BIG Ideas to BIG Results: Remake and Recharge Your Company, Fast

BIG Ideas to BIG Results: Remake and Recharge Your Company, Fast

by Michael T. Kanazawa, Robert H. Miles
Released February 2008
Publisher(s): Pearson
ISBN: 9780768681932

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Book description

Why do most corporations fail to achieve breakthrough performance? They make things too complex. They clutter it with jargon and confusion. They dither on the launch pad. They hire too many consultants, chase after too many fads. It doesn’t have to be that complicated. Whatever your goal, whatever your role, Michael T. Kanazawa and Robert H. Miles introduce a simple, practical, 100% results- driven approach that works. Drawing on their experience working with hundreds of senior executives, they show how to align your organization behind just a few core initiatives; bias your people toward speed; create leaders at every level; and achieve traction and accountability in all facets of execution. You’ll learn how to engage people instead of frustrating them, and harness their energy instead of wasting it. Whether you’re executing a new initiative, entering a new market, or attempting to transform your entire enterprise, this book will help you find the right path, clear the obstacles, and get there—surely and quickly.

Today’s companies recognize that they must constantly improve at every level, from frontline customer-facing functions to enterprise-wide strategy. They must execute bold new strategic initiatives more effectively... integrate and align acquisitions more quickly...and accelerate and sustain growth in the face of unprecedented competition. But wherever business transformation and breakthrough performance must occur, many of the challenges are the same.

Now, there’s a breakthrough methodology for overcoming these challenges. In BIG Ideas to BIG Results, Michael T. Kanazawa and Robert H. Miles introduce the Accelerated Corporate Transformation (ACT) methodology: A simple, no-nonsense process that is grounded in reality, inclusive of people, and 100% results-oriented.

Drawing on over twenty years refining and applying ACT, initially at Harvard Business School and then in leading enterprises, Kanazawa and Miles identify crucial steps to success, as well as practical solutions to the inevitable roadblocks you’ll face. Their #1 insight: Many obstacles stem from managers making situations and decisions more complex than they really are, and taking too much time to get ready. ACT strips away complexity and indecision, helping you move far more rapidly and predictably from strategy development through execution. Designed by leaders for leaders, this book will help you execute more rapidly and lead more effectively, to achieve breakthrough performance at any level, in any function, in any organization.

  • Step-by-step, leader-driven techniques that work–simply and quickly
    Business transformation and breakthrough performance without the confusion and complexity

  • What leaders must know–and do–to succeed
    Making it happen from the inside out–without hordes of consultants

  • Conquer “corporate gridlock” at last
    Stay focused on what really matters, instead of bouncing from one initiative to the next

  • Rapidly engage the full organization...
    ...to power up leadership at every level

    • www.bigideastobigresults.com

    Table of contents

    1. Copyright
      1. Dedication
    2. Praise for BIG Ideas to BIG Results
    3. 1. A Better Way
      1. The Sugar High
      2. Get Your ACT Together
      3. Make Transformation a Simple Routine
      4. Endnotes
    4. 2. Breaking Through Gridlock
      1. Gridlock! The Task Overload Epidemic
      2. Where Did All of This Clutter Come From?
      3. The New Definition of Big Box Retail
      4. Task Overload Undermines Accountability
      5. One Company—Not Many
      6. Busting Through Gridlock: Getting Started
      7. The Leader’s Challenge: Less Is More
      8. Fighting Fires Versus Fire Prevention
      9. Endnotes
    5. 3. Creating Safe Passage
      1. Safe Passage—A Clear Transformation Process
      2. The ACT Process Basics: Powerfully Simple
      3. This Is Not a New Religion, Just a Better Way of Managing the Business
      4. Endnotes
    6. 4. Confronting Today’s Reality
      1. The Emperor’s Ugly Clothes
      2. Dialogue Versus Discussion
      3. Generating Dialogue as a Leader
      4. Priming the Pump
      5. Canary in a Coal Mine
      6. On the Outside Looking In
      7. Talk with Customers and Noncustomers
      8. You Are Here: Map the Market
      9. Confronting Reality Work Session
      10. Endnotes
    7. 5. Sharpening the Strategy Arrow
      1. A One-Page View of the Future
      2. Creating a Strategic Vision
      3. Business Success Modeling
      4. Due Diligence on Yourself
      5. Endnotes
    8. 6. Absolute Alignment
      1. Translation to Three Corporate Initiatives
      2. Have You Lost Your Marbles?
      3. What NOT to Do
        1. Zombie Projects
      4. Restack the Whole
      5. Individual Commitments to Action
      6. Alignment of Commitments—Reducing Silos
      7. Alignment of Values
        1. Don’t Try to Replicate the Scout Oath
      8. Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
      9. The Bottom Line on Alignment
      10. Endnotes
    9. 7. Rapidly Engaging the Full Organization
      1. It’s All about the Results
      2. Quantum Jumps
      3. “Back in Black” Friday
      4. Employee Engagement Is Not Barbeque
      5. High-Engagement
        1. Critical Importance of Dialogue
      6. Hear It from My Boss
      7. Unbounded, But Grounded in Reality
      8. Putting It All Together
      9. Reaching Scale and Speed
      10. Lighting 1,000 Fires Only Gets You Burned
      11. Endnotes
    10. 8. Productive Speed
      1. Get the Train Moving, Now
      2. The Benefits of Productive Speed
      3. All Aboard at Internet Speed
      4. Designing the Process for Speed
      5. The No-Slack Launch
      6. Quick Starts
      7. How Do You Keep Time?
      8. Speed as a Leadership Discipline
      9. Endnotes
    11. 9. Creating Leadership Power at All Levels
      1. The Power Curve
      2. The Under-Powered Organization
      3. Shifting Up the Power Curve
      4. Executive Management
        1. This Is Your Day Job
        2. Everyone Takes a Half Step Up
      5. Middle Management
      6. A Real High Flyer
      7. Front-Line Managers
      8. Big Ideas from within the Team
      9. Sharing Power Creates Power
      10. Endnotes
    12. 10. Building Operational Traction
      1. Commit with Confidence, Publicly
      2. Building Traction
      3. Accountability
      4. Simple Closed-Loop Accountability
      5. Promises Versus Declarations
        1. Shoot for the Moon—Drive Innovation
        2. Above and Below the Waterline
      6. Don’t Get Overly Fixated on the Dashboard
        1. Ground Truth: The Real Results
      7. Misguided Incentives
      8. Performance Coaching
      9. Endnotes
    13. 11. Over the Hump and Into the Slump
      1. Post-Launch Blues
        1. Ballast and Keel
      2. Mid-Course Adjustment
      3. The Process Is Not a One-Time Overlay
      4. Mini-Cascades
      5. Launching the New Year
      6. Oh Right, the Behaviors...
      7. You Don’t Get to Relax
      8. Plan to Punctuate the Equilibrium Regularly
      9. Endnotes
    14. 12. Are You Up to the Challenge?
      1. White-Hot Commitment of the Leader
      2. Change the People, or Change the People
      3. You Don’t Have All the Answers (And Nobody Expects You To)
      4. Get Real
      5. Go For It!
      6. Endnotes
    15. Afterword
      1. Why Did We Write the Book?
        1. Mike Kanazawa
        2. Bob Miles
    16. Acknowledgments
    17. About the Authors
    18. Financial Times Press

    Product information

    • Title: BIG Ideas to BIG Results: Remake and Recharge Your Company, Fast
    • Author(s): Michael T. Kanazawa, Robert H. Miles
    • Release date: February 2008
    • Publisher(s): Pearson
    • ISBN: 9780768681932