|
|
(Larger Image)
|
by Leonard L. Berry
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Free Press (1999-02-12)
ISBN: 0684845113
EAN: 9780684845111
Dewy Decimal #: 658.812
Hardcover: 288 pages
Edition: 1
SKU: 101308013
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: ...no markings or highlighting...light shelf wear on dustjacket
More Product Infomation
|
Editorial Reviews
|
Product Description
In a world where customers regard flawless products as a given, service is the key differentiator between competitors in any field. This wise and inspiring book by Leonard Berry, our leading service expert, moves far beyond his pioneering work in services marketing and service quality to explain how great service companies meet their toughest challenge: sustaining long-term success.From Berry's exacting study of fourteen mature, highly successful, labor-intensive companies comes an astonishing revelation: the single most important factor in building a lasting service business is not a matter of savvy business practice, but of humane values. In all fourteen award-winning companies -- Bergstrom Hotels, The Charles Schwab Corporation, Chick-fil-A, The Container Store, Custom Research Inc., Dana Commercial Credit, Dial-A-Mattress, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Midwest Express Airlines, Miller SQA, Special Expeditions, St. Paul Saints, USAA, and Ukrop's Super Markets -- values-driven leadership connects with strategic focus, executional excellence, control of destiny, trust-based relationships, generosity, investment in employee success, acting small, and brand cultivation to drive customer satisfaction, innovation, and growth. Dedicating a chapter to each of these nine drivers, this book is the most far-reaching and insightful vision ever presented of the principles and step-by-step actions that continuously bring success to life in a company. Berry's comprehensive model reveals the soul that underlies the strategies and day-to-day operations of great service companies, guiding the thousands of daily decisions of individual employees. Clear, compelling, pathbreaking, Discovering the Soul of Service is essential reading for managers everywhere.
|
Amazon.com Review
Leonard L. Berry examines some of America's great service companies and finds "nine drivers of excellence" that are behind them all. Discovering the Soul of Service looks at 14 diverse businesses, including the St. Paul Saints minor-league baseball team, Dial-A-Mattress, Midwest Express Airlines, and two of the world's fastest-growing service companies--Charles Schwab and Enterprise Rent-A-Car. "The lessons they teach are clear indeed," writes Berry, a marketing professor and director of the Center for Retailing Studies at Texas A & M University. "Although the companies differ on the outside--the nature, size and structure of their businesses--to a remarkable degree they are the same on the inside, sharing the drivers of their ongoing success." The "nine drivers" that Berry uncovers are the following: Leading with Values, Strategic Focus, Executional Excellence, Control of Destiny, Trust-Based Relationships, Investment in Employee Success, Acting Small, Brand Cultivation, and Generosity. Berry, whose previous books include On Great Service: A Framework for Action and Delivering Quality Service, writes that the basis of a successful service organization is value-driven leadership and "building a humane community that humanely serves customers and the broader community in which they live." Discovering the Soul of Service is inspiring--and potentially profitable--reading for anyone in business today. --Dan Ring
|
Customer Reviews
|
How and why humane core values sustain human service energy
Rating  (5)
Date: 2006-09-28
4 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
I recently re-read this book (1999) and Berry's previously published On Great Service (1996), curious to know how well they have held up since they were first published. My conclusion? Rock-solid. In fact, both books are even more relevant - and more valuable - now than they were when Leonard Berry wrote them. That is amazing...and commendable.
With regard to the title of this book, consider this brief excerpt from the concluding chapter: "Great service companies have a soul that underlies their strategies and day-to-day operations. The company's soul - its value system - is its foundational center, its inner core." Berry fully understands how difficult it is to achieve and then sustain a great service company, noting that such companies are "humane communities that humanely serve customers and the broader communities in which they live." Decision-makers, especially in companies which have problems attracting and then retaining the talented, skilled, and principled people needed, would be well-advised to consider very carefully the meaning and significance of Berry's concluding observation. The same can be said for companies which have problems keeping valued customers and don't know why.
As Berry explains, his purpose in this book is to identify, describe, and illustrate the underlying drivers of sustainable success in service businesses. Creating a successful service operation is unquestionably a difficult task...The greater involvement of people in creating value for customers, the greater the challenge." He examines 14 outstanding service companies which include The Container Store, the Charles Schwab Corporation, Chick-fil-A, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, the St. Paul Saints AAA baseball franchise, and USAA. He suggests what lessons can be learned from them. Although quite different in terms of their size and nature, they demonstrate the same nine drivers of success, to each of which Berry devotes a separate chapter.
One of his key points is that humane core values sustain human service energy as organizations grow and mature. When the "product" is a human performance, values-driven leadership is at the center of sustainable success. He focuses on often-neglected or under-appreciated basics and explains how the superior service to which the exemplary companies are wholly committed creates for each of them a significant, perhaps decisive competitive advantage. The core strategies seems obvious: focus on serving a specific market need rather than on marketing a specific product for that need, focus on serving underserved market needs, and focus on serving the chosen markets with executional excellence. When stressing the importance of "trust-based" relationships, Berry includes everyone involved in the given enterprise. Hence the importance of what he characterizes as "humane organizational values" and he correctly insists that such values depend on values-driven leadership which must permeate the organization, at all levels and in all areas of operation. Stable leadership stabilizes values and propels all other success sustainers.
Of special interest to me is what he has to say about Cora Griffith in Chapter 8, "Investment in Employee Success." She is a long-time waitress for the Orchard Café in Appleton, Wisconsin. According to Berry, she implements each day the nine rules of success: she treats each customer like family, she is an alert listener, she strives to anticipate her customers' wants, she is attentive to significant details ("simple things make the difference"), she "works smart" by constantly scanning all the tables, maintains an on-going effort to improve her skills while learning new ones, and is contented in her work. "Cora is a team player, an all for one, one for all employee." She takes great pride in her work. And credits her employers, Dick and John Bergstrom, for convincing her how important it is to take good care of each customer and who gave her the "freedom" to do it. How many service providers have you encountered lately who measure up to Cora Griffith's standards? The sad fact is that most service providers could but, for whatever reasons, don't.
It is to Berry's great credit that he recognizes the importance - and significance -- of the Cora Griffiths in this society at a time when most books which discuss superior customer service focus almost entirely on companies such Nordstrom, Ritz-Carlton, and Southwest Airlines. They are indeed exemplary organizations but two points need to be made: Each has its own significant number of Cora Griffiths, and, the same high level of customer service can be provided by all other organizations, even by a hotel restaurant in a small midwestern town.
With all due respect to Mies van der Rohe, God may not be in the details but "the soul of service" certainly is.
|
|
Great companies must give great service
Rating  (4)
Date: 2006-02-25
3 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
I read this book for a graduate marketing class, but it is a good read for any business professional out there. Why do companies succeed in the long-term? They find a way to put the customer first, time after time. And not just customers, but employees, suppliers, and other stakeholders as well.
|
|
Solid summary of Basics of Customer Service
Rating (4)
Date: 2004-08-23
3 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
"Excellent customer service" is a the frequent promise, which is SELDOM achieved. This book is a good guide to how the elements of really great customer service can be identified and cultivated in an organization. While it is directed more to the larger enterprise, the principles can be applied to small business also.
|
|
True, sustainable recipe for sucessful Customer Service
Rating (4)
Date: 2002-02-04
6 out of 7 customers found this reveiw helpful
It is very difficult for me to work with "interviews and case study" based books since they are almost invariably full of "brilliant" quotes and "success and beyond-duty" stories that, to say the least, sound too good as to be of a sustainable nature in real world. This book is based on experiences and what seems very solid research and, for sure, is not free of this type of passages; and yet, it is one of the most useful and often-referenced books that I own and work with. So, if you will yourself through it, you'll find one of the best and most down-to-earth books on Customer Service. The author identifies nine drivers that can make any organization successful, all of them emphasizing the human nature of the relationship with customers (customer-centered). It is truly a recipe for success, more easily applicable to on-going enterprises rather than to start-ups. From this book the reader can produce very useful check-lists to diagnose the company and its strategic practices regarding their service approach. It can also be used as a guiding document to move a company to a truly customer-awareness territory and, most important, to keep it there. Of special relevance is the author's brilliant exposition in the final chapter "Lessons from World-Class Service Companies", where the reader obtains a rarely seen synopsis of all the good things that excellent companies do "to sustain their excellence". If nothing else, this chapter by itself justifies buying this book and incorporating it to your professional library.
|
|
Insightful!
Rating (4)
Date: 2001-04-05
3 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
Leonard L. Berry takes an in-depth look at how service can sustain the success of a business in this detailed, footnoted exploration that includes plenty of interviews and examples from the business world. Written authoritatively, yet conversationally, this book outshines similar works because of its thoroughness. Far from a quick-fix, self-help business guide, the book is thoughtful and doesn't rely on the obvious. We [...] recommend it to managers and leaders in all businesses, particularly if your competitive edge rests on pleasing your customers.
|
(Larger Image)
|
by Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo
Product Group: Book
Publisher: University of California Press (2001-04-26)
ISBN: 0520226437
EAN: 9780520226432
Dewy Decimal #: 331.4816404608968079494
Paperback: 341 pages
Edition: 1
SKU: 051708004
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: ...No Underlining or Highlighting......some slight shelf wear....
More Product Infomation
|
Editorial Reviews
|
Product Description
As American women have entered the labor force in greater numbers, the traditional work of wives and mothers--cleaning houses and caring for children--has gradually moved into the global marketplace. Paid domestic work has largely become the domain of disenfranchised immigrant women of color. Unlike the working poor who toil in factories and fields, these women see, touch, and breathe the material and emotional world of their employers' homes. They scrub grout, coax reluctant children to eat their vegetables, launder and fold clothes, dust, vacuum, and witness intimate family dynamics. In this enlightening and timely work, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo highlights the voices, experiences, and views of Mexican and Central American women who care for other people's children and homes, as well as the outlooks of the women who employ them in Los Angeles.
All royalties from this book will be donated to the Domestic Workers' Association, a division of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA).
|
Customer Reviews
|
Consumers, not employers.
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-11-22
Hodagneu-Sotelo's poignant look at the lives of Latina immigrants in Domestica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the Shadows of Affluence, can be a source of enlightenment as well as a sort of "how-to" manual for any employer or employee in the nanny/housekeeper and house cleaning fields. The author argues that the women in these types of work continually battle for basic employee rights: adequate pay and set hours free from discrimination, harassment, and substandard working conditions. She addresses issues of long hours, unreasonable demands, alienation, and the reasons that the workers stay in these situations; fear of retaliation from employers and deportation.
Although a bit verbose, this book is packed with valuable information and resources that the reader is sure to use or be able to pass along to someone else. It is a meritable attempt at expressing the angst felt by Latina immigrants and the unresponsive attitude of the employer. It does tend to come across as a bit one-sided, due partly because not many employers or employees were willing to participate in her research efforts, but is still a great and easy read.
|
|
A hard read
Rating (4)
Date: 2005-11-22
4 out of 14 customers found this reveiw helpful
First let me begin by saying that this is an interesting read. You basically learn about domestic workers (live in nannies, home cleaners). The author gives you alot of information, in fact I would say that she gives you a plethora of information. As such it took me over a month to finish this book, and the fact.
Basically, the two problems I have with this book are 1. The author's monolithically leftist viewpoint (which seems to be common in books like this), 2. The hard time she has getting to the point. In particular comments like "Some feminist theorists, especially those influenced by Marxist thought, have used the term "social reproduction" or "reproductive labor"..." (Page 23) or "The United States has a long history of incorporating people of color through coercive systems of labor...slavery and contract labor systems...today, international labor migration and the job characteristics of paid domestic work" (Page 51)
Again the biggest problem I have with this book/writer is the use of a marxist/conflict theory filter in regards to analyzing domestic worker (as in us [domestic workers and their allies] vs them [middle class homeowners who employ domestic workers]). When if you actually take a moment, breath and impartially assess the facts the relationship is more of a symbiotic/functionalist/"we need each other" type deal in which two autonomous human beings are simply trying to work out a mutually beneficial arrangement.
Now what I do like... There is some great information presented in this book. 1. Domestic workers are entitled to minimum wage like normal employees and can sue for backwages. 2 Live-in housekeeper is a common first job of immigrants to the United States and as such is very important to economic integration of immigrants (legal and illegal alike).
Basically, you learn all about domestic work in all it's most interesting facets. An example being spoiled children who are hell for their domestic workers, and the situation is compounded because consciquences for bad behavior are underminded by the parents. Or usage of prozac and ritalin by parents for behavior modification of children and the avoidance of direct confrontation between domestic workers and their employees and many other interesting facts concerning the profession.
Because of how interesting this book is I'm giving it 4/5 stars (although I'm tempted to give it 3/5 because of the marxist rhetoric).
|
|
Domestic Labour: Research on the Haves and Have-Little.
Rating (5)
Date: 2004-11-10
13 out of 13 customers found this reveiw helpful
In Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo's Doméstica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the Shadow of Affluence, readers explore, along with the researcher, an oft overlooked element of domestic labour in America. In examining this particular manifestation between the haves and have little, Hondagneu-Sotelo has provided a "scholarly" treatment where Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed fell short. This is by no means an indictment of Ehrenreich's work, quite the contrary. Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed is approachable by the many levels of readers that seek to understand the phenomenon of the working poor and their interaction with affluent Americans (here, I speak specifically of Ehrenreich's chapter two titled "Scrubbing in Maine"). However, in Doméstica, Hondagneu-Sotelo has opted to focus her research on immigrant domestic workers, specifically Mexican and Central American women in Los Angeles. In so doing, her research provides insight into the minds and worlds of both parties who engage in what can easily be termed a "love hate" relationship; one where, out of necessity, both the employer and employees are in need of one another. In addition, Doméstica serves to highlight some of the struggles of members of America's largest "minority" population (be they documented or otherwise). While Hondagneu-Sotelo relegates her analysis and interviews to women in the Los Angeles area, this reviewer is of the opinion that her research may well be duplicated in other cities with similar populations and yield like outcomes.
Reading this work, I began pondering the future of work and workers and four questions came to mind: (1) As America becomes more diverse, will the question of immigrants holding less than desirable positions along the socio-economic margins become of increasing interest to researchers and politicians such that worker-friendly policies emerge? (2) If so, what forms will later policy manifestations assume? (3) What will such a shift mean for the future of economic relations between these two disparate groups? (4) Also, will America continue to marginalize employees that hold the critical job of caring for our young such that we ensure a future of troubled youth due to attachments to caregivers and the familial realities of economic and social stratification? History has shown if we ignore questions not unlike these, problems are sure to result.
Historically, "love labor" had been performed, initially, by captive African American women and later those under strict laws (Jim Crow) of mobility, both physical and social. With the relative ascension of African Americans into the socio-economic sphere of marginal acceptance in America, certain forms of work are left to the cheaper, and sometimes unpaid, labor force of immigrant women. Increasingly, such workers are admitted into affluent homes in America through informal networks. For this brief iteration, we consider Hondagneu-Sotelo's Part Two titled "Finding Hard Work Isn't Easy." Here, Hondagneu-Sotelo discusses the other worldly process where women in need of domestic workers and the women in need of domestic work come in contact with one another.
This "whole other world" is highlighted when Hondagneu-Sotelo writes, "most prospective employers looking for paid domestic workers in Los Angeles bypass employment agencies, newspaper ads, or other formal job announcements, which they find expensive, slow, and unreliable. Instead the majority rely on their co-workers, neighbors, friends, and relatives when they seek domestic help" (63). This in itself is telling in that it pulls from Granovetter's theory of the strength of weak ties as mentioned in Deirdre Royster's Race and the Invisible Hand. Applied to Hondagneu-Sotelo's work, there exist, in the domestic worker community, ties that allow for a potential employer in need of workers to gain access to a network of domestic workers with the ability to refer friends and/or family members to employers in need of domestic assistance. Additionally, such a process not only allows for a socially and economically unequal relationship to ensue and continue for years in some cases, it also provides the foundation for further entrenchment of unequal employee and employer relations rooted in economic exploitation.
Whereas many of these workers are not earning a living wage, some employers exercise great pains not to flaunt their affluence. In one telling moment, Hondagneu-Sotelo writes, "some employers try to snip off the price tags on new clothing and home furnishings before the Latina domestic workers read them because they fear the women will compare the prices of those items with their wages - which they invariably do. While some employers often feel guilty about 'having so much' around someone who 'has so little,' the women who do the work resent not their affluence but the job arrangements, which generally afford the workers little in the way of respect and living wages" (xi-xii). In this instance, we witness the uneasy but, to the employer, necessary relationship between the affluent employer and the unaffluent worker. Additionally, we note how workers, through Hondagneu-Sotelo's in-depth interviews, indicate that they would rather that requests come not "as a symbol of servitude and a humiliating affront" to one's dignity, but that their work is seen for what it is, essential to the functioning of the household in which they are employed (145).
In producing a work with statistical data on domestic labor in Los Angeles, coupled with the voices of women on both sides of the issue, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo has done an admirable job of broaching the subject of the uneasy relationship between affluent women who require domestic assistance and unaffluent immigrant employees that work and, in some cases, live among them. Of the many good points in this work, her in-depth interviews with employees and employers are most revealing. Not unlike the work of Ehrenreich in Nickel and Dimed and Katherine S. Newman in No Shame in My Game, Hondagneu-Sotelo allows readers to, as Newman suggested, gain a clearer understanding of the interconnections between people and networks that a purely quantitative work would not permit. That being said, this reviewer applauds Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo and her effort to provide a clearer understanding of the women we see on train platforms and in bus terminals that dot American cities and suburbs of affluence.
|
|
A window into a world largely invisible to most people
Rating (5)
Date: 2002-09-05
10 out of 10 customers found this reveiw helpful
Dr. Hondagneu-Sotelo's beautifully written work takes the reader into the world of Latina nannies and housekeepers, showcasing the women's own voices and perspectives while maintaining an academic's sharp-eyed analysis. She chronicles the difficulties of domestic workers while still acknowledging their ability to impact their own work environments. One of the strengths of Hondagneu-Sotelo's book is the analysis of class inequality, particularly the ways that employers awkwardly handle their own discomfort with their priviledge. Her conclusions, rather than knee-jerk dismissals of domestic labor, suggest ways that domestic employment can be viewed as the job it is. The author's thoughts on her own position to her research subject in the preface is worth the price of the book. This book recently won five awards from different sociological organizations, and deservedly so.
|
(Larger Image)
|
by Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo
Product Group: Book
Publisher: University of California Press (2001-04-26)
ISBN: 0520226437
EAN: 9780520226432
Dewy Decimal #: 331.4816404608968079494
Paperback: 341 pages
Edition: 1
SKU: 051708004
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: ...No Underlining or Highlighting......some slight shelf wear....
More Product Infomation
|
Editorial Reviews
|
Product Description
As American women have entered the labor force in greater numbers, the traditional work of wives and mothers--cleaning houses and caring for children--has gradually moved into the global marketplace. Paid domestic work has largely become the domain of disenfranchised immigrant women of color. Unlike the working poor who toil in factories and fields, these women see, touch, and breathe the material and emotional world of their employers' homes. They scrub grout, coax reluctant children to eat their vegetables, launder and fold clothes, dust, vacuum, and witness intimate family dynamics. In this enlightening and timely work, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo highlights the voices, experiences, and views of Mexican and Central American women who care for other people's children and homes, as well as the outlooks of the women who employ them in Los Angeles.
All royalties from this book will be donated to the Domestic Workers' Association, a division of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA).
|
Customer Reviews
|
Consumers, not employers.
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-11-22
Hodagneu-Sotelo's poignant look at the lives of Latina immigrants in Domestica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the Shadows of Affluence, can be a source of enlightenment as well as a sort of "how-to" manual for any employer or employee in the nanny/housekeeper and house cleaning fields. The author argues that the women in these types of work continually battle for basic employee rights: adequate pay and set hours free from discrimination, harassment, and substandard working conditions. She addresses issues of long hours, unreasonable demands, alienation, and the reasons that the workers stay in these situations; fear of retaliation from employers and deportation.
Although a bit verbose, this book is packed with valuable information and resources that the reader is sure to use or be able to pass along to someone else. It is a meritable attempt at expressing the angst felt by Latina immigrants and the unresponsive attitude of the employer. It does tend to come across as a bit one-sided, due partly because not many employers or employees were willing to participate in her research efforts, but is still a great and easy read.
|
|
A hard read
Rating (4)
Date: 2005-11-22
4 out of 14 customers found this reveiw helpful
First let me begin by saying that this is an interesting read. You basically learn about domestic workers (live in nannies, home cleaners). The author gives you alot of information, in fact I would say that she gives you a plethora of information. As such it took me over a month to finish this book, and the fact.
Basically, the two problems I have with this book are 1. The author's monolithically leftist viewpoint (which seems to be common in books like this), 2. The hard time she has getting to the point. In particular comments like "Some feminist theorists, especially those influenced by Marxist thought, have used the term "social reproduction" or "reproductive labor"..." (Page 23) or "The United States has a long history of incorporating people of color through coercive systems of labor...slavery and contract labor systems...today, international labor migration and the job characteristics of paid domestic work" (Page 51)
Again the biggest problem I have with this book/writer is the use of a marxist/conflict theory filter in regards to analyzing domestic worker (as in us [domestic workers and their allies] vs them [middle class homeowners who employ domestic workers]). When if you actually take a moment, breath and impartially assess the facts the relationship is more of a symbiotic/functionalist/"we need each other" type deal in which two autonomous human beings are simply trying to work out a mutually beneficial arrangement.
Now what I do like... There is some great information presented in this book. 1. Domestic workers are entitled to minimum wage like normal employees and can sue for backwages. 2 Live-in housekeeper is a common first job of immigrants to the United States and as such is very important to economic integration of immigrants (legal and illegal alike).
Basically, you learn all about domestic work in all it's most interesting facets. An example being spoiled children who are hell for their domestic workers, and the situation is compounded because consciquences for bad behavior are underminded by the parents. Or usage of prozac and ritalin by parents for behavior modification of children and the avoidance of direct confrontation between domestic workers and their employees and many other interesting facts concerning the profession.
Because of how interesting this book is I'm giving it 4/5 stars (although I'm tempted to give it 3/5 because of the marxist rhetoric).
|
|
Domestic Labour: Research on the Haves and Have-Little.
Rating (5)
Date: 2004-11-10
13 out of 13 customers found this reveiw helpful
In Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo's Doméstica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the Shadow of Affluence, readers explore, along with the researcher, an oft overlooked element of domestic labour in America. In examining this particular manifestation between the haves and have little, Hondagneu-Sotelo has provided a "scholarly" treatment where Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed fell short. This is by no means an indictment of Ehrenreich's work, quite the contrary. Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed is approachable by the many levels of readers that seek to understand the phenomenon of the working poor and their interaction with affluent Americans (here, I speak specifically of Ehrenreich's chapter two titled "Scrubbing in Maine"). However, in Doméstica, Hondagneu-Sotelo has opted to focus her research on immigrant domestic workers, specifically Mexican and Central American women in Los Angeles. In so doing, her research provides insight into the minds and worlds of both parties who engage in what can easily be termed a "love hate" relationship; one where, out of necessity, both the employer and employees are in need of one another. In addition, Doméstica serves to highlight some of the struggles of members of America's largest "minority" population (be they documented or otherwise). While Hondagneu-Sotelo relegates her analysis and interviews to women in the Los Angeles area, this reviewer is of the opinion that her research may well be duplicated in other cities with similar populations and yield like outcomes.
Reading this work, I began pondering the future of work and workers and four questions came to mind: (1) As America becomes more diverse, will the question of immigrants holding less than desirable positions along the socio-economic margins become of increasing interest to researchers and politicians such that worker-friendly policies emerge? (2) If so, what forms will later policy manifestations assume? (3) What will such a shift mean for the future of economic relations between these two disparate groups? (4) Also, will America continue to marginalize employees that hold the critical job of caring for our young such that we ensure a future of troubled youth due to attachments to caregivers and the familial realities of economic and social stratification? History has shown if we ignore questions not unlike these, problems are sure to result.
Historically, "love labor" had been performed, initially, by captive African American women and later those under strict laws (Jim Crow) of mobility, both physical and social. With the relative ascension of African Americans into the socio-economic sphere of marginal acceptance in America, certain forms of work are left to the cheaper, and sometimes unpaid, labor force of immigrant women. Increasingly, such workers are admitted into affluent homes in America through informal networks. For this brief iteration, we consider Hondagneu-Sotelo's Part Two titled "Finding Hard Work Isn't Easy." Here, Hondagneu-Sotelo discusses the other worldly process where women in need of domestic workers and the women in need of domestic work come in contact with one another.
This "whole other world" is highlighted when Hondagneu-Sotelo writes, "most prospective employers looking for paid domestic workers in Los Angeles bypass employment agencies, newspaper ads, or other formal job announcements, which they find expensive, slow, and unreliable. Instead the majority rely on their co-workers, neighbors, friends, and relatives when they seek domestic help" (63). This in itself is telling in that it pulls from Granovetter's theory of the strength of weak ties as mentioned in Deirdre Royster's Race and the Invisible Hand. Applied to Hondagneu-Sotelo's work, there exist, in the domestic worker community, ties that allow for a potential employer in need of workers to gain access to a network of domestic workers with the ability to refer friends and/or family members to employers in need of domestic assistance. Additionally, such a process not only allows for a socially and economically unequal relationship to ensue and continue for years in some cases, it also provides the foundation for further entrenchment of unequal employee and employer relations rooted in economic exploitation.
Whereas many of these workers are not earning a living wage, some employers exercise great pains not to flaunt their affluence. In one telling moment, Hondagneu-Sotelo writes, "some employers try to snip off the price tags on new clothing and home furnishings before the Latina domestic workers read them because they fear the women will compare the prices of those items with their wages - which they invariably do. While some employers often feel guilty about 'having so much' around someone who 'has so little,' the women who do the work resent not their affluence but the job arrangements, which generally afford the workers little in the way of respect and living wages" (xi-xii). In this instance, we witness the uneasy but, to the employer, necessary relationship between the affluent employer and the unaffluent worker. Additionally, we note how workers, through Hondagneu-Sotelo's in-depth interviews, indicate that they would rather that requests come not "as a symbol of servitude and a humiliating affront" to one's dignity, but that their work is seen for what it is, essential to the functioning of the household in which they are employed (145).
In producing a work with statistical data on domestic labor in Los Angeles, coupled with the voices of women on both sides of the issue, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo has done an admirable job of broaching the subject of the uneasy relationship between affluent women who require domestic assistance and unaffluent immigrant employees that work and, in some cases, live among them. Of the many good points in this work, her in-depth interviews with employees and employers are most revealing. Not unlike the work of Ehrenreich in Nickel and Dimed and Katherine S. Newman in No Shame in My Game, Hondagneu-Sotelo allows readers to, as Newman suggested, gain a clearer understanding of the interconnections between people and networks that a purely quantitative work would not permit. That being said, this reviewer applauds Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo and her effort to provide a clearer understanding of the women we see on train platforms and in bus terminals that dot American cities and suburbs of affluence.
|
|
A window into a world largely invisible to most people
Rating (5)
Date: 2002-09-05
10 out of 10 customers found this reveiw helpful
Dr. Hondagneu-Sotelo's beautifully written work takes the reader into the world of Latina nannies and housekeepers, showcasing the women's own voices and perspectives while maintaining an academic's sharp-eyed analysis. She chronicles the difficulties of domestic workers while still acknowledging their ability to impact their own work environments. One of the strengths of Hondagneu-Sotelo's book is the analysis of class inequality, particularly the ways that employers awkwardly handle their own discomfort with their priviledge. Her conclusions, rather than knee-jerk dismissals of domestic labor, suggest ways that domestic employment can be viewed as the job it is. The author's thoughts on her own position to her research subject in the preface is worth the price of the book. This book recently won five awards from different sociological organizations, and deservedly so.
|
(Larger Image)
|
by Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan, Charles Burck
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Crown Business (2002-06-15)
ISBN: 0609610570
EAN: 9780609610572
Dewy Decimal #: 658
Hardcover: 288 pages
Edition: 1
SKU: 091208024
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: ...no markings or highlighting...minor wear on dustjacket
More Product Infomation
|
Editorial Reviews
|
Product Description
The book that shows how to get the job done and deliver results . . . whether you’re running an entire company or in your first management job
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 together 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 building block by building block, 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.
|
Amazon.com Review
Disciplines like strategy, leadership development, and innovation are the sexier aspects of being at the helm of a successful business; actually getting things done never seems quite as glamorous. But as Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan demonstrate in Execution, the ultimate difference between a company and its competitor is, in fact, the ability to execute. Execution is "the missing link between aspirations and results," and as such, making it happen is the business leader's most important job. While failure in today's business environment is often attributed to other causes, Bossidy and Charan argue that the biggest obstacle to success is the absence of execution. They point out that without execution, breakthrough thinking on managing change breaks down, and they emphasize the fact that execution is a discipline to learn, not merely the tactical side of business. Supporting this with stories of the "execution difference" being won (EDS) and lost (Xerox and Lucent), the authors describe the building blocks--leaders with the right behaviors, a culture that rewards execution, and a reliable system for having the right people in the right jobs--that need to be in place to manage the three core business processes of people, strategy, and operations. Both Bossidy, CEO of Honeywell International, Inc., and Charan, advisor to corporate executives and author of such books as What the CEO Wants You to Know and Boards That Work, present experience-tested insight into how the smooth linking of these three processes can differentiate one company from the rest. Developing the discipline of execution isn't made out to be simple, nor is this book a quick, easy read. Bossidy and Charan do, however, offer good advice on a neglected topic, making Execution a smart business leader's guide to enacting success rather than permitting demise. --S. Ketchum
|
Customer Reviews
|
It's a must read for CEOs
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-11-17
I have required all of my management team to read "Execution" book. This book tells you why many companies fail to execute its strategies and how you can implement a performance management system to execute your business model. The book also provides tools to execute better, faster and consistently. The leaders will also learn about required qualities needed to build a high performing organization.
Here is the book structure :
1. Why Execution Is Needed (The Gap nobody Knows, The execution Difference, The Building Blocks of Execution)
2. The building blocks of execution (The leader's seven essential behaviors, creating the framework for cultural change, the job no leader should delegate-having the right people in the right place)
3. The Three core processes of execution (The People Process: Making the Link with Strategy and Operations, he Strategy Process: Making the Link with People and Operations, The Operations Process: Making the Link with Strategy and People)
I am big fan for Ram Charan. You should also read What CEO wants you to know, Every Business is a growth business, What the customer wants you to know, Confronting reality and Game Changer. You should at least read What the CEO wants you to know and Execution.
Russell Sarder
Chairman and CEO
NetCom Information Technology
www.netcominfo.com
www.sarder.com
|
|
Insights into Execution as a Discipline & System
Rating (4)
Date: 2008-10-29
This book teaches that `Execution' is not just tactics - it is a discipline and a system. Former CEO of Allied Signal (now Honeywell) Larry Bossidy and top business consultant and author Ram Charan bring decades of experience to the subject of Execution. Together they stress that to be successful, execution must be built into a company's strategy, its goals, and its culture.
One of the pillars of the book is that Execution is a systematic way of exposing reality and acting on it. Bossidy and Charan state that most companies don't face reality well, and state that unless you translate big thoughts into concrete steps for action, they're pointless. Execution becomes the missing link between aspirations and results. To be successful, strategies must take into account the organization's ability to execute.
The book Execution states, "In an execution company's operating review, the leader will want to know if the goal is realistic. "Fine, but will the increase come from? What products will generate the growth? Who will buy them, and what pitch are we going to develop to those customers? What will the competitor's reaction be?" If a milestone hasn't been reached at the end of the first quarter, it's a yellow light: something's not going as planned, and something will need to be changed. "Are the right people in charge of getting it done? Is their accountability clear? Whose collaboration is required and how will they be motivated to collaborate? Will the reward system motivate them toward a common objective?" The leader does not just sign off on a plan. She wants an explanation, and she will drill down until the answers are clear. "What are the programs? Where is the money going to be saved? What's the timeline? How much is it going to cost us to achieve it? And who is responsible for it all?"
Optimism, motivation and realism are keys to success.
Bossidy & Charan's First Building Block of Execution: 1. Know your people and your business 2. Insist on realism 3. Set clear goals and priorities 4. Follow through 5. Reward the doers 6. Expand people's capabilities 7. Know yourself
"Execution" contends that leaders who execute focus on a very few clear priorities that everyone can grasp. Give people a small number of clear priorities to execute well. A leader who has "ten top priorities" doesn't know what he's talking about - he doesn't know himself what the most important things are. Have few, clearly realistic goals and priorities that will influence the performance of the department.
The book highlights the importance of simplicity, stating that Leaders who execute speak simply and directly. A key takeway in the book is to simplify things so that others can understand them, evaluate them, and act on them. The authors rigorously promote that Execution is a systematic process of rigorously discussing hows and whats, questioning, tenaciously following through, and ensuring accountability.
|
|
Inspiring
Rating  (3)
Date: 2008-10-13
Inspiring book. I also loved 'Running with the Rhinos" most recently published and fantastic insight on leadershipRunning with the Rhinos: Courageous Leadership for a Complex World
|
|
A "Must Read" for Executives
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-10-13
If a business leader were to select one book as a guide to success, this would be my choice. As a former AlliedSignal executive, I have seen these practices applied and reinforced; I have also seen the results that they deliver. The book defines Execution as "...a systematic process of rigorously discussing hows and whats, questioning, tenaciously following through, and ensuring accountability." This clearly, crisply defines what must be the major focus for each executive in today's challenging business climate.
The 7 Essential Behaviors for Leaders should be posted on the office wall of every executive. They are timeless and appropriate in any business serving any industry.
The 3 Core Processes collectively cover all business activities that directly impact the ability to deliver superior performance - People, Strategy, and Operations. The discipline of structured, interactive reviews that cover the breadth and depth of the issues is a critical element, and written notes and action items provide a tangible record of decisions and "next steps".
The 3 Principles of Execution capture the essence of the subject matter. I find the first principle especially insightful - "Execution is a discipline and integral to strategy".
I strongly recommend that every leader in business read (and reread) this book.
|
|
Obviously if you're going to get things done, you gotta "execute" them...
Rating (4)
Date: 2008-10-07
This (audio) book has some good examples of bad execution that lead to recent high-profile corporate troubles, and then gives some suggestions on how to do things. A lot of it is common sense and discipline, though, but there are a few helpful items - especially if you didn't pay the new-item proce and got it used :)
|
(Larger Image)
|
by Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan, Charles Burck
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Crown Business (2002-06-15)
ISBN: 0609610570
EAN: 9780609610572
Dewy Decimal #: 658
Hardcover: 288 pages
Edition: 1
SKU: 091208024
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: ...no markings or highlighting...minor wear on dustjacket
More Product Infomation
|
Editorial Reviews
|
Product Description
The book that shows how to get the job done and deliver results . . . whether you’re running an entire company or in your first management job
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 together 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 building block by building block, 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.
|
Amazon.com Review
Disciplines like strategy, leadership development, and innovation are the sexier aspects of being at the helm of a successful business; actually getting things done never seems quite as glamorous. But as Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan demonstrate in Execution, the ultimate difference between a company and its competitor is, in fact, the ability to execute. Execution is "the missing link between aspirations and results," and as such, making it happen is the business leader's most important job. While failure in today's business environment is often attributed to other causes, Bossidy and Charan argue that the biggest obstacle to success is the absence of execution. They point out that without execution, breakthrough thinking on managing change breaks down, and they emphasize the fact that execution is a discipline to learn, not merely the tactical side of business. Supporting this with stories of the "execution difference" being won (EDS) and lost (Xerox and Lucent), the authors describe the building blocks--leaders with the right behaviors, a culture that rewards execution, and a reliable system for having the right people in the right jobs--that need to be in place to manage the three core business processes of people, strategy, and operations. Both Bossidy, CEO of Honeywell International, Inc., and Charan, advisor to corporate executives and author of such books as What the CEO Wants You to Know and Boards That Work, present experience-tested insight into how the smooth linking of these three processes can differentiate one company from the rest. Developing the discipline of execution isn't made out to be simple, nor is this book a quick, easy read. Bossidy and Charan do, however, offer good advice on a neglected topic, making Execution a smart business leader's guide to enacting success rather than permitting demise. --S. Ketchum
|
Customer Reviews
|
It's a must read for CEOs
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-11-17
I have required all of my management team to read "Execution" book. This book tells you why many companies fail to execute its strategies and how you can implement a performance management system to execute your business model. The book also provides tools to execute better, faster and consistently. The leaders will also learn about required qualities needed to build a high performing organization.
Here is the book structure :
1. Why Execution Is Needed (The Gap nobody Knows, The execution Difference, The Building Blocks of Execution)
2. The building blocks of execution (The leader's seven essential behaviors, creating the framework for cultural change, the job no leader should delegate-having the right people in the right place)
3. The Three core processes of execution (The People Process: Making the Link with Strategy and Operations, he Strategy Process: Making the Link with People and Operations, The Operations Process: Making the Link with Strategy and People)
I am big fan for Ram Charan. You should also read What CEO wants you to know, Every Business is a growth business, What the customer wants you to know, Confronting reality and Game Changer. You should at least read What the CEO wants you to know and Execution.
Russell Sarder
Chairman and CEO
NetCom Information Technology
www.netcominfo.com
www.sarder.com
|
|
Insights into Execution as a Discipline & System
Rating (4)
Date: 2008-10-29
This book teaches that `Execution' is not just tactics - it is a discipline and a system. Former CEO of Allied Signal (now Honeywell) Larry Bossidy and top business consultant and author Ram Charan bring decades of experience to the subject of Execution. Together they stress that to be successful, execution must be built into a company's strategy, its goals, and its culture.
One of the pillars of the book is that Execution is a systematic way of exposing reality and acting on it. Bossidy and Charan state that most companies don't face reality well, and state that unless you translate big thoughts into concrete steps for action, they're pointless. Execution becomes the missing link between aspirations and results. To be successful, strategies must take into account the organization's ability to execute.
The book Execution states, "In an execution company's operating review, the leader will want to know if the goal is realistic. "Fine, but will the increase come from? What products will generate the growth? Who will buy them, and what pitch are we going to develop to those customers? What will the competitor's reaction be?" If a milestone hasn't been reached at the end of the first quarter, it's a yellow light: something's not going as planned, and something will need to be changed. "Are the right people in charge of getting it done? Is their accountability clear? Whose collaboration is required and how will they be motivated to collaborate? Will the reward system motivate them toward a common objective?" The leader does not just sign off on a plan. She wants an explanation, and she will drill down until the answers are clear. "What are the programs? Where is the money going to be saved? What's the timeline? How much is it going to cost us to achieve it? And who is responsible for it all?"
Optimism, motivation and realism are keys to success.
Bossidy & Charan's First Building Block of Execution: 1. Know your people and your business 2. Insist on realism 3. Set clear goals and priorities 4. Follow through 5. Reward the doers 6. Expand people's capabilities 7. Know yourself
"Execution" contends that leaders who execute focus on a very few clear priorities that everyone can grasp. Give people a small number of clear priorities to execute well. A leader who has "ten top priorities" doesn't know what he's talking about - he doesn't know himself what the most important things are. Have few, clearly realistic goals and priorities that will influence the performance of the department.
The book highlights the importance of simplicity, stating that Leaders who execute speak simply and directly. A key takeway in the book is to simplify things so that others can understand them, evaluate them, and act on them. The authors rigorously promote that Execution is a systematic process of rigorously discussing hows and whats, questioning, tenaciously following through, and ensuring accountability.
|
|
Inspiring
Rating (3)
Date: 2008-10-13
Inspiring book. I also loved 'Running with the Rhinos" most recently published and fantastic insight on leadershipRunning with the Rhinos: Courageous Leadership for a Complex World
|
|
A "Must Read" for Executives
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-10-13
If a business leader were to select one book as a guide to success, this would be my choice. As a former AlliedSignal executive, I have seen these practices applied and reinforced; I have also seen the results that they deliver. The book defines Execution as "...a systematic process of rigorously discussing hows and whats, questioning, tenaciously following through, and ensuring accountability." This clearly, crisply defines what must be the major focus for each executive in today's challenging business climate.
The 7 Essential Behaviors for Leaders should be posted on the office wall of every executive. They are timeless and appropriate in any business serving any industry.
The 3 Core Processes collectively cover all business activities that directly impact the ability to deliver superior performance - People, Strategy, and Operations. The discipline of structured, interactive reviews that cover the breadth and depth of the issues is a critical element, and written notes and action items provide a tangible record of decisions and "next steps".
The 3 Principles of Execution capture the essence of the subject matter. I find the first principle especially insightful - "Execution is a discipline and integral to strategy".
I strongly recommend that every leader in business read (and reread) this book.
|
|
Obviously if you're going to get things done, you gotta "execute" them...
Rating (4)
Date: 2008-10-07
This (audio) book has some good examples of bad execution that lead to recent high-profile corporate troubles, and then gives some suggestions on how to do things. A lot of it is common sense and discipline, though, but there are a few helpful items - especially if you didn't pay the new-item proce and got it used :)
|
(Larger Image)
|
by Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan, Charles Burck
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Crown Business (2002-06-15)
ISBN: 0609610570
EAN: 9780609610572
Dewy Decimal #: 658
Hardcover: 288 pages
Edition: 1
SKU: 100208038
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comments: ...no markings or highlighting...light shelf wear on dustjacket
More Product Infomation
|
Editorial Reviews
|
Product Description
The book that shows how to get the job done and deliver results . . . whether you’re running an entire company or in your first management job
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 together 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 building block by building block, 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.
|
Amazon.com Review
Disciplines like strategy, leadership development, and innovation are the sexier aspects of being at the helm of a successful business; actually getting things done never seems quite as glamorous. But as Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan demonstrate in Execution, the ultimate difference between a company and its competitor is, in fact, the ability to execute. Execution is "the missing link between aspirations and results," and as such, making it happen is the business leader's most important job. While failure in today's business environment is often attributed to other causes, Bossidy and Charan argue that the biggest obstacle to success is the absence of execution. They point out that without execution, breakthrough thinking on managing change breaks down, and they emphasize the fact that execution is a discipline to learn, not merely the tactical side of business. Supporting this with stories of the "execution difference" being won (EDS) and lost (Xerox and Lucent), the authors describe the building blocks--leaders with the right behaviors, a culture that rewards execution, and a reliable system for having the right people in the right jobs--that need to be in place to manage the three core business processes of people, strategy, and operations. Both Bossidy, CEO of Honeywell International, Inc., and Charan, advisor to corporate executives and author of such books as What the CEO Wants You to Know and Boards That Work, present experience-tested insight into how the smooth linking of these three processes can differentiate one company from the rest. Developing the discipline of execution isn't made out to be simple, nor is this book a quick, easy read. Bossidy and Charan do, however, offer good advice on a neglected topic, making Execution a smart business leader's guide to enacting success rather than permitting demise. --S. Ketchum
|
Customer Reviews
|
It's a must read for CEOs
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-11-17
I have required all of my management team to read "Execution" book. This book tells you why many companies fail to execute its strategies and how you can implement a performance management system to execute your business model. The book also provides tools to execute better, faster and consistently. The leaders will also learn about required qualities needed to build a high performing organization.
Here is the book structure :
1. Why Execution Is Needed (The Gap nobody Knows, The execution Difference, The Building Blocks of Execution)
2. The building blocks of execution (The leader's seven essential behaviors, creating the framework for cultural change, the job no leader should delegate-having the right people in the right place)
3. The Three core processes of execution (The People Process: Making the Link with Strategy and Operations, he Strategy Process: Making the Link with People and Operations, The Operations Process: Making the Link with Strategy and People)
I am big fan for Ram Charan. You should also read What CEO wants you to know, Every Business is a growth business, What the customer wants you to know, Confronting reality and Game Changer. You should at least read What the CEO wants you to know and Execution.
Russell Sarder
Chairman and CEO
NetCom Information Technology
www.netcominfo.com
www.sarder.com
|
|
Insights into Execution as a Discipline & System
Rating (4)
Date: 2008-10-29
This book teaches that `Execution' is not just tactics - it is a discipline and a system. Former CEO of Allied Signal (now Honeywell) Larry Bossidy and top business consultant and author Ram Charan bring decades of experience to the subject of Execution. Together they stress that to be successful, execution must be built into a company's strategy, its goals, and its culture.
One of the pillars of the book is that Execution is a systematic way of exposing reality and acting on it. Bossidy and Charan state that most companies don't face reality well, and state that unless you translate big thoughts into concrete steps for action, they're pointless. Execution becomes the missing link between aspirations and results. To be successful, strategies must take into account the organization's ability to execute.
The book Execution states, "In an execution company's operating review, the leader will want to know if the goal is realistic. "Fine, but will the increase come from? What products will generate the growth? Who will buy them, and what pitch are we going to develop to those customers? What will the competitor's reaction be?" If a milestone hasn't been reached at the end of the first quarter, it's a yellow light: something's not going as planned, and something will need to be changed. "Are the right people in charge of getting it done? Is their accountability clear? Whose collaboration is required and how will they be motivated to collaborate? Will the reward system motivate them toward a common objective?" The leader does not just sign off on a plan. She wants an explanation, and she will drill down until the answers are clear. "What are the programs? Where is the money going to be saved? What's the timeline? How much is it going to cost us to achieve it? And who is responsible for it all?"
Optimism, motivation and realism are keys to success.
Bossidy & Charan's First Building Block of Execution: 1. Know your people and your business 2. Insist on realism 3. Set clear goals and priorities 4. Follow through 5. Reward the doers 6. Expand people's capabilities 7. Know yourself
"Execution" contends that leaders who execute focus on a very few clear priorities that everyone can grasp. Give people a small number of clear priorities to execute well. A leader who has "ten top priorities" doesn't know what he's talking about - he doesn't know himself what the most important things are. Have few, clearly realistic goals and priorities that will influence the performance of the department.
The book highlights the importance of simplicity, stating that Leaders who execute speak simply and directly. A key takeway in the book is to simplify things so that others can understand them, evaluate them, and act on them. The authors rigorously promote that Execution is a systematic process of rigorously discussing hows and whats, questioning, tenaciously following through, and ensuring accountability.
|
|
Inspiring
Rating (3)
Date: 2008-10-13
Inspiring book. I also loved 'Running with the Rhinos" most recently published and fantastic insight on leadershipRunning with the Rhinos: Courageous Leadership for a Complex World
|
|
A "Must Read" for Executives
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-10-13
If a business leader were to select one book as a guide to success, this would be my choice. As a former AlliedSignal executive, I have seen these practices applied and reinforced; I have also seen the results that they deliver. The book defines Execution as "...a systematic process of rigorously discussing hows and whats, questioning, tenaciously following through, and ensuring accountability." This clearly, crisply defines what must be the major focus for each executive in today's challenging business climate.
The 7 Essential Behaviors for Leaders should be posted on the office wall of every executive. They are timeless and appropriate in any business serving any industry.
The 3 Core Processes collectively cover all business activities that directly impact the ability to deliver superior performance - People, Strategy, and Operations. The discipline of structured, interactive reviews that cover the breadth and depth of the issues is a critical element, and written notes and action items provide a tangible record of decisions and "next steps".
The 3 Principles of Execution capture the essence of the subject matter. I find the first principle especially insightful - "Execution is a discipline and integral to strategy".
I strongly recommend that every leader in business read (and reread) this book.
|
|
Obviously if you're going to get things done, you gotta "execute" them...
Rating (4)
Date: 2008-10-07
This (audio) book has some good examples of bad execution that lead to recent high-profile corporate troubles, and then gives some suggestions on how to do things. A lot of it is common sense and discipline, though, but there are a few helpful items - especially if you didn't pay the new-item proce and got it used :)
|
(Larger Image)
|
by Stephen C. Lundin, Harry Paul, John Christensen (Foreword: Ken Blanchard)
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Hyperion (2000-03-08)
ISBN: 0786866020
EAN: 9780786888825
Dewy Decimal #: 658.314
Hardcover: 112 pages
Edition: 1
Release Date: 2000-03-08
SKU: 081808047
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: ...No noticeable Underlining or Highlighting...light shelf wear on dustjacket
More Product Infomation
|
Editorial Reviews
|
Product Description
Imagine a workplace where everyone chooses to bring energy, passion, and a positive attitude to the job every day. Imagine an environment in which people are truly connected to their work, to their colleagues, and to their customers. In this engrossing parable, a fictional manager is charged with the responsibility of turning a chronically unenthusiastic and unhelpful department into an effective team. Across the street from her office is Seattles very real Pike Place Fish Market, world famous and wildly successful thanks to its fun, bustling, joyful atmosphere and customer service. By applying ingeniously simple lessons learned from the actual Pike Place fishmongers, our manager learns how to energize those who report to her and effect an astonishing transformation in her workplace. Addressing todays work issues (including employee retention and burnout) with an engaging metaphor and an appealing message that applies to any sector of any organization, Fish! offers wisdom that is easy to grasp, instantly applicable, and profoundthe hallmarks of a true business classic. Based on a bestselling ChartHouse training video which has been adopted by corporations including Southwest Airlines, Sprint, and Nordstrom.
|
Amazon.com Review
Here's another management parable that draws its lesson from an unlikely source--this time it's the fun-loving fishmongers at Seattle's Pike Place Market. In Fish! the heroine, Mary Jane Ramirez, recently widowed and mother of two, is asked to engineer a turnaround of her company's troubled operations department, a group that authors Stephen Lundin, Harry Paul, and John Christensen describe as a "toxic energy dump." Most reasonable heads would cut their losses and move on. Why bother with this bunch of losers? But the authors don't make it so easy for Mary Jane. Instead, she's left to sort out this mess with the help of head fishmonger Lonnie. Based on a bestselling corporate education video, Fish! aims to help employees find their way to a fun and happy workplace. While some may find the story line and prescriptions--such as "Choose Your Attitude," "Make Their Day," and "Be Present"--downright corny, others will find a good dose of worthwhile motivational management techniques. If you loved Who Moved My Cheese? then you'll find much to like here. And don't worry about Mary Jane and kids. Fish! has a happy ending for everyone. --Harry C. Edwards
|
Customer Reviews
|
Awesome - Absolutely
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-11-16
A five star book - recommend to every employee and employer to read. Have already told many people about this book. Worth every penny. Very motivational.
|
|
Makes work fun
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-09-19
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Fish! is a great book that teaches you how to have fun at work and make your job into something you enjoy coming to each day. It tells the story of a woman who goes through a transformation to learn this very thing from an unlikely source: the fish mongers at a Seattle fish market. A cute story and helpful book that has been used effectively in my company.
Another business fable I just came across that I'm really excited about is Squawk!: How to Stop Making Noise and Start Getting Results
|
|
Great read!
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-09-18
This book should be a mandatory read for all new leaders! It is an easy read that keeps you interested from beginning to end. The philosophy is basic and simple; however extremely practicle and most of all...effective!!!
|
|
I Like The Book But....
Rating (3)
Date: 2008-08-31
I really liked this simple, small book. I really did. However, as a director of human resources, I was hoping for more depth. While the book is a fun tale, the lessons contained therein are too whimsical to really help corporations with their real problems. Sure, everyone wants to strive for fun, teamwork, etc., however, the daily arena does not allow such graceful answers.
Once again, I liked the book just don't expect to be pointed in a corrective position.
Michael L. Gooch, SPHR Author of Wingtips with Spurs
|
|
Fish! for Teambuilding
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-08-15
We used Fish! as a team-building exercise at work. We read about 20 pages a week and then discussed. Even people who don't like to read, enjoyed it because it's such a quick, easy, story. I did get CD's for a few people. This was a group that needed to become cohesive, and after the second week, everyone was animated about Fish! People shared their own experiences as it related to the story. Very easy discussion starter. Now they want to take a field trip from Kansas City to Seattle to visit Pike Place Fish Market!
|
(Larger Image)
|
by Ken Blanchard, Sheldon Bowles
Product Group: Book
Publisher: William Morrow (2001-01-01)
ISBN: 0688170366
EAN: 9780688170363
Dewy Decimal #: 658.402
Hardcover: 224 pages
Edition: 1
Release Date: 2000-12-26
SKU: 111808003
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: exlibrary copy in good condition with the usual markings and stickers
More Product Infomation
|
Editorial Reviews
|
Product Description
High Five! combines the spellbinding charm of a timeless parable with cutting-edge information about why teams are important and what individuals and organizations can do to build successful ones. Through the story of Alan Foster, a workplace one-man band, High Five! identifies the four key ingredients of winning teams. Although Alan is an effective producer, he is unwilling to share the spotlight by partnering on projects and is fired because, as his boss puts it, "Alan, we need good producers who are good team players, too." It is a bitter pill for him to swallow. While mulling over his disappointment, he takes his son to his grade-five hockey practice, where it is clear that his son's team, the Riverbend Warriors, knows nothing about teamwork, either. When the team's two overworked coaches learn of Alan's plight, they persuade him to join their ranks, and he finds himself charged with teaching himself and the players the meaning of teamwork. With the help of a woman friend-a former girls' basketball coach who has "won more high school basketball championships than anyone"-Alan and the Warriors learn the magic of teamwork and that "none of us is as smart as all of us." With its simple style and easy-to-follow techniques, High Five! is a must-read for anyone seeking to learn the value and power of teamwork.
|
Amazon.com Review
Organizational guru Ken Blanchard has long had a knack for writing management books that are easy and fun to read (The One Minute Manager, plus 11 other bestsellers). Now, in his latest, he becomes (with the help of three coauthors) something of a novelist, relating the saga of the Riverbend Warriors, a come-from-behind boys' hockey team, to teach a broader lesson about the importance of, and the key dynamics behind, good teamwork in organizations of every sort. High Five! starts with otherwise exemplary exec Alan Foster losing his job because--you guessed it--he isn't a team player. Unemployed, bored, and demoralized, he decides to coach his fifth-grade son's failing hockey team into better shape. But it's not until he enlists the help of Miss Weatherby, an aging African-American retired teacher and champion girls' basketball coach that things really start to turn around. As we follow the struggle of the increasingly well-oiled Warriors machine as they drill, strategize, and bond their way through the season, we learn some of the fundamental lessons of what makes good teams--and good team-building by coaches and managers. Among them are "repeated reward and repetition," the guiding notion that "none of us is as smart as all of us," and four key traits that shall here remain undisclosed (hint: their acronym spells PUCK). As fiction goes, don't expect high literature here. But to its credit, the book's ending isn't 100 percent happy, either. If you worry that the aged but whip-smart Weatherby might die at the end, don't--instead, she becomes perhaps th | | | |