Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

by Larry Bossidy

Se...

ignore the capital investment ...

Finally,

go after megaprojects,

There’s the core of your robust people process.

the pluses:

he was technically savvy, he understood customer satisfaction, he was open to suggestions, he was creative, people liked the environment that he created,

The nega...

one, he wasn’t familiar enough with numbers and often fell sh...

he was not busines...

Three, he continued to need go...

everyone has unforeseen events that come along, and the people who ultimately succeed are those who overcome them.

His people feel he plays his cards too close to the vest.

hasn’t filled critical roles in operations fast enough,

is responsive, not proactive.

is close to burnout.

is more process- than results-oriented.

but doesn’t perform.

he isn’t dem...

he must temper his ego.

Nonperforming people are essentially those who aren’t meeting their established goals.

you have to let people go. But again you do it as constructively as you can.

We both made a mistake here.

First

Two, I’m not going to lie when someone asks me to recommend

I’m going to tell them you did some things wrong.

t...

find ways so you can hold...

Sometimes people recognize before you do that they aren’t up to a job.

HR has to be integrated into the business processes.

a good fit, a stretch, or an action required.

good fit,

we just stay on top and monitor h...

a str...

comfortable that he can deliver, but we might n...

action required,

needs to come out of that position and leave the company,

certain rules are needed: integrity, honesty, a common approach, common language, and frequency.

The answer is that we have a culture of accountability.

The people process begins with one-on-one assessments, but when developed and practiced as a total process, it becomes incredibly effective as an execution tool.

goal of any strategy is simple enough: to win the customer’s preference and create a sustainable competitive advantage, while leaving sufficient money on the table for shareholders.

a good strategic planning process also requires the utmost attention to the hows of executing the strategy.

How is your business positioned in the context of its business environment, including its market opportunities and threats, and its competitive advantages and disadvantages?

To have realism in your strategy you have to link it to your people process:

Michael Armstrong

as CEO

1...

The strategy that Armstrong shaped had four building blocks:

(1) buying cable companies, to gain direct, physical access to consumers; (2) providing customers with bundled service, which would let AT&T claim a larger share of their communications wallet than its rivals could; (3) executing the moves fast enough to generate revenue growth that would offset the decline in long-distance revenues; and (4) relying on regulatory implementation of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which was supposed to block local telecoms from competing in long distance until they opened their networks fully to long-distance carriers.

What went wrong?