|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty: Managing in a Downturn
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sales rank 32,083
Customers rating (based on 20 reviews)
|
|
|
|
|
"There is no better person than Ram Charan to provide advice on managing in a downturn."--Larry Bossidy, Former Chairman and CEO Honeywell International Inc. As a business leader today, you face an unprecedented challenge: the worldwide economic downturn. Cash and credit are dwindling, sales forecasts are dismal, and morale is sinking. This is not a time to reflect. It is a time to act, decide, and energize your people...with urgency... This is your moment.Are you up to the task? In Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty, Ram Charan helps you steer your business through the minefi eld of contracting markets, cash shortages, and ongoing uncertainty. No matter what your leadership role, Charan's insight will help ensure that your business emerges leaner, stronger, and well in front of the competition. "We will not know when we have turned the corner, and we cannot envision the shape and scope of the world that will emerge," Charan writes. "What we can be sure of is that this is a time of tumultuous change, and with change come both danger and opportunity." In this concise and highly accessible guide, the author provides practical actions you can execute immediately to: - Protect cash flow vigilantly, even daily, and use cash more effi ciently
- Use ground intelligence to survive the storm and position your business to thrive in the aftermath
- Develop a better understanding of your customers
- Reevaluate your pricing strategy and capital expenditures.
- Use cost cutting strategically
. With examples and case studies, Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty illustrates how leaders at DuPont, Hanesbrands, Wipro, and other companies used Charan's techniques to get results.. The chaos of global economic meltdown has. imposed an urgency you have never before. experienced. It's a scary thing, but it can also. be exciting...if you're prepared...
|
|
|
| Publisher | McGraw-Hill | | Release date | 12/2008 | | Availability | | | Edition | Hardcover |
| | List price | $22.95 | | Our price | $15.61 (you save 31.98%) | | Used price | from $5.6 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 A Disappointment from a Usually Great Author
While there is some good advice in this book, most of it is generic and applies in good times as bad. The one key new directive is to focus on cash more than anything else. This follows clearly if one understands the business fundamentals presented in the author's book What the CEO Wants You to Know : How Your Company Really Works. Since credit is tighter, and most companies' financials will look worse with declining revenues, getting cash externally will be much more difficult. The best solution is to work to avoid needing external cash.
Another new suggestion is to accept the greater uncertainty by revising budgets more frequently. By doing so, companies can react more quickly and also keep goals more realistic. With (unchanging) annual budgets in a very uncertain world, a month or two into the year, the budget may already be impossible, or met, if a turnaround happens sooner than expected. Either way, persisting with a grossly unrealistic budget for most of a year is not a good idea.
Unfortunately these two solid ideas and a little fluff (advice applicable anytime) does not make for compelling book.
A different view of leadership
Whilst the sub title of "Leadership In The Era Of Economic Uncertainty" reads "The New Rules for Getting the Right Things Done in Difficult Times", it is more a narrative by the author Ram Charan than "rules" per se. None-the-less, the narrative is effective, well directed and most pertinent to today's business leaders. Written in the first person, it could at times be likened to lecturing - this should not be taken as a criticism as once one gets used to the author's style it in fact becomes quite evocative.
Although Charan does not say so, this is a book for CEOs and the senior management of organisations. For instance. it has specific chapters for the CEO and the Heads of Sales & Marketing, Finance, Operations, R & D, the Supply Chain and the Staff Functions. There is even a chapter for the Board. Each chapter has key actions that leaders in each of these areas can apply. Because of the writer's style, a summary of the key points at the end of each chapter would have been useful to aid memory and assist implementation.
If you are looking for an understanding of the principles that underpin organisational success, this book has the answers. For example, in the chapter for Chief Financial Officers, the writer describes two types of CFOs. One type are those who look outwardly toward investors and make sure the company's debt ratings, price/earnings ratio and financing/refinancing of debt structure are adequate and appropriate. The second type of CFOs are those who work more internally in partnership with the CEO in managing financial performance and maintaining the company's sound financial health. These types are not mutually exclusive, but the discussion and the tips for managing both aspects in tough times, would be useful to both CEOs and CFOs. In this chapter, Charan also has some great tips for managing the finances throughout the organisation by ". . . educating the troops in liquidity, most of whom do not have a clue about liquidity."
It's easy to see that Charan has a good handle on day-to-day corporate life - he is not just a theorist. For example, his keen understanding that "CFOs have a tendency not to trust line managers to do the right thing in all cases and therefore put some resources in reserve without telling anyone in case the company looks like it might come up short at the end of the quarter" will resonate with most senior financial managers.
Charan also has great tips for the other senior corporate managers. In the chapter on Operations, he covers both product and service type organisations. He provides an excellent example of how tough times can affect service delivery in the airline industry. With the downturn in business class travel, some airlines' capacity dropped by as much as 70%. This left the same number of cabin crew to service far less customers. One would expect customers to get far more attention. What often happened was that customers actually received less attention - because there were less people to serve, cabin crew took up the idle time by talking more amongst themselves. Charan's advice is to make sure your service functions are appropriately staffed and the need for service is stressed even more in these times.
Charan also has good news for trainers. Instead of cutting the training budget, he suggests that it should be more focused. "HR needs to create and deliver the appropriate materials and methods in areas such as contract negotiations and price setting, with an emphasis on collaboration. You will get a big return on investment if you recruit your own senior executives to teach some of these sessions by using actual information, problems and challenges. Not only will such sessions bring home the reality of why people need to master these skills, they will give the `teachers' a fresh insight into their own psychology and valuable input from people on the line."
From an organisation development perspective, one initial concern I had about the book was the number of times senior leaders were advised to communicate directly with the Board. Does this hint at a lack of role definition between CEO and the Board?. How should the CEO handle his/her direct reports communicating directly with the Board? This concern was not evident however, in the chapter written for the Board which focused on the Board/CEO relationship. Perhaps this role definition could be better spelt out. I was impressed with some of the common sense advice for the Board, such as having a cocktail party for 20 senior managers the day before a Board meeting. This meeting is not intended to provide further corporate information for the Board, rather it is to enable the Board members to gauge the morale of the organisation.
This would be a great book for anyone in a senior management role. For trainers, it could be very useful for two reasons - self-education to get a real handle on perhaps some unfamiliar areas of corporate life and as pre-reading for senior management and leadership development programmes. For coaches of senior executives, various chapters could be really good resources for clients' personal development. It's also recommended reading for anyone in a staff function wishing to improve their personal credibility within the organisation.
Bob Selden, author What To Do When You Become The Boss: How new managers become successful managers
 Timely management handbook for hard times
This short, pointed book by one of America's leading management thinkers offers a checklist of to-do steps for managers who are coping with the economic crisis. Ram Charan covers all the bases: the board of directors, chief officers, operations, sales, research and development, and more. He offers direct, unambiguous, actionable advice for managing at each level, including: manage for cash, watch the numbers, know which customers to fire and recognize that annual targets make no sense when demand is unpredictable. The author's record as a coach to CEOs and as an author of best-selling business books speaks for itself. In this book, getAbstract finds that he more than lives up to his reputation, avoiding jargon, generalizations and lofty theoretical pronouncements to focus on what managers must do now to survive.
Great read, timely insight
Good quick read that provides excellent insight into the business response required for the economic climate in which we find ourselves. This is my first Charan book and I'm looking forward to reading more.
Costs down within days! Most inspiring to make changes
In short: I would highly recommend this book to entrepreneurs who are looking for ideas on how to change their organizations. I would also recommend it to consultants who assist entrepreneurs in changing or strengthening organizations.
Thank you, Ram, for this book! There is only a small number of books that really inspire to change things. Within a week of reading the book, I halved the rent at my company (managing for cash), eliminated consultants changing lots of what they did into systems, prepared for the worst scenario and on with other execution that is too long to list here. Well, a lot of cash recovered just in a week which is a measurable result. No other books have inspired me to do such things in such a short time. And my staff loved it (not all of the consultants.....)
I have my company in Japan, and want to give lots of copies to people I know. Japanese entrepreneurs need to read it as a wake up call, so hope we would get a Japanese translation VERY soon.
It is a shame to see long reviews that do not reflect on any changes they have made at their companies inspired by the book. For business books no point talking about how good or bad they were, they either inspired and helped with changes or not.
Ram, thank you so much again, and look forward to your new books for entrepreneurs/leaders/change makers. Entrepreneurs, don't listen to academic reviews of this book, read, execute and judge for yourself.
|
|
| | |
|
