The following is a highlighted summary of the book, Execution, published by Crown Business.The statements below are key points of the book as determined by James Altfeld and have beenmade available at no charge to the user.Execution:The Discipline of Getting Things DoneByLarry Bossidy & Ram CharanIntroductionToo many leaders fool themselves into thinking their companies are well run. They’relike the parents in Garrison Keillor’s fictional Lake Wobegon, all of whom think theirchildren are above average. Then the top performers at Lake Wobegon High Schoolarrive at the University of Minnesota or Colgate or Princeton and find out they’re averageor even below average. Similarly, when corporate leaders start understanding how theGE’s and Emerson Electrics of this world are run—how superbly they get thingsdone—they discover how far they have to go before they become world class inexecution.Here is the fundamental problem: People think of execution as the tactical side ofbusiness, something leaders delegate while thy focus on the perceived “bigger” issues.This idea is completely wrong. Execution is not just tactics—it is a discipline and asystem. It has to be built into a company’s strategy, its goals, and its culture. And theleader of the organization must be deeply engaged in it. He can delegate its substance.We talk to many leaders who fall victim to the gap between promises they’ve made andresults their organizations delivered. They frequently tell us they have a problem withaccountability—people aren’t doing the things they’re supposed to do to implement aplan. They desperately want to make changes of some kind, but what do they need tochange? They don’t know.Execution is a specific set of beha...
