EXECUTION

　　The book that shows how to get the job done and deliverresults . . . whether you’re running an entire company or in yourfirst management job　　Larry Bossidy is one of the world’s most acclaimed CEOs, a manwith few peers who has a track record for delivering results. RamCharan is a legendary advisor to senior executives and boards ofdirectors, a man with unparalleled insight into why some companiesare successful and others are not. Together they’ve pooled theirknowledge and experience into the one book on how to close the gapbetween results promised and results delivered that people inbusiness need today.　　After a long, stellar career with General Electric, Larry Bossidytransformed AlliedSignal into one of the world’s most admiredcompanies and was named CEO of the year in 1998 by Chief Executivemagazine. Accomplishments such as 31 consecutive quarters ofearnings-per-share growth of 13 percent or more didn’t just happen;they resulted from the consistent practice of the discipline ofexecution: understanding how to link together people, strategy, andoperations, the three core processes of every business.　　Leading these processes is the real job of running a business,not formulating a “vision” and leaving the work of carrying it outto others. Bossidy and Charan show the importance of being deeplyand passionately engaged in an organization and why robustdialogues about people, strategy, and operations result in abusiness based on intellectual honesty and realism.　　The leader’s most important job—selecting and appraisingpeople—is one that should never be delegated. As a CEO, LarryBossidy personally makes the calls to check references for keyhires. Why? With the right people in the right jobs, there’s aleadership gene pool that conceives and selects strategies that canbe executed. People then work together to create a strategybuilding block by building block, a strategy in sync with therealities of the marketplace, the economy, and the competition.Once the right people and strategy are in place, they are thenlinked to an operating process that results in the implementationof specific programs and actions and that assigns accountability.This kind of effective operating process goes way beyond thetypical budget exercise that looks into a rearview mirror to setits goals. It puts reality behind the numbers and is where therubber meets the road.　　Putting an execution culture in place is hard, but losing it iseasy. In July 2001 Larry Bossidy was asked by the board ofdirectors of Honeywell International (it had merged withAlliedSignal) to return and get the company back on track. He’sbeen putting the ideas he writes about in Execution to work in realtime.