Review:
David S. Pottruck, president and co-CEO of Charles Schwab, and Terry Pearce, founder of Leadership Communication, are among those who believe the Net will forever change the way business is conducted--if it hasn't done so already. In Clicks and Mortar, they draw on personal experience to suggest corporate officials prepare for this new reality by refocusing their practices, principles, and passions on the real needs of a 21st-century company. The book's first section, "Culture at the Core," identifies corporate culture as today's primary driver of growth and explores ways to create, improve, and sustain it ("through language, image, and ritual") for the wired era. The book's second section, "Leadership Practices," examines the way our technology-dominated environment impacts organizational behavior and the qualities leaders must possess (personal integrity and open communication) to inspire the "breakthrough thinking" needed to thrive. The third section, "Management Practices," investigates basic tools like measurement, marketing, and customer relations and describes how they can be updated for this brave new cyberworld. An additional chapter brings together eight business and academic players, including Microsoft's Steve Ballmer and Novell's Eric Schmidt, to speculate on the future of commerce. If you're not afraid to use "organizational transformation" and "personal change" in the same sentence, you'll find value here. --Howard Rothman
From the Back Cover:
The phenomenal rise of the Internet may seem to have transformed everything about business. But according to two men who have been at the forefront of the Internet's impact, some important things haven't changed: The future still belongs to passionate companies made up of passionate people. In this book, Schwab co-CEO David Pottruck teams up with leadership master and best-selling author Terry Pearce to show what it takes to build a high-growth organization in today's electronic environment.
Passionate companies have cultures that are created and sustained on purpose, and that support individual contribution, team play and risk-taking. Passionate leaders are driven by their own personal values, and a desire for the health and success of their organizations and people, not merely the promise of an IPO payoff. Passionate business practices are dynamic, and are anchored by the principles that made the company a success in the first place.
In Clicks and Mortar Pottruck and Pearce translate their experience working together at one of the world's fastest growing financial services companies into practical advice that will help other organizations adapt to the changes brought about by the technology-driven revolution. Through many stories and examples from Schwab, start-ups, and Fortune 500 companies, the authors show how organizations can marry technology and the best qualities of people to create the perfect environment for profitable success.
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