Synopsis:
A groundbreaking new book that examines the companies leading the charge in merging the practices of traditional and e-commerce business -- and the lessons we can learn from them.
In Lessons from the Top, James M. Citrin, of the world-renowned executive search firm Spencer Stuart, identified and interviewed (with coauthor Thomas Neff) the fifty top CEOs in America, and distilled the essential principles of leadership they all share.
In Citrin's compelling new management book, Zoom, he offers in-depth analyses of twelve market leaders -- including General Motors' e-GM, BEA Systems, eBay, Sun Microsystems, and General Electric -- and reveals how they are bridging the complex demands of yesterday's and today's economies. From the hard-won lessons these pioneering market leaders have learned along the way, Citrin identifies the principles that characterize success today and will help chart success in the future -- principles that other companies can use to redirect their thinking, resources, and energies. Among them:
Encourage flexibility. Relationships are much more fluid and multidimensional today. Rather than using a strategic planning process, the best leaders use a strategic framework, with a lot of room for improvisation.
Share the vision. It's not enough to just talk about the company's vision -- you need to evangelize about it, and repeat its mantra so often that it becomes second nature to everyone in the company.
Create a genuine learning organization by shortening feedback cycles, effectively transferring knowledge, and expanding a company's "listening circles."
Reward Failure. It is important to find ways to mitigate personal and organizational risk, and identify and encourage risk takers. They are the ones who can transform a company.
What makes this book invaluable are the strategies top managers and executives reveal on how to implement their principles of success: how to flatten the organization, be first to market, measure the right things, and manage customer information. The result is an indespensable road map of the twenty-first century economy that corporate leaders can use to guide and shape their own efforts.
In the bestselling fashion of First, Break All the Rules and Built to Last, Zoom is essential reading for those determined to triumph in the years ahead.
Review:
Businesspeople are always looking for strategies to improve their companies. James M. Citrin's Zoom serves up a fine compendium of them, distilling lessons learned from 12 leading firms into a half-dozen "success factors" whose nuances are illustrated by case studies of the spotlighted enterprises. Citrin, a Spencer Stuart managing director who specializes in CEO searches, mixes "enduring leadership principles with e-commerce management strategies" in plotting a map to follow as one negotiates the ever-changing road to the New Economy. His resultant themes are Go for Speed; Create a Learning Organization; Obsess the Customer; Reward (Appropriate) Risk-Taking and Failure; Absorb Uncertainty; and Master Deal-Making and Partnering Skills, illuminated by examinations of such firms as Akamai Technologies, The Motley Fool, Wal-Mart.com, Yahoo! and Cisco Systems. Some of the ideas have certainly been expressed elsewhere previously, and not all of the corporate models look as good in hindsight as they may have initially, but the specifics and the directions offered are nonetheless potentially valuable to anyone searching for possible routes past today's increasingly mixed signals. A final section called "Execute" and a series of implementation tips for each of the six guideposts solidly move the ideas from abstractions to possibilities. --Howard Rothman
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