Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Glossy version of getting things done.
I though the book was a good quick read. As you will see in other reviews, the book tended towards generalities. It's key ideas are excellent, but not new. The linkage bewteen vision, strategy, and operational plans is well done. There are a lot of annecdotes, and some numbers and examples. The book tends to stay in the rarified air of CEO strategy. The book draws heavily from the GE experience and on information in Welch's books.I also saw strong parallels to the topics discussed in the Malcolm Baldrige criteria (linkage, strategy, plans, resources) and systems thinking (Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline). I think this is good as an introductory book and in providing context, then move on to other books for the meat of the subject.
Rating: - School Report - Promising, but must work harder?
As some of the other reviewers have stated this seems little light on the real "how to get things done" part. I cannot disagree with anything that is said here and if you are new to the idea of dealing with fact, tactics, and action, then this is a good primer to soften you up before getting into action. But it still left me feeling that so much has been left out. This is like the presentation you get that is followed by three times as long on the Q&A session as we all ask loads of questions. I think the guys know their stuff but I doubt they have put much time into this and the poor old ghost writer has been burning the midnight oil to shape this one up. I could have been like Gary Hamel's "Leading the Revolution" with so much more check-lists and key question templates. I think the authors would be dissapointed with how this one worked out if they were not already making shed-loads of money at the day-jobs. Still I guess it kept Charles Burck busy and gainfully employed
Rating:  - You can't really learn to execute from a book
Bossidy and Charan's book has a simplicity in its advice that is a breath of fresh air after much of the new economy hype that has filled the bookshelves in the past few years. The book argues that the primary reason for much of the poor corporate performance we've seen in the past few years (outside of outright dishonest companies like Enron, WorldCom, and their ilk) has not been muddled strategy, lack of innovation, or an ever more rapidly changing marketplace but poor execution. Conversely, they argue that great execution has been one of the cornerstones for the great corporate success, such as General Electric. (Jack Welch looms large in the background here.) And good execution is a lot more commonsensical than you might think: it is merely insuring that corporate strategy is well-conceived and solidly grounded in the company's human and operational capacities. This is a difficult subject for a book, because there is no cookie-cutter methodology the authors could provide that could help you drill deeply into your own company's strategy, staffing, and operational plans and really root out the strengths and the weaknesses of them. Good execution, they argue, has its roots in asking good probing questions, questions that will be different in each situation. The authors include a number of general questions in each area to help begin this probing, but that's about as far as a book can take it. The bulk of the book, though is anecdotes illustrating how this has worked either well or poorly at other companies. If you're looking for clear-cut instructions, this is likely to be disappointing. What is most interesting about this book is how well it dovetails with Jim Collins' recent bestseller "Good to Great." Collins' book describes the general patterns to successful corporate change (or execution). Bossidy and Charan's book describes some of the nuts and bolts needed to follow that pattern, from styles of leadership, getting the right people in the right jobs, doing honest assessments of a company's capacity, and then working toward goals with great focus. If you enjoyed Collins' book, this book can help you figure out better how to make great execution happen in your own company.
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