2 practices, drawn from hi- and low-tech industries, manufacturing and services, information and products.
Customer Reviews:
Weird and Wonderful.......2007-07-20
"Weird Ideas That Work" works! This is one of the most compelling books I've read in a long time. Sutton manages not only to come up with ideas that seem weird at first glance, but to actually prove them useful and logical at the same time.
The author instructs readers on how to build a creative company by using his 11½ weird ideas, which range from hiring people who make you uncomfortable to deciding to do something that will probably fail. The list looks hilarious until you read the sense that he makes. Of course, Sutton points out that there are different kinds of companies - some aim for innovation and some for efficiency. (He makes it clear that the weird ideas are not for those who require precision -- like airline pilots, for example!)
This book explains how to shatter old habits by giving advice on enhancing variation, seeing old things in new ways ("vu-ja-de"), and breaking away from stifling routines. Sutton also points out that one should not go hog wild - there is a balance between productivity and creativity which everyone must find for themselves.
"Weird Ideas" offers great wisdom mixed with humor and pure entertainment. If you're a rebel, a brat, or just plain anyone who wants to try completely new management techniques, then you'll love this book. So whip the tablecloth right out from under that crippled, jaded system you've got going and try at least a few of these wild weird ideas.
Agitate, Isolate & Be Ridiculous... Oh, and AGITATE.......2006-12-01
I was a big fan of Sutton's Knowing-Doing gap that offered a real solution to a real problem. This book had an unreal feel to it for me though.
He offers 12 practices for fostering innovation. The first four of these have to do with Human Resources. Hire slow learners. Hire people that make you feel uncomfortable. Hire people you probably don't need. Now forgive me if I am wrong, but as imperfect as Human Resources is anyway, don't we already do some of that? Also recommended is to interview job applicants to get new ideas. What about the people?
The next two have to do with office manners. Encourage people to ignore and defy superiors. Isn't ignore a little strong? Find some happy people and get them to fight. No comment.
The next is to reward success and failure, but punish inaction. OK, we already fire non-producers, but is it really so that success and failure deserve the same billing?
The next two are on the edge of silliness. Decide to do something that will probably fail and be 100% certain of its success. Think of some ridiculous or impractical things to do.
The next is avoid, distract and bore customers and critics.
Then, don't try to learn anything from people who say they have solved the problems you face.
Finally, forget the past success of the company.
This book says some pretty wild things that will get you thinking. Although these counterintuitive ideas are offered as 'proven', you won't find the proof in this book. By the normal lottery of hiring, you will certainly get a mix of the above. There are many better books on the philosophy and practical application of innovation available.
Sorry to disappoint some with this review, but don't let this stop you from reading Sutton's Knowing-Doing Gap which I found excellent and have also reviewed it here on Amazon.
3 Stars
Routine right and wrong.......2006-10-24
All activities need both effective routine and regular innovation. Consider the difference. There are times when it makes sense to do the same thing right, over and over again, without slipping. But there are also times, and types of activities, where doing something in a very new and different way is essential. The real-life examples in this book support these 11½ methods for finding new ways of doing things, and producing new kinds of products and services. Worthwhile reading for anyone who wants to inject a little spice into the routine of software development and delivery.
Productive New Concepts.......2005-11-23
This is a wonderful but dangerous book. The 11 and 1/2 weird ideas it contains are terrific, exciting and slippery. Use them right and you could transform your company into a hotbed of innovation. Use them wrong and you could also transform your company into a disorganized mess. Author Robert I. Sutton clearly explains that some situations do not require innovation - that they are, in fact, terrible settings for new things. Companies focus on the routine for an extremely logical reason: it makes money now. Identifying situations that can make money with routine work versus circumstances that require change is a tough distinction, particularly since innovation requires many failures, disrupts your culture and forces you to take a rough look into the future. We thus recommend this book to a select group: those who know their fields and organizations extremely well. If you can see clearly through both the current jargon that promotes innovation and your organization's often unspoken prejudices, you will find this book exciting and extremely productive.
Not so weird ideas for innovation labeled weirdly.......2005-11-16
This book is a useful and fun read. It offers some solid ideas for innovation but the ideas are labeled in order to draw attention. For instance, the first idea is, "Hire "slow learners"", however the intention behind this is just hire stubborn people who are unaffected by others opinions and norms. These people will go against the standards and breed creativity. Another idea is "Find some happy people and make them fight" with the basic idea behind this technique being get optimistic people, who are naturally more creative. Put them in a room together and let them bounce ideas together until a new and improved idea is created.
Another thing to be prepared for with this book is that the ideas all go against commonly accepted business practices. That is because the ideas are admittedly not for present success but calculated and proven risks for future innovation. So anyone interested in changing their business and preparing to get an edge on competitors in the future will benefit from this book.
Book Description
Today's executive assistant has become a crucial member of every organization's support staff--a key business ally with diverse responsibilities, from overseeing employees to making strategic decisions. Here is the first step-by-step guide specifically designed to help you thrive in this fast-paced profession. Developed by nationally-known business consultatnt and author Melba Duncan, this leading-edge resource provides all the up-to-date information you need to manage information technologes, deal effectively with abrupt organizational changes and office politics, handle stress, resolve conflicts, motivate workers and forge a team mentality, master public relations and the media, capitalize on opportunities emerging from corporate restructuring, and more.
Customer Reviews:
Disappointed.......2007-03-20
This is another example of hearing "the same ole stuff." Can't some author get origional? This was so elementary and certainly not "NEW" information, as the title suggests.
Outstanding insights from a former top assistant!.......2004-07-01
This book has helped so many people! It's perfectly brilliant.
I think it's insane that reviewers are commenting on publisher's type-o's instead of commenting on how significant this book really is. Obviously, Ms. Duncan proofed her own book and after meeting Ms. Duncan at an event, I mentioned the reviews about the errors in the book. Ms. Duncan and her staff has tried desperately for years to demand that the book be reprinted. Some things unfortunately are out of one's hands, and I recognize this after years of being a journalist. Look at the NY Times! And every other book on your shelf! They all have errors!
Ms. Duncan has been instrumental in the salary increases, and gaining recognition for this truly unique role! I recommend this book to anyone in the role or considering it!
Interesting Read.......2000-07-19
I thoroughly enjoyed Ms. Duncan's book. I found it an easy read, packed with lots of excellent information.
As with the other reviewer I was extremely disappointed in the skills test in the back of the book. Missing questions, answers to questions that weren't printed.
I wonder if Ms. Duncan has read her own book? Did she review the skills test information in the back before it was published? If the fault lies with the publisher, I hope she got her money back. I also hope she'll do a re-print with the skill test corrected because I found it very helpful in identifying weak areas in my own skill set.
I've been an Executive Secretary/Assistant for the past ten years. Often a good assistant is taken for granted. I appreciated Ms. Duncan's affirmation that my job is more than a job, it's a career and that not just anyone can be a good assistant.
If you can get past all the problems with the skill test in the back of the book, I think you'll find the content extremely interesting, insightful, and motivating.
Talk About Ironic!.......2000-05-11
I just finished reading this book about the "new executive assistant". Of course it emphasizes attention to detail, checking your work, accuracy, etc. Upon completing the extensive skills test in the back of book, I was horrified to find the following blatant errors: 1. In the vocabulary section, the questions skip from #56 to #61, yet in the answer section, these questions do appear. 2. The proofreading section fails to point out periods that are missing at the end of two sentences. Here's the kicker: 3. When I went to check my answers for the spelling section, I discovered that there were only two answers out of 110 questions. To top, there were answers for #110 - 122, which didn't exist in the first place.
OK, can anyone find a proofreader at McGraw Hill to catch these types of errors? How can anyone take this book seriously? The other person who reviewed this book obviously did not read the whole thing. What a disappointment! I do recommend another book that I read. It's called The Valuable Office Professional by Michelle Burke. She is right on the money. There are some more in-depth self-evaluation tests, which go much further than vocabulary and grammar skills. I also got some information about her consulting service, which I am trying to convince management our company needs. That's my summary of this book. Good luck with your administrative careers no matter who you are or where you live!
Ms. Duncan has written a mentoring masterpiece!.......1999-02-06
"The New Executive Assistant" is a must-read for aspiring or seasoned executive assistants, their bosses, and everyone in between.
Ms. Duncan doesn't just advise you to develop a proactive rather than a reactive approach to your administrative career, she guides you to discovering both what you want out of life and what your career can provide. She covers all the important bases for surviving in today's fast-paced world: learning to adapt to change (technical and cultural); mastering the fundamentals of communicating what you really mean; tapping into your management and leadership potential; handling both yourself and others in conflict situations; promoting yourself, your boss, and your company; and regaining your spiritual "center". Most importantly, however, Ms. Duncan asks wether or not you are cut out to be an executive assistant. Life is too short to just have a job; whatever it may be, find a career that works for you, challenges you, and fits your personality.
Packed with objective insights, advice, and enjoyable witticisms, "The New Executive Assistant" delivers. I found in this one book what countless seminars and 50-minute training series have not been able to provide; I found truely usable, relevant insights and information. Ms. Duncan has created a mentoring master piece for executive assistants (and anyone who wants to understand them)!
Book Description
A step-by-step guide for developing an operational plan that identifies specific results to be achieved within a set period of time, and for implementing and assessing every phase of the plan. Offers a simple, logical approach that can be adapted to any size or type of business.
Customer Reviews:
Basic equals Best.......2005-02-23
Having read all about Balanced Scorecard, right through to the latest offering in Strategy Maps. Having looked at the Performance Prism and its implications. And, having looked at many other strategic and operational planning texts, all (still) put into some semblance of context in Mintzberg's The Rise and Fall of STrategic Planning, I can only conclude that many have lost their way in a morass of confusion.
The jump from strategy to implementation remains for most, as always, an unbridgeable chasm.
The incredible hand waving arguments in most "planning guidance" texts when we get to the nitty gritty of deciding major strategic themes and how "normal" core business integrates with those themes - assuming we can abandon everything else, or simply ignoring the relationship ala BSC - never ceases to amuse me. The summary that all this is more art than science is so true!! What an understatement.
The Executive Guide to Operational Planning and the earlier The Executive Guide to STrategic Planning may not be the most sophisticated, most current thinking going around, but, I think they are at the start of a path which points in the right direction as far as useful planning guidance is concerned. Use these and integrate latter efforts into them (BSC, Performance Prism, etc) may actually lead to something better. It is a pity, the authors didn't follow up with their third book in the trilogy - The Executive Guide to Results Management ... or whatever they were going to call it. The three books would have formed a solid foundation for the future on which others could build.
I suspect that the simplicity of the "Executive Guides" put off too many people. I suspect their reaction was: "It can't be this simple." And it's not. What is simple, is marking the start of the journey. Most other books can't even do that!! That, dear reader, is what I believe this book and its Strategic Planning companion does.
a very basic explanation of operational planning.......2001-06-12
The ideas this book covers are still valid in 2001, but it is quite basic compared to today's "state of art" knowledge. Still, most of the idea's of measuring, made "famous" by The Balanced Scorecard, where already present in this book. It includes criteria for writing objectives and detailed action plans and mentions key reult areas and measurement. This probably explains why many other books refer to this work. If the book was repackaged as a "10 minute guide to opearional planning, and was priced accordingly, I'd still recommend it. Today, price/quality are out of balance.
Amazon.com
Massive change is hitting corporate America at a furious and escalating pace, writes Andrew Grove in
Only the Paranoid Survive, and businesses that strive hard to keep abreast of the transition will be the only ones that prevail. And Grove should know. As chief executive of Intel, he wrestled with one of the business world's great challenges in 1994 when a flaw in his company's new cornerstone product -- the Pentium processor -- grew into a front-page controversy that seriously threatened its future.
Book Description
Under Andy Grove's leadership, Intel has become the world's largest chipmaker, the fifth-most-admired company in America, and the seventh-most-profitable company among the Fortune 500. You don't achieve rankings like these unless you have mastered a rare understanding of the art of business and an unusual way with its practice.
Few CEOs can claim this level of consistent record-breaking success. Grove attributes much of this success to the philosophy and strategy he reveals in Only the Paranoid Survive--a book that is unique in leadership annals for offering a bold new business measure, and for taking the reader deep inside the workings of a major corporation. Grove's contribution to business thinking concerns a new way of measuring the nightmare moment every leader dreads--the moment when massive change occurs and all bets are off. The success you had the day before is gone, destroyed by unforeseen changes that hit like a stage-six rapid. Grove calls such moments Strategic Inflection Points, and he has lived through several. When SlPs hit, all rules of business shift fast, furiously, and forever. SlPs can be set off by almost anything--megacompetition, an arcane change in regulations, or a seemingly modest change in technology.
Yet in the watchful leader's hand, SlPs can be an ace. Managed right, a company can turn a SIP into a positive force to win in the marketplace and emerge stronger than ever.
To achieve that level of mastery over change, you must know its properties inside and out. Grove addresses questions such as these: What are the stages of these tidal waves? What sources do you turn to in order to foresee dangers before trouble announces itself? When threats abound, how do you deal with your emotions, your calendar, your career--as well as with your most loyal managers and customers, who may cling to tradition?
No stranger to risk, Grove examines his own record of success and failure, including the drama of how he navigated the events of the Pentium flaw, which threatened Intel in a major way, and how he is dealing with the SIP brought on by the Internet. The work of a lifetime of reflection, Only the Paranoid Survive is a contemporary classic of leadership skills.
Download Description
The founder of Intel, Andrew Grove is one of the great business leaders of our time--and 1997 "Time" magazine Man of the Year. Under Andrew Grove's leadership, Intel has become the world's largest chip maker and one of the most admired companies in the world.
Customer Reviews:
Waste Of Time.......2005-11-25
This is by far the worst business book I have read in recent years. It is hard to believe that Andy Grove actually thought that this material was worth putting into a book. As other reviews have said, this book at most should have been a short article in Business Week...but even then it would require some actual content to make it worth reading. The best part of the book is the quotes on the cover from Steve Jobs et al. It makes me wonder if they even read the book.
save several valuable hours of your life- skip this book.......2005-10-19
Maybe I haven't read enough "management" books (though I do have an MBA), but if this is considered "great" for this genre- WOW. This entire book could have been summed up in a couple pages without losing any major points, but I guess you can't have a bestseller that way! One reviewer said it was too technical. Are you living in a cave? I found it condescendingly written- absurdly simple and dumbed down. Granted, it's over a decade old, but I doubt everyone was really that much stupider ten years ago.
All Fear the Status Quo.......2000-07-20
Andy Grove has verbalized the mindset that we must all develop to survive in the 21st Century. While his idea of constantly looking over your shoulder has always been applicable, the speed of the Internet economy requires that we do it much more frequently and penalizes us much more quickly if we do not.
Grove does a great job of showing how one man's crises is another's opporuntity and uses the term strategic inflection points to describe these periods of 10x change.
This book is a good reminder for anyone who thinks that what made them successful to this point is any guarantee that they will be successful in the future.
Nothing new here.......2000-07-07
This is something that any first year business student could have written. It is a fast read but it provides no new insights.
Want to be a great manager - Go to West Point.......1999-12-02
I was very dissapointed by this book as a lesson in management. The lessons learned are basic management and military strategy that every CEO should now. i.e. Basic lessons from the book: include understanding the nature of the battlefield (6 forces that affect business), recognizing change (strategic intelligence), listening to the troops in the field, making sure you're not insulated from the bad news, seperate the noise from real intelligence, have the courage to make changes, issue clear orders, re-evaluate and adjust as conditions change, be prepared to replace the top management (not for incompetence, but to get fresh perspectives (change the old guard and the old ways of doing things), Realize that your company runs on the quality of middle management (i,e NCO and junior officers in the military). Give them clear goals and empower them to act. I have a lot of respect for Andy Grove, and the insights into his business was great, but if you want a good management book, read a military strategy manual. There's nothing new here.
Amazon.com
Management consulting is big business. Consultants often make very good money, and the good ones throw intriguing ideas on the table and get people excited about their work. But is any of their advice actually useful? Does it get implemented and lead to more productive workplaces? Chris Argyris thinks that most of it doesn't work, because it has too many "abstract claims, inconsistencies, and logical gaps to be useful as a concrete basis for concrete actions in concrete settings." No matter what managers hear from consultants, they ultimately resort to these five behaviors, according to Argyris: State a message that's inconsistent ("You're in charge of this, but check in with Steve"); act as if it's not inconsistent; make the inconsistency undiscussable; make the undiscussability undiscussable; act as if you're not doing any of the above. Flawed Advice and the Management Trap shows managers how to break out. He shows that a choice is sound when the emphasis is on facts and accumulated data and isn't influenced by the relative power positions of the people involved.
Top company managers and human-resources professionals will probably find this book most interesting. For them, the ideas in Flawed Advice and the Management Trap show the path away from a management style that breeds resentment and internecine warfare and points toward one that allows the facts to speak for themselves. --Lou Schuler
Book Description
Flawed Advice and the Management Trap: How Managers Can Know When They're Getting Good Advice and When They're Not is the first book to show how and why so much of today's business advice is flawed, and how managers and executives can better evaluate advice given to their firms Practitioners and scholars agree that businesses in the coming millennium will be managed differently than firms of the 20th century. And getting there from here, according to today's best advice, will require creative change. In this pioneering work, Argyris, one of the world's leading organizational thinkers, reviews a wide array of business advice from the best and brightest thinkers and consultants and concludes that as appealing as their ideas may be, most of them are simply not workable. They are too full of abstract claims, logical gaps, and inconsistencies, to be useful. And ironically, even when their recommendations are implemented correctly, the result is often failure. Why do these gaps in logic exist, and how can they be more effectively discovered? Applying a disciplined critique to numerous representative examples of advice about leadership, learning, change, and employee commitment, Argyris shows readers how to be more critical of the advice they are given, how to learn new approaches for appraising employee performance, and how to generate an internal commitment to values and better strategy. In our ever expanding global market, innovative business advice is at a premium, and giving this advice has become a lucrative industry in and of itself. This book provides the critical lens necessary to evaluate which advice is best for your organization.
Customer Reviews:
Very good!.......2003-07-06
This is another fine book by Argyris. I think this, in addition to "Strategic Organizational Change" by Beitler, is very helpful. (Beitler has an outstanding chapter on how to evaluate consultants.)
Valuable insight!.......2003-06-30
I recommend everything that Chris Argyris writes. This is no exception. This book has insight about management advice that reminds me of the work of Alfred Kieser at the University of Mannheim (Germany). I highly recommend the work of both Argyris and Kieser.
Dr. Michael Beitler
Author of "Strategic Organizational Change"
tools to examine advices.......2003-04-17
The author presents tools to examine advices from executives, change consultants, academics, etc., and offers four basic tests for the actionability of advice. The good advice should specify the detailed, concrete behaviors required to achieve the intended consequences; it must be crafted in the form of designs that contain causal statements; people must have, or be able to be taught, the concepts and skills required to implement those causal statements; and the context in which it is to be implemented does not prevent its implementation.
Argyris' theory of good advice, being highly practical and actionable, is based on the author's theoretical framework of "Model-II", exposed in his book "Organizational Learning II", co-authored with Donald Schoen.
The book does also contain a brilliant section about effective strategic choices, written by Roger Martin in very friendly tone. A high-quality strategic choice, according to Martin, possesses four key attributes: it is genuine; it is sound; it is actionable; and it is compelling. The section uncovers these principles in details.
The book shows the difference between external and internal employee commitment to the advices and helps to create and foster internal commitment.
You can test the actionability of the advices given in this book using these advices themselves.
I would recommend "Organizational Learning II: Theory, Method and Practice" prior to reading this book. I would also recommend "Leading the Revolution" by Gary Hamel in addition to these books.
Read this book after you read all the others...........2001-03-28
Since you have an idea what this book is about from the other reviewers, I'll stick to my opinion of it rather than rehash what others have written.
It helped me a lot to know a bit of Argyris' other works (see his articles in Harvard Business Review for the quickest review), and also, to have read the works he critiques. While he always has such superb insights, including asking all the right questions that expose gaps in the business guru's works, because of the writing style (what it leaves out and what jumps it makes), it requires a bit of background if you're not familiar with his main points.
In any case, anyone who fancies him/herself a business consultant, or anyone who gives advice in any context, professionally or even to partners/kids/neighbors, should check out what Argyris has to say. You may find that you're not having the effect you believe you are. And that effect is like waking up from sleepwalking down the middle of a dark but busy road at night, without a flashlight.
A Good Read!.......2001-03-20
Chris Argyris says that management advice - the content of countless seminars by management consultants and human resource professionals - rests upon a discrepancy. The goal of a more democratic workplace with empowered, internally-driven workers contradicts the actual actions executives take to produce this result. Argyris contends that much leadership, decision-making, corporate change and management advice lacks critical thinking. He urges executives to seek specific, testable, actionable advice. Role-playing and numerous examples show how advice givers may fail to understand the nature of the problems they're addressing. This book is valuable in helping managers identify flawed advice and understand why so many management initiatives fail. However, the author's own recommendations suffer from the same lack of testability. It just may not be possible to test for the effects of specific advice in complex situations. Still, this is an important book because it urges executives to think critically about the guidance they are given. We at getAbstract recommend this book to managers and to those who advise them.
Average customer rating:
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Strategic Management of Teams
David I. Cleland
Manufacturer: Wiley-Interscience
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Strategy & Competition
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ASIN: 0471120588 |
Book Description
STRATEGIC Management of TEAMS
"Those companies that learn the secrets of creating cross-functional teams are winning the battle for global market share and profits. Those that don't are losing out."âBusinessWeek
It's no secret that alternative teams are increasingly recognized as a highly effective means to improve quality and operational efficiency, decentralize authority, and motivate workers at every level of an organization. Less well understood, and rarely touched upon in the literature, is the fact that cross-functional teams are highly versatile strategic resources and key elements in the design and execution of strategic management initiatives.
In this book, noted author, scholar, and authority on team management, David Cleland, demonstrates that alternative, cross-functional teams are both critical to the management of change within an organization and building blocks in the design and execution of product/service and process strategy. He explores specific aspects of strategic team management and provides clear, concise recommendations on the design and implementation of team-based strategy.
Topics of particular interest include:
- Identification and discussion of alternative uses for teams in dealing with product/service and process changes within the organizations
- Using teams to encourage cross-functional and cross-organizational focus in the use of enterprise resources
- How teams can enable everyone in the enterprise to participate in the design, development, and implementation of strategies that will make the organization more competitive
- How the strategic use of teams changes organizational culture
- Coping with the negative aspects of teams
- How the use of teams has created "Teamocracy"âan organizational design driven by operational and strategic teams
Strategic Management of Teams is must reading for managers in industry, government service, or any large organization that must adapt continually to technological, economic, and social change. It is also an indispensable resource for students in industrial engineering, technology management, and business administration who wish to enter the job market armed with the very latest in management skills.
This eye-opening book reveals the enormous potential of alternative, cross-functional teams as forces for change within an organization and as building blocks in the design and execution of competitive strategy. It gives managers the tools, techniques, and information they need to integrate teams into the overall strategic plan of the organization.
Author David Cleland looks at teams from the point of view of a manager who envisions using teams as strategic devices in dealing with change. He explains how to determine whether and which teams should be put in place and how to make the most of them. He explains:
- How to prepare the enterprise for the creation of teams and prepare team players for their new roles in facilitating change within the organization
- How teams can sharpen the enterprise's competitive edgeâand how managerial roles must change to allow this to happen
- Specific team functions: reengineering through teams; self-managed production teams; benchmarking; concurrent engineering teams; sundry teams; and more
- The positive and negative impact of teams on corporate culture
- Results that teams have achieved for organizations that have implemented them
Books:
- The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels
- The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
- The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action
- The Minto Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing, Thinking, & Problem Solving
- The Minto Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing, Thinking, & Problem Solving
- The Restaurant Managers Handbook: How to Set Up, Operate, and Manage a Financially Successful Food Service Operation
- The Silva Mind Control Method
- The Six Sigma Way Team Fieldbook: An Implementation Guide for Process Improvement Teams
- The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing: A Guide to Growing More Profitably (4th Edition) (Pie)
Books Index
Books Home
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You're in Charge, Now What?: The 8 Point Plan
The New Leaders 100-Day Action Plan: How to Take Charge, Build Your Team, and Get Immediate Results
Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently
Right from the Start: Taking Charge in a New Leadership Role
