Customer Reviews

Fortune: Secrets of Greatness

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As Eric Pooley, managing editor of Fortune, explains in the Foreword, he once had an off-the-record, one-on-one dinner with the CEO of a major investment bank who "really came alive when I asked him the most basic question of the evening: "How do you work?'"As Pooley met with other business leaders in the months that followed, he asked the same question and their responses resulted in a special issue called "How I Work." Now, in a single volume, the editors of Fortune magazine have assembled a wealth of information from a series of individual issues which comprise the "Secrets of Greatness" series. The contributors offer what Pooley correctly characterizes as "great take-away... and I think you'll experience the same happy shock of recognition I did when sitting across from that master investment banker in the spring of 2005. Hey, his challenges are not so different from mine. I'm going to test drive some of his solutions."

(A personal aside: I use an optic yellow Sharpie ACCENT pen to highlight key passages in each book which I read and then review. I used up two as I worked my way through this one.)

The material is carefully organized within six sections:

I. Great Beginnings (e.g. "Visionary Chuck Williams on Williams-Sonoma")

II. Great Ways to Work (e.g. "How I work" by Bill Gates")

III. Great Decisions (e.g. "Jim Collins on Tough Calls")

IV. Great Role Models (e.g. "The Education of Andy Grove" by Richard S. Tedlow)

Note: Grove wrote the Introduction and is as candid and insightful in it as he is in Swimming Across and Only the Paranoid Survive. Here is a brief excerpt from the Introduction: "I learned from many small knocks on the head that there is a very simple tool to move faster, to increase productivity. It has to do with the things you decide not to do. The most important two letters that increase your productivity as well as the productivity of the people you work with are N-O, said clearly, unequivocally and early - not after someone has decided to count on you."

V. Great Teams (e.g. "Why Dream Teams Fail" by Geoffrey Colvin)

V. Great Advice (e.g. "The Best Advice I Ever Got" by 28 business luminaries who include Warren Buffett, Jack Welch, Dick Parsons, Jim Collins, Peter Drucker, Ted Turner, Mickey Drexler, Herb Kelleher, and Clay Christensen)

I also appreciate the introductions to the six sections by Joshua Hyatt, Jerry Useem (II, III, and V), and Geoffrey Colvin. In Part III, the Fortune editors examine "Decisions That Made History" which range from Western Union's rejection of Alexander Graham Bell's "new invention" (1876) to Jerry Levin's determination to merge Time Warner with AOL (2000). Thanks to brilliant editing, the material in Secrets of Success offers both an extraordinary variety of points of view while remaining cohesive. Each contributor establishes and then sustains a direct rapport with the reader. The tone is informal, indeed conversational. Also remarkably candid. For example, Michael Dell confides: "We screwed up all kinds of things, but there was so much inherent value in what we were doing that it masked all the mistakes that we made." Grove confides, "I almost wrecked the company [Intel] because a new product seduced me." In this context, one of Peter Drucker's opinions seems especially relevant: "To demand only well-rounded people, people who have only strengths and no weaknesses, is to invite mediocrity - of which there is always an abundant supply."

Nearly all of those interviewed stated or at least implied that humility is among the "secrets" of achieving greatness in one form or another. There is also a near-unamimous concensus about the importance of teamwork, cooperation, and collaboration. Their emphasis on the importance of humility reminds me of this passage from Lao-tzu's Tao Te Ching, one which seems especially relevant:

Learn from the people
Plan with the people
Begin with what they have
Build on what they know
Of the best leaders
When the task is accomplished
The people will remark
We have done it ourselves.

After thinking about how to conclude my brief commentary on this entertaining as well as enlightening wealth of advice, I eventually decided to let Andy Grove provide it. "It's been a long walk through the forest of being a manager - 40 years long in fact. The trees continue to emerge from the dark. The good news is, my forehead is stronger than it was 40 years ago. Perhaps reading the stories that follow and applying them to your situation may save you a bump or two on the head."

What do the great leaders of our time know that you don't? Remarkable leadership - Is it a trait you're born with? Or, can it be learned? Andy Groves from Intel takes the view that we learn it. He wrote that when Apple run their memorable advertising campaign exhorting customers to "Think Differently", they are talking about avoiding the trap of hidden assumptions. Eric Pooley, the MD of Fortune, said that one of the keys to leadership is "clarity". Whether you're an entrepreneur launching your first start-up, a small business owner trying to scale up, or a manager running a division on the basis of a global company, you will find a great takeaways here: hard-won; field-tested stuff that works. This book consists of 6 parts, each part in turn consists of several chapters. In what follows, I will highlight these 6 parts. They are: (1). Some of America's best known entrepreneurs live at the intersection between thought and action, where they somehow managed to think deeply without becoming paralysed; (2). Thomas Alva Edison said that he owed his success to the fact that he never had a clock in his workshop; (3). The best decision-makers were capable of seeing the present as if it were already in the past; (4). A CEO is someone who asks probing questions that force the team to think and find the right answers; (5). Becoming skilled at doing more with others may be the single most important thing you can do, regardless of your level of authority and (6). Learn to build on people's strengths, know your market, control your time and pull the weeds. Each of these principles is illustrated with copious, vivid data. Digest this book and you will develop the secrets of success.

Excellent book to refresh idea's on Leadership. Contains good statements to be used in day to day discussions on Leadership to illustrate the ways forward that have proven to be working well.

The book includes perfect guidelines for business success. How these top-rated business people achieved their place and how they endure their position are explained in detail. It is useful for students, new-recruits and mid-level executives.

This book contains alot of excellent stories to motivate and inspire. Personally, I find most (but not all) of the stories relevant... but some a bit out-dated. Overall, the book can be read at one seating (I did it on one short flight from Singapore to Hong Kong, i.e. about 4 hrs). Some stories provide good insights which we should bear in mind as "lessons learnt", so as NOT to go down that same path (avoid the mistakes made).
Steven Lim (RSTN) - Singapore.

I was disappointed!! The book received tremendous hype, and it does have tips from big names. HOWEVER, the tips are very high level. I'm sure there are CEO's that could use them, but the tips are not very useful in my low-level management job.

I will probably donate my copy to Goodwill.

The book lets you see how some of these great founders got there ideas. It shows you how they acted on an idea and the trouble in getting financing. Great book if you are in business and if you can take more from the book than the stories and apply them to your own situation.

Very good book. Lots of great advice from some of the best business people in America. A must read for those working for a corporation and looking to improve their career.

I read the book and find it very interesting and motivating. It express all kind of strategic used by differents CEO and founders to run up it respective companies and the success and cointrains about it. I recommend this reading to MBA students a much.

Excellent book filled with great ideas and advice. I have used it as a gift for my children and business colleagues.