How Leaders Build Value: Using People, Organization, and Other Intangibles to Get Bottom-Line Results

How to use intangibles to increase the value of your business

Originally published under the title Why the Bottom Line Isn't, this revised and updated edition shows business leaders how to build long-term value through assets not accounted for on the company's financial statements. Through leadership, service, corporate culture, and the ability to attract top talent, businesses can create real, measurable value that goes beyond simple bottom-line numbers.

Based on research drawn from human resources, finance, IT, and leadership, How Leaders Build Value offers ideas and actions that leaders at any level, in any function, can use to increase their organization's overall value. Every chapter presents an intangible asset as a concept, then provides examples and tools that help leaders develop the asset and communicate its value to shareholders, employees, and other parties.

No matter what kind of organization you operate, remarkable things happen when you build value through intangibles. Employees will be more committed, customers and investors more engaged, confident, and numerous. For those who want to impact the long-term value of their organizations, How Leaders Build Value is a straightforward and practical guide.

"A captivating mix of ideas, analysis, and real-world examples. [Ulrich and Smallwood] offer real insight into what works, what doesn't work, and why."
-Rick Wagoner, CEO, General Motors

"The concepts and tools in this book are a timely gift to leaders who are ready to see the whole picture."
-Frances Hesselbein, Chairman, The Leader to Leader Institute

"It's refreshing to see that business success does not in fact begin and end at the bottom line. . . . In very clear terms, Ulrich and Smallwood provide business advice that can easily be applied to effect change."
-Don Hall Jr., CEO, Hallmark

Dave Ulrich, phD, is Professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, cofounder of The RBL Group, and a renowned expert in management education. He has consulted with more than half of the Fortune 200 and is the author of twelve books.

Norm Smallwood is cofounder of The RBL Group, which provides education and consulting services based on this book as well as the ideas in Results-Based Leadership, which he coauthored with Ulrich.