Execution

The Discipline of Getting Things Done

By: Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan

Narrated by: Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan, John Bedford Lloyd

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.Executive Producer: Laura Wilson
Producer: David Rapkin
Original Jacket Design: David Tran
©2002 Crown Business
(P)2002 Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

“If you want to be a CEO—or if you are a CEO and want to keep your job—read Execution and put its principles to work.”—Michael Dell, chairman and CEO, Dell Computer Corp.

“Good practical insight and advice on managing for results at firms of any size. Execution is key, and this book clearly explains what it means and how it brings together the critical elements of any organization—its people, strategies, and operations.”—L. R. Raymond, chairman and CEO, Exxon Mobil

“The best-thought-out plans in the world aren’t worth the paper they’re written on if you can’t pull them off. And that’s what this book is all about. Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done is well written and gives sound, practical advice about how to make things happen. It is well worth the reading.”—Ralph S. Larsen, chairman and CEO, Johnson & Johnson

“Larry Bossidy recognizes how execution in a business defines the true greatness of a company. He captures a lifetime of building winning formulas and puts them in a simple and practical context for executives at any level. Read it!”—Ivan Seidenberg, president and co–chief executive officer, Verizon

“For those managers who have struggled to make it happen, fix a problem, get it done—or otherwise transform winning strategies into genuine results—here’s the missing medicine from two who know from long experience what works and what doesn’t. Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan offer a compelling leadership prescription, and it comes down to realism, discipline, and above all, great execution.”—Michael Useem, professor of management and director of the Center for Leadership and Change, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

“Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan define the true meaning of leadership from an implementation point of view. Larry is the expert on productivity in the world of business, and this book demonstrates how leadership is the key to achieving ongoing financial success.”—Richard Schroeder, cofounder of Six Sigma Academy

Effective people management

Sharp, incisive, cruel but honest - this is Bossidy's receipt for effective people managemant and execution of a strategy.
You feel exposed, naked in front of his truth-based techniques. He is like a conqueror: able to draw a daring strategy, capable to motivate people to follow him and precise in executing a winning plan. If you want to learn from someone who does what he preaches, then listen his book!

Excellent, practical resource for any leader.

This book was an easy read with a very disciplined strategy to help you get things done. I loved that the authors provided real life cases study examples and discussed the real questions that need to be asked in any business. The three core processes (People, Strategy, and Operations) are broken down and discussed in a way that is easy to digest. It is also easy to directly relate to your current leadership role to improve your team's performance. Overall, it is very useful in helping you achive focus.

Required Reading

If you are in a position of leadership or strive to lead this should be required reading.

content great but one reader had accent

overall the content was helpful and productive but one of the readers had to think of an accent. it was really easy to tune out when he read. Kind of a shame

Dry book but USEFUL

The book gives a perspective of Executive management of a cutthroat performance.

It is worth a second read, it emphasize how your should reward good performance and punish/eliminate bad performance.

It discuss the subject of the execution GAP, between what you want to achieve and what you can to achieve given your company and team capabilities.

It gives guidelines of how to make your team EXECUTE organizational behavior by reward and punishment. USEFUL.

It discusses strategy in a Wall Street thinking like Anton... of cause and effect in the value chain, so it is useful.

It discusses operations but not much, or maybe I need to read it again, but could not get much from it about operations.
He said that you should not need to make your plan fit your budget; since then, you will make a plan that is not workable within your budget and fail.

The main subject of this book, is about the management of people in the organization by rewarding good performance and punishing bad performance of employees. So the organizational culture knows that only execution promotes you and get rewarded.

It also gives a rule of thumb how to manage people so they get things done, by telling them what you want to get done, and scheduling a follow-through meeting to discuss how it got done, and if not, then why? and how to correct it fast?

Also, the people needs to understand that the mission is mandatory and failing it or not delivering results will have bad consequences for them, only this will make they outperform, and make them loyal to the mission.

Worth a second read and summarizing the key management and strategic points.

This strengthens the notion of "control" in projects, and a punishment and reward (consequences) of performance.

The best companies/employees are the ones who can execute well and fast.

Its not enough to tell an employee to shoot a target and forget about it. You must make it a point that his target will check if he hit the mark or not, and it has good and bad consequences. Only this will drive his behavior toward execution.