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Larry Bossidy is one of the world's most acclaimed CEOs,
a man with few peers who has a track record for delivering
results. Ram Charan is a legendary advisor to senior executives
and boards of directors, a man with unparalleled insight
into why some companies are successful and others are not.
Together they've pooled their knowledge and experience into
the one book on how to close the gap between results promised
and results delivered that people in business need today.
After a long, stellar career with General
Electric, Larry Bossidy transformed AlliedSignal into one
of the world's most admired companies and was named CEO
of the year in 1998 by Chief Executive magazine.
Accomplishments such as 31 consecutive quarters of earnings-per-share
growth of 13 percent or more didn't just happen; they resulted
from the consistent practice of the discipline of execution:
understanding how to link people, strategy, and operations,
the three core processes of every business.
Leading these processes is the real job
of running a business, not formulating a "vision"
and leaving the work of carrying it out to others. Bossidy
and Charan show the importance of being deeply and passionately
engaged in an organization and why robust dialogues about
people, strategy, and operations result in a business based
on intellectual honesty and realism.
The leader's most important job -- selecting
and appraising people -- is one that should never
be delegated. As a CEO, Larry Bossidy personally makes the
calls to check references for key hires. Why? With the right
people in the right jobs, there's a leadership gene pool
that conceives and selects strategies that can be executed.
People then work together to create a strategy in sync with
the realities of the marketplace, the economy, and the competition.
Once the right people and strategy are in place, they are
then linked to an operating process that results in the
implementation of specific programs and actions and that
assigns accountability. This kind of effective operating
process goes way beyond the typical budget exercise that
looks into a rearview mirror to set its goals. It puts reality
behind the numbers and is where the rubber meets the road.
Putting an execution culture in place is
hard, but losing it is easy. In July 2001 Larry Bossidy
was asked by the board of directors of Honeywell International
(it had merged with AlliedSignal) to return and get the
company back on track. He's been putting the ideas he writes
about in Execution to work in real time.
Larry Bossidy is chairman and former
CEO of Honeywell International, a Fortune 100 diversified
technology and manufacturing leader. Earlier in his career
he was chairman and CEO of AlliedSignal, chief operating
officer of General Electric Credit (now GE Capital Corporation),
executive vice president and president of GE's Services
and Materials Sector, and vice chairman of GE.
Ram Charan is a highly sought advisor
to CEOs and senior executives in companies ranging from
start-ups to the Fortune 500, including GE, DuPont, EDS,
and Colgate-Palmolive. He is the author of What
the CEO Wants You to Know and Boards
That Work and the coauthor of Every
Business Is a Growth Business.
Dr. Charan has taught at both the Harvard Business School
and the Kellogg School of Northwestern University.
Charles Burck is a writer and editor
who collaborated with Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan. Earlier
in his career he was an editor at Fortune
magazine.
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