Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done By Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan

I just about finished reading this book and found it very practical and a must read for all MBA grads. Its impressed me so much, that I even made a summary of this book and sent it across to a couple of department heads in my office. Thought I could also post it in my blog as it serves the purpose twofolds. So guyz just sit back and enjoy your read...

Importance of Execution:

Execution is a discipline and a system. It has to be built into a company’s strategy, its goals, and its culture. More time and scholarship are given to strategic thinking and management techniques and it’s the leaders who take an idea and make it a reality. Execution is a specific set of behaviors and techniques that companies need to master in order to have and sustain competitive advantage.

Seven Essential Behaviors and Building blocks:

Organizations serious about execution and leadership, must exhibit these key behaviors:

• Know your people and your business and always rely on direct information
• Insist on realism as it’s the heart of execution· Set clear goals and priorities
• Follow through helps better execution
• Measure people performance and reward the doers
• Expand people capabilities by sharing experiences and wisdom
• Know yourself through four core qualities: authenticity, self-awareness, self-mastery and humility

Creating the Framework for Cultural Change:

The culture of an organization is the sum of its shared values, beliefs and norms of behavior. To deliver better results, start with examining whether your organization’s ingrained beliefs are helping the business perfect its execution. Following are a few good practices:

• A new way of thinking aimed at examining and delivering better results
• Change behavior by changing rewards
• Importance of dialogue and candid speak

Have the right people in the right place:

An organization’s workers are its most reliable resource for generating excellent results year after year. Organizations should have the right people for the right job. The way they can do it is identify the following at an early stage:

• Lack of knowledge
• Lack of courage
• The psychological comfort factor

The Three Core Processes of Execution:

Many organizations treat their people, strategy and operations processes as separate, independent entities, when in fact they are interrelated. They must be treated as such in order to ingrain the discipline of execution into the corporation. Let us now look at the three key processes of execution — people, strategy and operations — and show how all three are linked.

• The people process: Linking Strategy and Operations provides the framework for determining the organization’s talent needs over time and for planning actions that will meet those needs
• The strategy process: Making the link with People and Operations requires the utmost attention as it addresses the how part of executing a strategy
• The operations process: Making the link with Strategy and People defines where a business intends to go

Jack Welch’s hands-on management working philosophy:

To make a quantum increase in inventory turns in manufacturing operations and generate cash, Welch personally paid a visit along with his team to the leading practitioner of the methodology in the mid-1990’s, American Standard.

Welch normally involves himself deeply and personally with the subject. He would take deep interest to learn what it would take to execute such an initiative at GE, and would facilitate the necessary changes rolling quickly through his huge company. By the time of his retirement in 2001, Welch saw GE’s inventory turns double.