I was a bit nervous when I first picked up the book and learned that it was based off a formal study of companies. Fortunately, the very first paragraph of the introduction put me at ease and tickled my curiosity when it revealed that the book had "more than forty printings worldwide, translation into thirteen languages, and best-seller status in North America, Japan, South America, and parts of Europe." Now, having read the book, I understand why it has achieved such extraordinary success.
The authors did a fantastic job of transforming cold statistics into meaningful analysis and then translating their analysis into plain language for students of management and leadership. Their many examples and common-sense conclusions were easy to understand and believe. Whether you are a CEO or a technician on the line, and work in a multi-national corporation or a small local business, this book's lessons can apply to you.
Great read.A balance review would be to read the first two customer reviews.
How I went about reading this book?I did not read the book word for word. I felt that I did not need to do it because the writing is slightly wordy for my taste.I read the customer reviews, 42 page sample pages, went to my local Barnes and Noble book store and browse through the book in about under 2 hours. I browse and read the beginning, the table of content, the ending of the book, reading from the back of the book toward the front, taking notes on ideas that caught my attention, looking at the summary at the end of each chapter, looking at any interesting diagram, graphs, charts, and visuals, and reading accompanying text.
One would think with 5 years plus of exhaustive research, comparison, financial analysis, there would be more to the data. But at last as the authors wrote in many chapters, the fundamental idea of management has not truly change in 50 years. Great ideas do within stand the test of time, great civilizations, great countries, great philosophy religious or not, great biological system, great species.
12 Myths of great companiesRead page 19 to 23 of the sample pages
The following are my notes:What do we stand for and why do we exist?Then, change
Get back to basic
Stream Analysis Software, used for organizational change diagnosis
Leadership- display high level of persistence, overcome significant obstacles, attracted dedicated people, influenced groups of people toward the achievement of goals.
Listen to the customers (Lesson: Listen)Ask "why?" (Lessons: Questions)Encourage persistence (Lesson: Perserverance)
Build the ticking clock! (Imagine all the qualities and features of a ticking clock. It is enduring. It keeps accurate time. It is reliable. It is constantly ticking. It does not stop ticking. It does not need much maintenance. It does one thing really well and that is pretty much all it does. It tells time. Inside the clock, it is very complex, precise, elaborate, and require great skill to build. The material and craftmanship of a ticking mechanical clock have to be of the highest order to keep accurate time. In contrast to the complexity of the inside from the the outside, the clock looks rather simple mechanically. A ticking second hand, a long minute hand, and short hour hand, they all move and tell the time. Build a self perpetuating learning organization. Human resource is the most important resource of a company. Hire the best you can afford. Train them well. Give them room for mistake and failure. Develop them into leader.)
3MListen to anyone with an original idea, no matter now absurb it might sound at first.Encourage; don't nitpick. Let people run with their idea.Hire good people, and leave them alone.If you put fences around people, you get sheep. Give people the room they need.Encourage experimental doodling.Give it a try and quick!
Darwin: variation and selection.
HPPeople have inherent need to make contribution to society.Provide real satisfaction to real customers.Of course we must do it for profit, because we can not exist without profit.Profit is not the reason for existence.
Cult: Authenticity and consistent alignment of the ideology
Deeds, more than words
Big Hairy Audacious Goals
consistency of principle
right frame of mind, shift of perspective
NordstromWelcome to your company. We're glad to have you with us. Our number one goal is to provide outstanding customer service. Set both your personal and professional goals high. We have great confidence in your ability to achieve them. Rules: Use your good judgement in all situations. There will be no addditional rules. Please feel free to ask your manager any question at any time.
The best part of the book is the concept of Core Ideology. This is different from Core Competency as explained in "In search of excellence". This is the best concept I think and will people to build great organizations.
I recommend this book to all those aspiring Management students, Management Students and Managers.
It is about what the authors call "visionary companies," which stand for something beyond just making money and yet are profitable. They do well, and they do good. There is no doubt that such companies exist, which I admit in spite of my boredom and cynicism regarding most of the businessmen and "business intellectuals" that I deal with as a writer.
Set up like an academic study, the book is a synthesis of the authors' findings while taking a long historical view of consistently excellent (i.e. "visionary") companies like H-P, Merck, and P&G.
Not surprisingly, these companies do similar things: 1) they have visions and value that they try to uphold consistently throughout the company and to which they stay true over decades; 2) the set incredibly ambitious (and in retrospect realistic) goals that inspire their employees ("big hairy ambitious goals"); 3) they are cult-like in their beliefs in themselves; 4) they allow for trial and error, which lead to "evolutionary progress"; 5) they hire leadership from within; 6) they cultivate keeping their employees a bit off-balance ("uncomfortable") as a way of getting them to perform at their best; 7) they make sure that all elements work in concert and are internally consistent and self-reinforcing ("alignment").
That is it for the ideas, which are far more nuanced than the above paragraph. They could be summarized in one chapter, and the rest of the book is repetition and analysis by example. The examples are interesting and informative and the ideas, which have all been said before, are good to review in a systematic way. Very good.
These are good and useful ideas, if somewhat banal. But then, doing business is rather dull for the most part - there are very few exciting companies out there, but most of them are like horribly dysfunctional families. This is the authors' bid to explain the good few.
The tone of the book is rather modest, but the authors do get a bit too wordy and chummy in many instances. While I liked the modesty, I got bored with the chumminess.
Recommended.