Drive Business Performance: Enabling a Culture of Intelligent Execution [Abridged, Audiobook, CD] [Audio CD]

Bruno Aziza (Author), Joey Fitts (Author), Jim Bond (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2, 2008

How can your organization increase its agility, alignment, and accountability to improve performance? Developing performance management capabilities means changing the way people are empowered to make better decisions. It requires a transition from a restrictive, command-and-control approach to a management style that includes more participants in the performance management process. Drive Business Performance shows you how. Drive Business Performance reveals how to effectively align performance with technology, creating a best-in-class information management system and amplifying individual employee impact. This groundbreaking guide provides a deep understanding of how to achieve enterprise performance management objectives, backed up by firsthand accounts from Fortune 500 companies that are winning by building accountability, intelligence, and informed decision making into their organizational DNA. Drive Business Performance explains the competitive advantage experienced by organizations that create and manage a “Culture of Performance.” Part of Wiley’s Microsoft Executive Leadership Series, Drive Business Performance fills a gap in the literature on managing performance. This innovative, jargon-free book demystifies performance management, with detailed guidance for organizations to replicate top performers’ results, including the recommended skills and assets needed to successfully compete in today’s business environment.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book is about improving performance management within an organization by enhancing business intelligence whereby organizational objectives, the analysis of trends, the ability to forecast, and to plan winning strategies, works toward the common goal of success. It does reveal various methodologies at work in the Fortune 500 companies that have adopted them." (Bookviews.com, July 2008)

"Their perspective is that of veteran solution developers, and their goal is to translate their experience into practical, jargon-free, actionable advice for leaders who want to get a grip on their organization's performance. The result is a handbook of performance management strategy and tactics that offers some fresh insights as well as the promised road map to success." (Businessfinancemag.com, May 22, 2008)

From the Inside Flap

Drive Business Performance

How can your organization increase its agility, alignment, and accountability to improve performance? Developing performance management capabilities means changing the way people are empowered to make better decisions. It requires a transition from a restrictive, command-and-control approach to management style that includes more participants in the performance management process. Drive Business Performance shows you how.

Starting with a forward by Dr. Robert Kaplan and Dr. David Norton, creators of the revolutionary Balanced Scorecard approach, Drive Business Performance reveals how to effectively align performance with technology, creating a best-in-class information management system and amplifying individual employee impact.

This groundbreaking guide provides a deep understanding of how to achieve enterprise performance management objectives, backed up by firsthand accounts from Fortune 500 companies that are winning by building accountability, intelligence, and informed decision making into their organizational DNA. Drive Business Performance explains the competitive advantage experienced by organizations that create and manage a “Culture of Performance.”

Part of Wiley's Microsoft Executive Leadership Series, Drive Business Performance fills a gap in the literature on managing performance. This innovative, jargon-free book demystifies performance management, with detailed guidance for organizations to replicate top performers' results, including the recommended skills and assets needed to successfully compete in today's business environment.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio on CD Lib Ed; Library edition (May 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1423360303
• ISBN-13: 978-1423360308
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 6.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,022,210 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An essential guide to business transformation for performance improvement, June 7, 2008

By 

ACD - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Drive Business Performance: Enabling a Culture of Intelligent Execution (Microsoft Executive Leadership Series) (Hardcover)

"Drive Business Performance: Enabling a Culture of Intelligent Execution" by Bruno Aziza and Joey Fitts represents much more than a demystification of performance management terminology. The book is neither a re-telling of the benefits of performance management, nor a veiled attempt to shape a business case for PerformancePoint. Instead, the authors introduce novel ideas backed by case study research, culminating in a pervasive and flexible model for business transformation within the scope of performance improvement.

The Culture of Performance (CoP) Model presented by the authors bridges a gap between the establishment of a performance measurement framework (e.g., Balanced Scorecard, TQM, Lean, etc.), and the tools and methods brought to bear in executing performance measurement (read: Business Intelligence). CoP is a comprehensive model for evolving organisations into the strategy-focused enterprises that Drs. Kaplan and Norton envisioned years earlier. To be certain, we all stand on the shoulders of giants.

That the authors chose to include "culture" in the name of their model cannot be understated: it directly addresses organisation-wide cultural transformation as it relates to the adoption of performance management (through the model's six phases). The authors demonstrate, with compelling evidence, that a company is more likely to achieve its desired outcomes when all its members adopt a performance-oriented mindset. Here, case studies on Expedia, Energizer and The Veterans' Health Administration (U.S.) each strike a chord on the sometimes painful transformation to a culture of performance. Aziza and Fitts make these findings practical, encouraging incubation through scored questionnaires, supporting capability models (MAP) and guiding principles. The final chapter of the book provides an excellent summary that aligns said scores to an entry point into the CoP model; this provides a reasonable indication of where an organisation may begin to improve business performance.

This excellent book warrants careful review and consideration-- it represents fresh and illuminating thinking from two of the most prominent figures in the field of performance management. For executives, directors and managers looking to improve business performance (as well as consultants specialising in performance management) consider this book essential reading.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for executives trying to deliver the promise of Performance Management, May 1, 2008

By 

Jack Hobbs (London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Drive Business Performance: Enabling a Culture of Intelligent Execution (Microsoft Executive Leadership Series) (Hardcover)

I've just finished reading Drive Business Performance and I'd recommend it highly to anyone trying to work out how to actually enable an organisation to realise the benefits of performance management. Many organisations have tried and relatively few have actually succeeded in putting performance management at the very core of it's DNA. This book provides a great blend of (new) theoretical concepts, blueprints for success from organisations such as Hilton Hotels and Fortis, and most importantly a well-structured guide for execution.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real World Examples - Not Jargon, Buzz Words, and Theories, May 7, 2008

By 

Mike Willis "Mike" (South Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Drive Business Performance: Enabling a Culture of Intelligent Execution (Microsoft Executive Leadership Series) (Hardcover)

Aziza & Fitts provide an intelligent perspective on what it takes (and means) to create a "Culture of Performance". The book relies on real world examples rather than conceptual theories peppered with today's favorite jargon. Their approach is refreshing in that the content is backed by existing business environments with a proven track record for success. Empowering individuals and holding them accountable is an absolute necessity. Success is derived from surrounding yourself with the best possible people... and then staying out of their way. This book should be mandatory reading for all employees of any organization. True paradigm shifts occur when EVERYONE has a clear understanding of the goals and objectives - not just a few key players.