Amazon.com
In their previous book, The Balanced Scorecard, Robert Kaplan and David Norton unveiled an innovative "performance management system" that any company could use to focus and align their executive teams, business units, human resources, information technology, and financial resources on a unified overall strategy--much as businesses have traditionally employed financial management systems to track and guide their general fiscal direction. In The Strategy-Focused Organization, Kaplan and Norton explain how companies like Mobil, CIGNA, and Chemical Retail Bank have effectively used this approach for nearly a decade, and in the process present a step-by-step implementation outline that other organizations could use to attain similar results. Their book is divided into five sections that guide readers through development of a completely individualized plan that is created with "strategy maps" (graphical representations designed to clearly communicate desired outcomes and how they are to be achieved), then infused throughout the enterprise and made an integral part of its future. In several chapters devoted to the latter, for example, the authors show how their models have linked long-term strategy with day-to-day operational and budgetary management, and detail the "double loop" process for doing so, monitoring progress, and initiating corrective actions if necessary. --Howard Rothman
Book Description
In today's business environment, strategy has never been more important. Yet research shows that most companies fail to execute strategy successfully. Behind this abysmal track record lies an undeniable fact: many companies continue to use management processes-top-down, financially driven, and tactical-that were designed to run yesterday's organizations.
Now, the creators of the revolutionary performance management tool called the Balanced Scorecard introduce a new approach that makes strategy a continuous process owned not just by top management, but by everyone. In The Strategy-Focused Organization, Robert Kaplan and David Norton share the results of ten years of learning and research into more than 200 companies that have implemented the Balanced Scorecard. Drawing from more than twenty in-depth case studies-including Mobil, CIGNA, Nova Scotia Power, and AT&T Canada-Kaplan and Norton illustrate how Balanced Scorecard adopters have taken their groundbreaking tool to the next level. These organizations have used the scorecard to create an entirely new performance management framework that puts strategy at the center of key management processes and systems.
Kaplan and Norton articulate the five key principles required for building Strategy-Focused Organizations: (1) translate the strategy to operational terms, (2) align the organization to the strategy, (3) make strategy everyone's everyday job, (4) make strategy a continual process, and (5) mobilize change through strong, effective leadership. The authors provide a detailed account of how a range of organizations in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors have deployed these principles to achieve breakthrough, sustainable performance improvements.
Presenting a practical, proven framework steeped in rich case study experience, The Strategy-Focused Organization helps solve a universal management problem-not just how to formulate strategy, but how to make it work. Building on one of the most revolutionary business ideas of our time, this important book shows how today's leaders can shape their own companies to meet the challenges and reap the rewards of a new competitive era.
Robert S. Kaplan is the Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development at Harvard Business School. David P. Norton is President of Balanced Scorecard Collaborative, Inc.
Download Description
The creators of the revolutionary performance management tool called the Balanced Scorecard introduce a new approach that makes strategy a continuous process owned not just by top management, but by everyone. In The Strategy-Focused Organization, Robert Kaplan and David Norton share the results of ten years of learning and research into more than 200 companies that have implemented the Balanced Scorecard. Drawing from more than twenty in-depth case studies--including Mobil, CIGNA, and AT&T Canada--Kaplan and Norton illustrate how Balanced Scorecard adopters have taken their groundbreaking tool to the next level. These organizations have used the scorecard to create an entirely new performance management framework that puts strategy at the center of key management processes and systems. Kaplan and Norton articulate the five key principles required for building strategy-focused organizations: 1) translate the strategy into operational terms, 2) align the organization to the strategy, 3) make strategy everyone's everyday job, 4) make strategy a continual process, and 5) mobilize change through strong, effective leadership. The authors provide a detailed account of how a range of organizations in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors have deployed these principles to achieve breakthrough, sustainable performance improvements.
Customer Reviews:
Overview, technique and implementation.......2006-08-21
An outstandingly well written book that decribes the balanced scorecard and provides excellent examples. An effective, practical guide for C-level executives and mid-level managers for implementing strategic scorcarding. I recommned this book for the breadth and depth of the explanation of the subject matter and concise implmentation examples.
If you can measure it, you can manage it.......2006-02-28
The Balanced Scorecard was initially designed as a financial and non-financial corporate performance measurement tool. Organizations focused on strategy have taken the Balanced Scorecard and transformed it into a strategic tool for measurement. These 5 key principles transform the Balanced Scorecard:
Principle 1: Translate Strategy into Operational Terms. Describing the strategy of the organization, communicating it via the Building Scorecard in an insightful, consistent and operational manner is the cornerstone to putting strategy at the center of an organization. This principle accomplishes this by using the Balanced Scorecard to view strategy from 4 different perspectives: financial, customer, internal business processes, and learning.
Principle 2: Align the Organization to the Strategy.
The Balanced scorecard can link the many different and dispersed functions. It can clarify the values, beliefs and ideas that reflect the organization's identity, and clarify the actions mandated at the corporate level that create synergies at the business unit level.
Principle 3: Make Strategy Everyone's Everyday Job.
This principle, utilizing the Balanced Scorecard, focuses on three processes to align employees to the strategy: creating strategic awareness, defining personal and team objectives, and linking compensation to the Balanced Scorecard
Principle 4: Make Strategy a Continual Process.
The Balanced Scorecard creates a reporting system to monitor progress and serve as a link between managing strategy and managing operations. This system enables organizations to accomplish three things: link strategy and budget, close the strategy loop, and test, learn, and adapt.
Principle 5: Mobilize Change Through Executive Leadership.
The Balanced Scorecard helps executive leadership implement large scale changes that are necessary to implement new strategies. Specifically, it helps organizations specify, in detail, critical elements:
· Target customers where profitable growth will occur
· Value propositions that lead customers to do more business and at higher margins with the company
· Innovations in products, services and processes
· Investments in people and systems to enhance processes and deliver differentiated value propositions for growth
Highly Recommended!.......2005-06-20
The fact that executives keep trying new strategic initiatives despite their abysmal rate of failure is, like second marriages, a triumph of hope over experience. Or, it may indicate just how much pressure top managers face to improve their profits. By one estimate, nine out of ten companies fail to execute their strategic visions. Yet, CEOs - who witness a world in constant flux - continue to introduce change initiatives. Are they trapped in the operational definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result? Or, are they just ready for this book? Authors Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton offer wise counsel to help executives break the cycle of strategic flops. They advise executives to transform their companies into "Strategy-Focused Organizations" using the "Balanced Scorecard" and "strategic mapping" tools. With these initiatives, CEOs can ensure that every employee pays attention to strategy implementation. Kaplan and Norton, the all-star co-author team who wrote "The Balanced Scorecard" and "Strategy Maps", have done it again, in this well-organized but somewhat dry volume. We strongly recommend this book to any manager who is responsible for designing or implementing a strategic change initiative.
Overblown and impractical.......2002-11-22
Having used the BSc a few times in my work, I expected this to be a hepful addition to my knowledge base in the area. I found that it added little to the author's other published tomes and to his articles in journals like HBR. Although the basic concept is sound, the implementation challenges are dealt with as you'd expect from an ivory tower-based profesoor and are several steps removed from the challenges that most of my real-world, and smaller company clients, need to address. I truly felt as though I didn't get my money's worth with this purchase and I should have stuck with the materials I already had by the author that was available in other forms. I would have saved time, money and a degree of frustration.
A must have tool for business improvement.......2002-05-23
If you're attempting to improve the way you do business, this book is a must have. It is a little dry so you have to be committed to using the concepts presented. If you can manage to stick with it, you will reap the benefits of the BSC. Good Luck!
Book Description
The dramatic changes in the financial services industry have had a great effect on profitability, forcing financial institutions to change their management focus. Increased competitive pressures, tightening interest rates spreads and declining deposits balances have made goals even more difficult to achieve. The Financial Services Industries Consulting Practices at Ernst & Young LLP have developed this perfect guide to help readers reach those increasingly difficult goals. This reliable source of guidance has insight on asset/liability management, branch profitability and complete bank-wide performance program. It looks at all aspects of profitability, including hands-on approaches to: profitability philosophies and structures; balance sheet, revenue and expense components: transfer pricing of funds; planning and budgeting; performance measurements.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent, both on banking and project management aspects.......1998-12-03
This is the only book that covers all of the aspects of performance management in banking : 1. the analysis of performance measurement is very good even though, the coverage of financial data is overweight with respect to the rest of the book 2. the project approach is excellent and the various "pitfalls" described are so true that the people that wrote it necessarily had a good project experience, only problem is that the system architectures described did not evolve with the new edition (the word "data warehouse" is evoked once or twice) 3. As usual with this type of books, the "using the information" chapters are a bit a dry, even thought some interesting ideas are described regarding "customer information" In summary, a must read for any person trying to implement a performance indicators or Balanced Scorecard systm in its bank ("financial institutions" in the title is actually retail or commercial banking) PS : I am not an E & Y employee ... so this is not an advertising review
Book Description
Quality management. Process mapping. Speed to production. In the past 50 years, a rigorous, measurement-based methodology called Six Sigma has brought production management to previously unimaginable levels of success and sophistication. Top corporations such as Motorola and GE have built their reputations, products, and revenues using this approach. Indeed, Six Sigma has found widespread application in every significant industry and business—except marketing and sales.
In Sales and Marketing the Six Sigma Way, sales and quality guru Michael Webb shows how to blend marketing and sales efforts with the cutting-edge methods of Six Sigma to boost their bottom lines. With Webb’s book as a guide, readers learn to engineer rapid routes to customer value, accurately predict future revenue, and ensure return on investment for their projects.
In Sales and Marketing the Six Sigma Way, you will:
* Find out why ""the usual fixes"" for sales problems don't work
* Meet executives who have used Six Sigma to imrpove marketing and sales results
* See the pitfalls that await the unwary when applying process improvement in sales
* Learn how to introduce Six Sigma to sales and marketing professionals
* Discover through examples and cases how to manage sales as a process
Webb walks readers through several Six Sigma sales and marketing projects from start to finish, highlighting the tools, decisions, and results that made them successful. He shows the practical methods managers use to translate process improvement principles to the human world of selling and marketing.
With his dual background in sales and marketing management and in quality improvement, Webb speaks clearly to readers in both disciplines. This makes Sales and Marketing the Six Sigma Way the indispensible guide for sales and marketing professionals who want to excel in today's business environment, and for quality improvement experts who want to help them.
Customer Reviews:
A Must Read for CEOs Tired of Same Old Sales Excuses.......2007-08-17
This book tackles the central marketing problem of our time ....too many suspects, and an ever dwindling number of qualified prospects. Mr. Webb untangles this problem and then shows you how to design a selling system to be an ever improving "machine". A fun read with lots of how-to and examples.
It's a PE Book.......2007-07-24
It's Good to me, I work for jnj of china. it helps and leads me do the project is well
Merging Six Sigma with Sales & Marketing.......2007-07-20
Michael Webb has done a fantastic job with merging the six sigma methodology with the sales & marketing disciplines. This book takes the six sigma practice, that has long been used in the manufacturing circles, and applies it to the sales function in a way that is both concise and understandable. Six sigma promises to change the future of sales just as it has manufacturing, and this book is the road map for that journey. I would not only highly recommend this book to anyone in the sales and/or marketing arena, but consider it a must read.
Sales & Marketing the Six Sigma Way.......2007-04-03
I found this book invaluable. As a brand marketing consultant I face a barrage of misguided engineers and production minded individual who deam marketing as puffery. This book provided me a greater insight in turning these folks into marketing partners. Engineers and marketing consultants have more in common than they know - Sales & Marketing the Six Signa Way identifies how these two can and should come closer together to seek and implement the voice of the customer in establishing and marketing superior customer value.
A Great Explanation of the Sales Process.......2007-03-22
This is the first book I've read that truly and fully explains how to analyze the selling (and marketing) process and improve it. Six Sigma is not easy to understand to those who have never studied it, but the Author explains it very clearly and thoroughly. I've read a lot of sales and marketing books and this is the first one I have come across that acknowledges that selling today is very different than it used to be. Many of the existing sales books are completely out of date and were written for a different era. This book is a fresh new look at the sales process overall and where the obstacles may be.
Book Description
PRAISE FOR Balanced Scorecard Step-By-Step: Maximizing Performance and Maintaining Results, Second Edition
"As a practitioner and thought leader, Paul Niven is superbly bridging the gulf between BSC theory and application through hands-on experiences and real-world case studies. The book provides a practical road map, step-by-step, to plan, execute, and sustain a winning scorecard campaign. Easy to read . . . tells a powerful story with lessons learned/best practices from global customer implementations. Must-read for anyone interested in BSC or grappling with how to create a strategically aligned organization."
—Vik Torpunuri, President and CEO, e2e Analytix
"In Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step, Second Edition, Paul Niven provides an intuitive and incredibly effective blueprint for transitioning strategic ambition to execution. Paul's pragmatic approach provides leaders with a tool for managing a company's journey from strategic ideas to world-class performance. The Balanced Scorecard is a masterful tool for guiding companies through transformation, and I speak from personal experience when I say Paul's blueprint works! It is the most effective guide I have seen. Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step will serve any leader well if their ambition is to efficiently engage their teams in achieving a set of strategic goals."
—Allan A. MacDonald, Vice President, Sales and Customer Solutions Bell Canada National Markets
"Paul Niven has done it again!!! With this book, he has further operationalized the enlightened Balanced Scorecard concept into a fully functional system that optimizes business execution and performance!"
—Barton Johnson, President, Financial Freedom Senior Funding Corporation, The Reverse Mortgage Specialist
Customer Reviews:
Excellent guide for todays business leader.......2007-09-03
This book is an excellent guide for today's business leader, in helping him or her develop a comprehensive understanding of what is important to run a business, and also, what needs to be regularly tracked, managed and metered such that you are in tune with what is going on, and can steer successfully in the turbulent business climate of today. Hats off to Mr. Niven for his insights and understanding of business today, and the needs of the business leaders of today and tomorrow.
Step-by-step to answers.......2007-08-20
I really recommended this book to anyone who are interesting to implement BSC methodology. For those who has some BSC ground and try to put BSC in work this book will clarify each dilemmas they face by searching through BSC methodology (who, how and why?). It is the best guidelines to implement BSC because Niven drive us easily from the beginning of project to the implementation with all necessary data.
Book is easily to read and completely applicable.
Practical application of Kaplan and Norton.......2007-07-30
As a MBA (Enterprise) student I found this book very useful in the preparation of a balanced scorecard for an assessment. The book by Niven was well structured and informative with interesting stories of the author's application of the scorecard in real world settings. As someone who has limited experience in this area the book was very helpful in the initial stages of the preparation of a strategy map and scorecard. Consequently, I would recommend it to anyone who wishes to implement a scorecard as the text provides an excellent outline of the development of a scorecard.
Good Know How for inexperience colsultants.......2007-01-03
As we are trying to build up the Balance Scorecard in our company, we have read the material published by Norton and Kaplan and also we had trainig on BSC as well.
We have found this book useful because of the experience that the author transfer for new consultants that are in the begining of building up the strategy map and the scorecard, full of theory but no practice at all.
Well organized, well written....nice to read........2005-10-29
Mr. Niven has done an excellent job. It is easier and more entertaining to read his book than the books by the masters of BSC (Kaplan and Norton).
The book is well organized, the order of the topics is very logical and easy to follow. When he summarizes concepts, he does it very well, writing just enough to discuss the subject.
Implementing BSC is not an easy task, but with this book you have a very good guide.
I would say that Mr. Niven has outperformed his teachers!!!
Book Description
Many investment books include a chapter or two on investment performance measurement or focus on a single aspect, but only one book addresses the breadth of the field.
Investment Performance Measurement is a comprehensive guide that covers the subjects of performance and risk calculation, attribution, presentation, and interpretation. This information-packed book covers a wide range of related topics, including calculation of the returns earned by portfolios; measurement of the risks taken to earn these returns; measurement of the risk and return efficiency of the portfolio and other indicators of manager skill; and much more. By reviewing both the concepts of performance measurement and examples of how they are used, readers will gain the insight necessary to understand and evaluate the management of investment funds.
Investment Performance Measurement makes extensive use of fully worked examples that supplement formulas and is a perfect companion to professional courses and seminars for analysts.
Bruce J. Feibel, CFA, is Product Manager at Eagle Investment Systems, an investment management software provider located in Newton, Massachusetts. He is responsible for overseeing the development of Eagle's investment performance measurement, attribution, and AIMR/GIPS compliance software. Prior to joining Eagle, Mr. Feibel was a principal at State Street Global Advisors. He earned his BS in accounting from the University of Florida.
Customer Reviews:
Great reference book.......2007-05-03
I'm taking the Investments course within the Certified Financial Planner program. This book really helped clarify many of the terms and formulas we had to learn. The Mayo text covers the material, but from a more academic slant. I just wish I had bought the Feibel book well before the class started. It may not be technical enough for graduate students in Finance or people who normally read scholarly papers on investment theory. But for everyone else, like individual investors or people going back to school learning investing fundmentals, it's a great reference.
Shelf worthy but not authoritative.......2006-11-11
This book provides the novice a moderate reference to world of investment performance reporting, ala performance reporting 101.
As an IT management consult I can comfortably say there is no one authoritative reference on anything. That said, this text while historically and technically accurate does not represent nor provide meaningful examples of contemporary best practices.
Also, absent from the text are key discussions I would have benefited: the opportunities availed to a modern organization for large-scale automated computations - rather than all manual processes; linkages to the consumers of the performance information in various communities from client wealth tiers, brokerage operations, and financial advisers, analysts and money managers; and best practices for some of the new product and security types more prevalent in the 2006 era.
Basic to Advanced.......2006-03-11
This book is very well thought out and takes it step by step from basic to advanced.
The really good thing about it is that it shows you how it looks in Excel which means it helps with how it would be entered into a computer.
Best book on investment performance measurement.......2004-02-24
I have read many books on this subject. This book is the best. It's well written, easy to understand, but in much detail.
Some other books only cover some calculation of returns, but this book covers all the subjects that matter to investment performance measurement: Return Measurement, Risk Measurement, Efficiency and Skill Measurement, Performance Attribution and Performance Presentation.
This book is not expensive. Good value for your money.
Anne-Mei-Ling
Indexfund Investment Group BV analyst
Clear and Concise.......2004-02-05
Excellent presentation of performance measurement. Great for the novice to advanced reader. Very concise yet thorough as well as a focused text. Calculations are clear with plenty of examples which makes this text very user-friendly. The reader can quickly begin to implement the formulas. Highly recommend to anyone interested in this important topic.
Book Description
Managing Bank Capital explains proven techniques available in the management of bank capital that will help maximize shareholder value. This second edition has been fully updated to incorporate significant developments, such as the modeling of credit risk, and includes new sections with more technical information and advanced analysis.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent overview and detail on economic capital for banks.......2006-09-06
I bought this book hoping it would quickly bring me up to speed on key concepts in Economic Capital in the financial institutions industry. This book was simple enough for a relative novice to follow, and went into enough detail that I think most people would get something out of it. I also thought the book was well organized-- each section had a summary chapter that explained what the subsequent chapters in that section would cover so you could quickly skim or deep dive on various topics. The book was a bit dated in the sections on Basel, since it was written before Basel II was completed. Overall, an excellent introduction to Economic Capital and I was happy with my purchase.
Helpful Concepts, Lacking Implementatin Steps.......2002-07-30
With all the attention paid to bank capital management, this book is helpful in describing the concepts. However, it is not quantitative enough. The step-by-step of capital allocation for a given asset class of varying risk levels is lacking. For example, how should the bank treat the sub-prime portion of its credit card or auto loans in the capital allocation? I wish it were more specific. Could Providian or Capital One have directed the capital away from high risk loans, had they followed the advice of the book?
A Must-Read Book for Shareholder Value Management.......1999-06-05
Chris Matten provides a comprehensive guide to applications of RAROC and shareholder value for managing bank capital and compensating bank executives and traders. The author provides particularly good sections on how EVA, shareholder value, and other earnings based measures can be manipulated and abused. This is not the sort of book which the corporate finance shareholder value crowd would likely read, but is one which they need to read.
Excellent only book on the economic allocation of capital........1998-04-26
Mr. Matten's insightful work highlights how rigid appliction of the Basle Accords can lead to capital misallocation. He then provides insightful suggestions, with good examples, on how to better allocate bank capital by discriminating between borrowers on the basis of risk, all the while remaining within the basle guidelines. Mr. Matten points to the need for sophisticated mathematical-statistical analysis but does not dwell on the technicalities, making the book accessible to non-rocket scientists. All in all, a highly recommended book.
Great book, but watch out for typos.......1997-12-16
For a comprehensive approach that brings the reader from Cooke through RAROC, this book is very good and has no competition . What basic explanations of statistics theory you need in order to follow the main 'story' is included discreetly, so advanced readers shouldn't be bothered by them. This being said, beware the errors -- they exist throughout: for the price that Wiley Press is able to get in light of the lack of competition from another good RAROC capital allocation book ($69 last year, $95 now), it hopefully has caught and corrected them. Caveat emptor.
Book Description
From the author of the bestselling It's Not the Big That Eat the Small,It's the Fast That Eat the Slow comes a vital new guide to increasing business productivity without adding employees or other overhead costs
Managers and CEOs are always looking for ways to keep productivity high, and recent economic shakiness has only reinforced their need. Now Jason Jennings, a bestselling author and international business consultant, offers a groundbreaking look at how to boost productivity and your bottom line.
In Less Is More, Jennings shares tested and successful programs from the leading giants in industry and presents new trends that businesses of all sizes will be able to implement. Inside, you'll learn how to:
* increase sales 300 percent without increasing head count
* become 10 times more efficient
* keep track of every penny
* use technology and automation in your favor
Written in the same breezy, informative style of Jennings's previous book, Less Is More is sure to join its predecessor on bestseller lists nationwide.
Customer Reviews:
Well Done.......2006-04-22
Stories of successful businesses fill this book. The author got "down and dirty" and did in-the-trenches research to find the best performing companies in the world. Then he spoke with the CEO's to find out what makes them and their businesses tick.
Insightful !.......2005-02-23
This is not just another book about the secrets of famous companies. It is, instead, a book about the secrets of somewhat obscure but great companies. The principles that author Jason Jennings propounds are familiar enough, but most of his examples will not be familiar to the general reader. That is no drawback. Although some of these companies are less well known, they have all achieved great business success (if not fame) by applying some of the most tried, true and proven axioms of management. Treat people with respect, pay them for performance, focus on one clear and understandable mission - there is nothing new about these principles, except that they keep proving their efficacy even in the unlikeliest places. Do not look for a deep examination of management here. The book provides frustratingly scant background information about the companies themselves. But we assure those seeking a handbook of solid if venerable management advice that you will not go wrong with this interesting little book.
On the lean culture of cost leadership firms.......2004-08-02
This spring, I had a night-flight from Houston to Europe. I never got any sleep due to this book. It reads like a fiction novel while the focus is very much on the softer issues of productivity businesses. The well-written behind-the-wall stories and interviews with successful top executives give us insight to many issues that usual case stories do not explain.
Business magazines often glorify top executives by telling about the grand strategic plan behind the success. This little book shows us a different story. It provides insight to the many seemingly small traits of the lean culture that only works because they taken serious by the organization and used in combination. These are the 11 traits required for the leader of a highly productive enterprise: attention to detail, high moral fiber, embracing simplicity, competitiveness, long-term focus, disdain for waste, coach leadership, humility, rejection of bureaucracy, belief in others, and trust.
I'm sure you're really not impressed of this list. Neither am I. But try challenging some of the advice. Humility? When was the last time you saw a big company using this as a standard. When you hear the story of many head offices visited in this book, you'll understand humility. Often you'll find a very simple and humble office building for a huge company. No art on the walls! No lavish entrance hall! In these companies, you don't find huge corporate staff creating immense bureaucracy and all sorts of information requirements from their operating companies or business units. These organizations do actually "walk-the-talk" on lean - unlike many fad-driven major firms who's paying lip service to a lean culture.
PERSISTENCE is a word missing from the 11 traits, though attention to detail and long-term focus do include some of it. They never lose sight of their BIG idea or focus. It includes their performance measurement. "Everyone who works for SRC gathers once a week in their respective lunchrooms and takes part in a review of the business's financial performance for the previous week. By DOING IT WEEK IN WEEK-OUT FOR MANY YEARS the exercise has also become a system".
Okay, I'm sure that the book's research on productivity could have been better. And some of the firms reported on may experience difficulties, though most are still flourishing. But don't read this book for the hard stuff. Read the soft issues that over time usually turn out to be the hardest to beat.
I agree that it resembles "In Search of Excellence" to some degree, but remember that this book is on the lean culture of Cost Leadership firms (my interpretation, not the author's).
Peter Leerskov,
MSc in International Business (Marketing & Management) and Graduate Diploma in E-business
You Can Successfully Be a Corproate Leader.......2004-03-15
This book is an excellent example of the types of practices and procedures almost any company can follow to be successful both financially and ethically.
Jennings cites numerous companies who have carved out success while still remaining true to their customers, their employees and their values.
Not surprisingly, few of these companies are ones that so called pundits regularly review.
As the other reviews have noted, these companies are very successful financially, but they get there by asking the really pertinent business questions, and not by hiding behind an air of executive invulnerability. The leaders are real leaders, more focused on growing the company, serving customers, and doing right by employees.
What vividly differentiates these companies from the "name brands," is that in the "name" companies, executives are more concerned with their own compensation, preserving their own existence, and with profits at all costs, than long term success.
The questions you should ask yourself after reading this book are, "Where have all the leaders gone?" and "Why don't all companies follow many of Jennings' researched best practices?
After that, I would run, not walk, to one of these companies and see if you can start at the bottom and learn what it's like to work in a real company.
Very interesting but divisive and of limited value.......2003-12-30
Jennings reads his book on the unabridged audiocassette. He definitely has an announcers voice and is easy to understand. I found his inflections sort of larger-than-life/not natural at first but I quickly got acclimated, not a big issue. The book is fairly long and repeats many important themes like the need for healthy culture, process and vision in many different ways. It might be able to be shorter.
The research method Jennings and his team utilized for the book is the driver that makes the book so interesting. By carrying out detailed analysis to locate several under-the-radar, but incredibly productive companies, they managed to isolate some of the common threads for corporate success without being sucked into the vortex of large mega-companies whose stories are already well known and perhaps over-documented. The companies chosen represent a fairly good cross-section of international business, but I would have like to have seen at least one very high tech computer vendor make the cut. There are probably good reasons why there wasn't one, but there was no mention of this if my memory serves... In addition to the excellent research on the case companies, there are also some good insights into legendary companies like Ford and Toyota briefly provided for specific instances.
The significant flaw in this book is that when it is taken as a whole, it amounts to not much more than a very interesting, carefully crafted, indictment of most executive management in corporations today. The executives profiled all really know the nuts and bolts of their business and have been with them long enough to really cast Deming-like vision into reality. That plays well for well a while, but with 6 tapes, I'd like something more practical I can start at work tomorrow since I'm not an executive and probably never will be. The book does try to service this need for mid-managers like me towards the end of the book by encouraging that we apply at least some of the key principles to some degree in the hope of making a grass roots difference at least within our department. Actually, the department I work with abides by many of the principles given and they do help. But that doesn't stop large-scale lay-offs, frozen budgets and other realities that most managers really have to live with. The book's untitled theme is that strong success only flows from the top down. In the highly successful cases analyzed, each has exceptional Level 5 leaders (to use Jim Collins terminology). What if where I work is like 90% of all places where the executives turn-over a lot, are forced to optimize all decisions for short-term profit on Wall Street and de-rail some good plans due to economic realities? The book's primary advice to me would seem to be: go to work somewhere else, find that 10% club. Maybe true, but not particularly helpful today.
Even for those top-level executives whom this book will reach, it is likely to fall on deaf ears. Not because executives really are the "wing tip shoe wearers, peacock strutting" jerks Jennings occasionally alludes to. No, it is Jennings own inflammatory and derisive language that will tend to make executives shut the book. I wanted to lend my tapes to the president of my company because of the good macro-productivity ideas, but decided I wouldn't because he might take it as my endorsement of this class-warfare attitude.
There are other sources out there for most of the information here on egalitarian culture, continuous process improvement, open-book management, profit sharing incentives, etc. I'd be interested to know the average working hours of the employees in the case study companies as a cultural factor but I don't recall this being mentioned. In any case, the productivity measures would factor this in, just a cultural question I have about these companies.
Much of what Jennings says is true and interesting. There are some things that can be learned here, but much of it comes down to re-invent almost everything, starting with your executives. Who can implement that? Again, it is the detailed case study research that puts compelling value into this book.
Book Description
Provides and integrated, action-oriented roadmap to all the control system tools and techniques that are needed to manage a business effectively.
New accounting techniques including profit wheel analysis, and Strategic profitability analysis. Provides the most comprehensive presentation of the Balances scorecard approach by one of its originators. A carefully integrated structure.
For managers and MBAs who are interested in learning more about Management Control Systems.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Book, the best book I've ever read.......2007-02-12
The five stars rating is not enough. No need to say more words after all the previous reviews.
Excelent book.......2007-01-11
An excelent help for managing a business. Very practical, proven in real businesses and related with high level strategy
Absolutely Fantastic.......2004-03-02
WITHOUT QUESTION this book is the best practical business text I have ever read. Thank you Robert for unequivocally adding value - in a meaningful and tangible way that can be taken to the market and capitalised on. It's books like this that inspire me to invest (what would otherwise be leisure) time in learning & continuing my education.
The book is clear, concise, comprehensive & practical, and helped wrap together many general strategy concepts into an effective action based set of implementation tools. VERY, VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Comprehensive Integration with Strategy, Easy to Implement.......2000-03-10
I rarely get excited about textbooks, but this particular treatment of strategy, balancing leading and lagging indicators with a view of past, present and future, was enlightening. This book should be a "must read" for any mid- or senior- level manager. It shows how to make your decisions more fact-based and less 'art'. With the coming of age of "management of knowledge" this is a great tool to use to improve business processes. Definitely worth every single penny spent - but especially if you are interested in learning tangible methods!
Book Description
In recent years, a commitment to increased accountability and improved performance has become essential in both governmental agencies and nonprofit organizations. To help managers and executives in their ongoing quest for greater accountability and improved performance Theodore H. Poister, offers a comprehensive resource for designing and implementing effective performance measurement systems at the agency level. The ideas, tools, and processes in this vital resource will help organizations develop measurement systems to support such results-oriented management approaches as strategic management, results-based budgeting, performance management, process improvement, performance contracting, and employee incentive systems. Using this book as a guide, public and nonprofit organizations can accurately measure outputs, efficiency, productivity, effectiveness, service quality, and customer satisfaction, and use the resulting data to strengthen decision-making and improve agency and program performance.
Read a Charity Channel review:
http://charitychannel.com/publish/templates/?a=36&z=25
Customer Reviews:
Great book .......2007-09-09
Especially good insights into overcoming the resistence of nonprofit employees to the culture of organizational improvement - how to move them toward benchmarking and performance measurement.
Book Description
A new perspective on risk management
Risk management has evolved to address the more strategic issue of optimization of return on risk. This has been accompanied by statistical, mathematical, and financial techniques which-when actively applied-can aid an institution in producing disproportionately high returns on risk. Adding Value Through Risk Management aims to describe these techniques, illustrate their application, and discuss their strategic value for financial institutions.
David Belmont is Director of Group Risk Control for Nexgen Financial Solutions Group (NFS).
Customer Reviews:
Very timely. Thoughtful presentation.......2005-05-03
This book is a gem - very timely and well-thought out. David Belmont obviously has a lot of experience in this area, but also has put in a lot of thought-leadership into this book. He traces the Basel II accord to its roots in M&M economics, and convincingly argues why bank risk management is a critical function. He then traces a thread from risk management to capital management and shows why and how banks can make use of Basel implementations to achieve a high degree of control and positioning of their operations.
The only knock on this book is that I found several typos and simple editing errors - it is clear that deadlines won over editorial quality. Hopefully the next edition will be cleared up in this regard - nevertheless I highly recommend this book.
Risk management as an asset, not a cost.......2004-05-01
This is a book that every bank board member should read. Sure, any board member worth his/her salt will be familiar with Basel II and risk measures such as VaR, but how many think of Basel II as a cost or imposition, and VaR as just another piece of information? Mr Belmont's easy to follow approach should allow readers to examine the way in which they can differentiate their own institution by using the investment in regulatory risk management to create, rather than just protect,shareholder value.
Thankfully, Mr Belmont strikes a good balance between theory and reality, both in his explanantion of market behaviour and in the presentation of his arguments. This is a book that the "mathematically challenged" like me can still enjoy and benfit from.
Timely and useful for bankers contemplating BIS 2.......2004-04-14
Even without the incentives provided by the upcoming Basel 2 guidelines, this book is timely and convincingly puts forth the proposition that active risk management is in itself a valuable component in the creation of shareholder value. Returns on investment in more sophisticated tools for risk quantification will be enhanced when the information is not only used for performance measurement, but also for such shareholder value-added activities such as capital allocation and balance sheet structuring.
I recommend this book for all practitioners of risk management.
Practical Application.......2004-03-22
Belmont has done an exceptional job at communicating the importance and practical application of risk measures for today's business environment. The book offers the reader a thorough assessment of what banking executives face everyday and how best to manage these risk and regain the control necessary for any banking executive to grow its business without putting into jeopardy the best interest of its shareholders, which in no small measure is a testament to Belmont's clear understanding of the challenges faced by most executives and the demands they face in terms of managing near term performance goals with long term stability.
Essential Reading for Risk Managers Implementing BIS 2.......2004-03-17
Given the dual pressures banks face from regulators and investors to address the challenges of Basle 2 and create shareholder value, this book is highly relevant and timely. It provides practical, concise and real world guidance to any senior bank executive seeking to add value in his institution by optimizing the usage of economic capital. Economic capital based performance measures are clearly presented and illustrated with real life examples. Additionally, anyone implementing Basle 2 must ask how this can be done and what value it creates for the organization. This book provides the answers.
The book quickly gives a real world context the value of risk management information to bank CEOs, CFOs, institutional security analysts, and investors. It then goes on to demonstrate theoretically and practically how risk management information can be used to address key strategic decisions faced by senior bank management.
Any risk manager, CFO, or CEO in a financial institution should find this book valuable if they seek to create shareholder value in their institution. Similarly, anyone seeking to rise to the executive suite must understand the issues addressed in this well written book.
Books:
- The Toyota Product Development System: Integrating People, Process And Technology
- The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits and True Growth
- Total Construction Project Management
- Tropical Modern
- What Is the World Made Of? All About Solids, Liquids, and Gases (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science, Stage 2)
- When Bad Things Happen to Good People
- Wooden
- Your Career: How to Make it Happen (with CD-ROM)
- Z.B.A.: Zen of Business Administration - How Zen Practice Can Transform Your Work And Your Life
- 101 Best Resumes: Endorsed by the Professional Association of Resume Writers
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present
- History: Fiction or Science
- Cellular Biophysics, Vol. 1: Transport
- Engineering Drawing and Design, Workbook
- Foundations of IT Service Management: based on ITIL
- Got Parts
- Gulf Coast Kitchens: Bright Flavors from Key West to the Yucatán
- Shallow Water Dictionary
- Cloth & Comfort: Pieces of Women's Lives from Their Quilts and Diaries
- Electronic Identification, Monitoring and Tracking of Animals
Strategy & Competition
| Management & Leadership
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action
Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes
Alignment: Using the Balanced Scorecard to Create Corporate Synergies
Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step: Maximizing Performance and Maintaining Results
Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step for Government and Nonprofit Agencies
