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Business Management Book Store > Business Management books beginning with K
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Know-How: The 8 Skills That Separate People Who Perform from Those Who Don't |
Author: Ram Charan
Published: 2007-01-02 |
List price: $27.50
Our price: $18.15
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As of: November 21st, 2008 05:22:20 PM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 How to be or judge a great CEO
The book starts out by discussing a frustrating topic "the appearance of leadership." Unfortunately certain traits can lead people to assume someone would make a good (effective) CEO, but these can often be deceptive. A CEO that delivers results over a sustained period will be one who has "know-how". The author describes that as the following eight characteristics:
1. The ability to position and reposition the company to be on the right ends of trends to make money.
2. The ability to pinpoint external changes and their effects on the company and its markets
3. The ability to lead and shape the organizations "social system" or culture
4. The ability to judge people well and determine if and where they fit best
5. The ability to mold teams - to get strong individuals to work well as a team
6. The ability to set goals - specifically the proper goals to ensure success
7. The ability to set priorities - not just the right ones, but also sticking with and reinforcing them
8. The ability to deal with forces beyond the market
The author dedicates a chapter to explore each of these in depth. Most of these were clear and actionable. The only exception was the last one, which I think could have been handled better. The author describes the necessity to "work with" special interest groups, but then admits one can get caught in the crossfire between them (he mentions Ford getting between gay rights and religious fundamentalists). I would have liked to have seen it suggested for businesses to steer clear of endorsing/promoting special interests and clearly communicate that, as the proper course. With the recent commotion for corporations to be "socially responsible", companies need to stand up and say it is WRONG to take money from customers, employees, and/or shareholders (the only sources of fund for companies) and patronize selected causes. There is no way for a company to give to any cause, and please everyone, so individuals should get/keep their money and do with it as each pleases.
Overall, this is a great book for people who want to be, or even judge, a CEO. This book really should be required reading for anyone who sits on a board of directors.
One tip makes this book worth reading
Don't dismiss this entry in Charan's business guru tips because most of it is basic, commonsense. My rule for business reading is that if you get one good guideline that's relevant and reliable, the book is worth whatever you paid for it. The "8 skills" that Charan says separates executive winners and losers popped up a valuable, worth-the-price principle for me: A company exec can't let the company go into an internal holding pattern waiting for clear, definite external patterns. If you need an example, think of the companies that lose out when executives waffle or stay on the sidelines while politicians take charge of the external patterns. Climate change legislation is a case in point. Executives of GE, Wal-Mart, Duke Energy, GM, DuPont and others got into the sociopolitical process to shape the rules that companies must live by as the war on carbon unfolds. Charan correctly observes that "the fruits...will belong to the realists" who see the key variables and act to shape their impact.
Bo Knows Football - Ram Knows Know-How!
Management uber-guru Ram Charan offers a business counterpart to Stephen Covey's "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" in his book, "Know How." This is an engaging and insightful discussion of eight key skills that comprise business acumen and know how.
"Know How" will be most useful for business executives, especially C-level execs. Nevertheless, those in middle management or those who aspire to a management position cannot help but benefit from the book.
At times, it is tempting to see Charan's recitation as a list of Boy Scout virtues. At other times, it is not easy to discern just how practitioners are to acquire such qualities. Despite his guru and quasi-celeb status, Charan writes in a lucid style that is (relatively) jargon-free.
Reading and heeding "Know How" will turbo-charge your business skill sets.
 Good Solid Common Sense Nicely Arranged
This book by Ram Charan has all the hallmarks of a smart business book -- a truly rare thing. I would reccomend it simply because it puts a lot of common sense ideas in print for managers and would be managers to see. In a world where true thirst for knowledge is lacking -- few managers read history, science, or social theory or even good classical literature -- this book is a good shorthand reminder to managers that they need to exhibit the tenets of wisdom even if they do not necessarily possess them.
Therefore the essential points -- basical arbitrary but nonetheless germane -- are as follows.
1. Positioning and Repositioning. Keep asking questions -- ignorance is your friend -- not your enemy -- keep leaning and asking questions.
2. Pinpointing External Change. Do not be static... regard change as part of business
3. Leading the Social System. Viewing your company as an organic part of society and treating it in similar fashion. Business is different -- but it ain't that different. You need combine human traits with business acuman -- the two are not mutually exclusive and people who treat them as such set themselves up for a downfall.
4. Judging People. Match people with positions.
5. Molding a Team. Bringing together good teams and making allowances for their idiosyncracies and not pounding them into theory.
6. Setting Goals. Basically being realistic -- forget about Wallstreet.
7. Setting Priorities. Again realistically .
8. Dealing with Forces beyond the Market. A particularly notable section on dealing with social forces such as human rights and environmental movements and how they impact upon decision making -- the lesson -- never ever ignore them.
There is the regular stories in this book - a late night drink under a starry sky with a recalcitrant manager, a moment of clarity with a person who realises their true worth in a company that values them as an individual and does not try to pound them into a corporate mold. It's there... some intercultural allusions as well.
Of course the common sense attributes of tenacity, and ambition and self-confidence are the defining attributes, but Charan does not succumb to the idea that management is infallible -- in fact Charan propounds an organic philosophy of doubt as the road to enlightenment and also good management practises. But you need to be open, realistic and have a real idea to learn everything posssible and this in Charan's way of thinking encompasses a notion of the broad liberal arts individual with open-mindedness and a passion for life outside the boardroom.
There is not much revolutionary here, but the thoughts are clearly outlined and serve as a nice antidote to notions of corporate excess, greed and the know-nothingness exhibited far too often by business people big and small.
Good work!
 As usual solid advice from Ram Charan
Ram Charan has once again showed that doing business is a lot about hard work and less about lofty speeches and buzz words. He teaches the middle manager to think about thier job in the context of the industry they work in. He advises senior managers to have the courage to get into the messy details and make sense of them when defining strategy, laying out execution plans and hiring and firing people. Most business books have a problem - the central idea is exhausted in the first few pages and the author just keeps saying the same things in different ways. Ram Charan's books are very different. Every point is well thought out and is explained vividly. Each chapter adds to the know-how. I wish there was a forum to have a Q&A with him about the points he makes in his books.
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