ComputerHunter.org

 

What Really Works - AchieveMax® Top Ten Book Review


If you watch television, read the newspaper and/or magazines, frequent the Internet, or simply move in any kind of a business circle, you must have, at one time or another, pondered the following:

Why do some organizations consistently outperform their competitors?

What do managers at the best companies know-and do-to keep their organizations on top?

When it comes to implementing management practices that can propel a company to lasting success ... WHAT REALLY WORKS?

Well, what better way to find out than a massive five-year study in which over fifty consultants and business school professors at top universities around the country analyzed ten years of data on 160 companies and more than 200 management practices? They called it the Evergreen Project and their goal was to correlate superior corporate performance with the companies' adherence to 200 commonly used practices.

Companies they identify as winners consistently followed successful practices in all four of the primary areas (strategy, execution, culture and structure) and any two secondary areas (talent, leadership, innovation, and mergers and partnerships).

Primary:

  • Strategy: Devise and Maintain a Clearly Stated, Focused Strategy
  • Execution: Develop and Maintain Flawless Operational Execution
  • Culture: Develop and Maintain a Performance-Oriented Culture
  • Structure: Build and Maintain a Fast, Flexible, Flat Organization
  • Secondary:
  • Talent: Hold on to Talented Employees and Find More
  • Leadership: Keep Leaders and Directors Committed to the Business
  • Innovation: Make Innovations That Are Industry Transforming
  • Mergers & Partnerships: Make Growth Happen with Mergers and Partnerships
  • The key to long-term success, they argue, is implementing effective programs in the six areas simultaneously. After analyzing the data, William Joyce and his colleagues concluded that a company following this "4+2" formula over the ten year period had a better than 90% chance of being a winner.

    Anecdotes from the successful companies will interest general business readers, but the contrast with the experience of companies that stumbled should be particularly instructive. The detailed profiles of "winner" and "loser" companies were especially interesting. Replete with incisive discussions of various companies' approaches for each of the four primary and four secondary areas of practice, the book also offers summaries of the study results in table format. For managers who wonder how anybody can keep six areas of practice fine-tuned at the same time, the authors agree it may be a challenge but point to their wealth of success stories to show it isn't impossible.

    "It is time for the first book identifying the fundamental practices that create business success?the ones that do indeed really matter."

    More than 100 business book reviews written by Harry K. Jones are available at http://www.AchieveMax.com/books/.

    Reprint Information

    Your organization may reprint this article for your newsletter, online publication, or mailing list. We ask that you print the:

    • article in its entirety;
    • byline of the writer;
    • information about the writer, which is available at the end of each article; and
    • contact information, including our toll-free phone number in the U.S. (800-886-2MAX) and link to our website - www.AchieveMax.com.

    We would appreciate a tear sheet or electronic copy of the articles you reprint.

    Harry K. Jones is a professional speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a firm specializing in custom-designed keynote presentations, seminars, and consulting services. Harry has made presentations ranging from leadership to employee retention and time management to stress management for a number of industries, including education, financial, government, healthcare, hospitality, and manufacturing. He can be reached at 800-886-2MAX or by visiting http://www.AchieveMax.com.







    Google News - Top Stories

    Washington Post

    Hypo Real Estate tripped by funding strategy
    MarketWatch - 51 minutes ago
    By Aude Lagorce, MarketWatch LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Hypo Real Estate, the troubled commercial property lender rescued by the German government Sunday, is paying a hefty price for a risky funding strategy in Depfa, its public finance unit.
    European countries ramp up deposit protection Washington Post
    German Stocks Fall to Lowest Since 2006; Hypo Real Estate Drops Bloomberg
    BBC News - The Associated Press - Reuters - guardian.co.uk
    all 2,134 news articles


    BBC News

    Conservatives question McCain’s attack strategy
    Christian Science Monitor - 54 minutes ago
    By Jimmy Orr | 10.06.08 With a month to go and the poll numbers down, the McCain campaign is playing the guilt by association card, and that’s leaving some conservatives uneasy.
    Video: Palin Defends Terrorist Comment Against Obama AssociatedPress
    McCain, Obama camps trade barbs on negative ads The Associated Press
    BBC News - Los Angeles Times - Washington Post - Bloomberg
    all 3,436 news articles


    CTV.ca

    Northern California bus crash leaves 10 dead
    The Associated Press - 1 hour ago
    WILLIAMS, Calif. (AP) - A casino-bound charter bus flipped over about 10 miles from its destination, ejecting passengers and crushing others as it rolled into a ditch.
    Video: Bus Crash Kills 10 AssociatedPress
    Ten dead in California bus crash BBC News
    International Herald Tribune - Reiten Television KXMB Bismarck - Bloomberg - Sacramento Bee
    all 1,116 news articles


    Boston Globe

    China detains six suspected in milk scandal
    Reuters - 11 hours ago
    BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese police have detained six people suspected of producing and selling melamine, the chemical at the center of the country's scandal over tainted dairy products, the official Xinhua news agency said.
    Video: No Traces of Melamine in New Test of Milk Powder AssociatedPress
    China detains 6 more suspects in milk scandal The Associated Press
    AFP - RTT News - CNN - International Herald Tribune
    all 1,160 news articles


    BBC News

    Suicide Bombing Kills 27 in Sri Lanka, Including Former Army General
    Voice of America - 1 hour ago
    By Anjana Pasricha In Sri Lanka, a suicide bombing by suspected Tamil Tiger rebels has killed at least 27 people, including a top former army general.
    Tiger suicide attack kills 27 in Sri Lanka AFP
    Military: Suicide bomber kills 27 in Sri Lanka The Associated Press
    United Press International - Times Online - Telegraph.co.uk - guardian.co.uk
    all 1,166 news articles

    Google
     

    Copyright © 2006 Computer Hunter - A Division of Arthur´s Job Base