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Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
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Customer Reviews
Rating:  - Poorly Written, Flawed Book
Only good thing I will say about this book is that at a 50,000 ft level, the concept is good - organizations have to create a culture that ensures accountability and hold people to this.
While this is good, everything else about the book is terrible. The authors write this book in too much of a storybook fashion and keep repeating the same concept over and over which gets annoying. On top of that, the so-called vanguard CEOs and companies that they keep referencing over and over again are those who have been shown to be underperformers in the long-run (look at the recent track record of these companies) - Bob Nardelli from Home Depot, Dell Computer, Wal Mart, EDS, in fact look at Bossidy's own performance at Honeywell. Clearly, both these guys' so-called brilliant advice is flawed, old-school, and full of holes if their role-models cannot sustain performance in the long-haul. They are both too Jack Welch-ish - and those who have been in industry long enough know that much of Jack Welch's methods are very short-sighted (look at Six Sigma, and how the majority of companies that have implemented this keep trailing the S&P 500 or better yet, read Fortune Magazine's article from last year which debunks nearly all of Jack's management techniques).
For those who really want a good management book, I recommend Jim Collins' Good to Great.
Don't waste your time and money reading Ram and Larry's hot air.
Rating:  - Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
This product was a great purchase. Frankly, I think that this book was one of the best written business books in a long time and I'm thankful that Amazon made it readily accessible for me. Thanks!
Rating: - An Important book that captures the basis for corporate successes - EXECUTION
The key point in the whole book is the first word of the title - EXECUTION. There is without question in business in this country, and to a far greater extent overseas, a failure to execute. Businesses, like people have wonderful thoughts, ideas, notions, desires, goals, objectives, and needs. Try finding the company, entity, institution that bottom line, successfully gets things done. It comes back to EXECUTION.
The authors are as professional as you can get. Larry Bossidy is a product of the General Electric system of management. He is the man credited with building the division now known as GE Capital into what it is today. GE Capital is one of the most profitable divisions of any corporation in the world, and the envy of every financial institution including Wall Street.
Bossidy was one of three men in the running to become Chairman of General Electric. He lost to Jack Welch. It is traditional that when you are passed over as Chairman of GE, you take your time, but you leave. Bossidy left to run Allied Signal, which then was absorbed into Honeywell. It was during that corporate transformation that Bossidy became associated with the techniques that you are reading in his book, "Execution-The Discipline of Getting Things Done".
His co-author is Ram Charan, who has taught at both Harvard Business, and the Kellogg School of Northwestern University. Charan has functioned as an international business consultant specializing in management. Without being mentioned, it is obvious that at some point Charan consulted for Bossidy somewhere along the way, and this is how the partnership was formed.
Why You Must Read this Book?
You read every word in a book like "Execution", because you are getting it from the horse's mouth. Even if other people can say it better, Bossidy is the guy who made the big bucks doing it. Who wouldn't want to read a book on playing golf under pressure by Tiger Woods, or how you should prepare for a big basketball game the day of the game by Michael Jordan.
Bossidy is the real deal. He has run a major corporation, and posted major results, for a long period of time. All the major players are in agreement; that this is the man you go to when you want to talk about management. Now having said that, does the book ramble, yes, could it be shorter, yes, could it better written, the answer is of course. It still doesn't make any difference. You have to read Bossidy, because even Jack Welch at GE read this book.
Here's what you will learn very quickly
1) Execution isn't everything - it's the ONLY THING
You'll remember that Vince Lombardi, the Green Bay Packer's coach use to say that winning isn't everything; it's the only thing. The same thing can be said about EXECUTION. The only purpose bottom line for a business to be in business is to execute the goals, and objectives of the corporation.
2) The difference between Dreams, and Results is how you EXECUTED
Businesses started with goals and objectives, and then you have to get to reality. Everything in between is how you execute, and the authors make clear at every opportunity those instances where corporations did well (General Electric, Dell, EDS), and those times when corporations failed (Xerox, Lucent, Kodak, Motorola, AT&T). The examples given are thorough, and make sense. You know all these corporations.
3) The importance of the talent you field
Bossidy is so right on this one. He says that he spent 40% of his time picking the players. In the end, how much can a CEO personally do, or deliver? It's true that a CEO can fairly easily blow up a corporate structure in a year or two. The two authors say the same CEO picking the right talent can deliver enviable results. They must be held to high accountable standards. You use the feedback to power the results.
4) Constant involvement with that talent
Bossidy is not a guy that leaves things to human resources. Bossidy talks about the importance of the lunch or dinner with his management team members, how he was constantly sizing them up. Could they deliver, would they execute. He is the only CEO I have ever heard of who personally would check referrals on those he hired. That kernel of information tells you everything. One could almost argue that if you put the right players into place, your job is 90% done, providing the system works.
I would like to take a moment to tell you how you work with a book like this. You need to write in the margins, you must underline, and you must question, and annotate the entire book. If you are someone that finds himself commuting either to work, or spending significant time in a car, than the audio version is excellent as well because it is in the author's voices.
Recognize that this is a book you will read, or listen to many times. There are multiple layers of messages here, and you will not capture them all with the first run through of either the book, or the audio. Bossidy is acknowledged to be one of the most successful businessmen of his era, take advantage of it, and pull everything you can out of his book.
Good luck.
Richard Stoyeck
Rating:  - Too Many Stories, Not Enough Organization
I have become a fan of well-written business books. The information in these books is organized in a way that the information becomes knowledge. The title of this book was auspicious: "Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done." What business person at any level of responsibility would fail to be intrigued and enthused about a book with such a great title? The problem is that the book fails to fully execute on its premise.
This book is filled with lots of great information. However, this book is also filled with a lot of stories. The stories also have lots of information, but by the time you reach the end of each section it is easy to lose sight of the original purpose of the section. The end result is that the book seems to struggle to get to the point. The bizarre thing is that the book does get to the point, but the stories intrude and distract from the points so that you think the book never got there. The essential problem is that the reader has to work too hard to mentally organize the authors' information into knowledge.
This book could become a great book if it was reorganized. If the stories were removed from the body of each chapter and placed in a section titled "Case Studies," "Observations," or something similar (stories we included to bulk this book up to a saleable length also comes to mind in some cases), then the sections could be read to understand the points followed by readings of the examples. Then we could divine the authors' points before reading stories that enhance the examples.
My conclusion is that the authors' failed to have the discipline to write a readily readable book, which means they had the discipline to get the book done, but not to get the book done right. We know as business people that poor execution is sometimes worse then no execution at all, and such is the case here. If you are seeking a book with great wisdom regarding techniques for execution, this book is not it. If you are looking for lots of stories about how people failed to execute, sometimes executed, and sometimes recovered from failed execution, and you are willing to read lots of distracting stuff in between, then maybe you have the patience to glean the knowledge that exists in a disorganized fashion in this book.
This review is based on a copy of the book provided to me for review.
Good Luck!
Rating: - excecution The Discipline of getting things done
Good insight into what makes a business work
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