Hope is Not a Method [Paperback]

Gordon R. Sullivan (Author), Michael V. Harper (Contributor)

Book Description

Release date: September 2, 1997

Since the end of the Cold War, the United States Army has been reengineered and downsized more thoroughly than any other business. In the early 1990s, General Sullivan, army chief of staff, and Colonel Harper, his key strategic planner, took the post-Cold War army into the Information Age. Faced with a 40 percent reduction in staff and funding, they focused on new peacetime missions, dismantled a cumbersome bureaucracy, reinvented procedures, and set the guidelines for achieving a vast array of new goals.



Hope Is Not a Method explains how they did it and shows how their experience is extremely relevant to today's businesses. From how to stay on top of long-range issues to how to maintain a productive work force during times of change, it offers invaluable lessons in leadership and provides proven tactics any business can implement.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In recent years, the U.S. Army has been modified and modernized more extensively than almost any private business. Leading the charge on this front were General Gordon R. Sullivan, chief of staff from 1991-95, and one of his key strategic planners, Colonel Michael V. Harper. In Hope Is Not a Method, these two explain just how an organization with 1.5 million employees and a $63-billion annual budget was successfully reengineered--and how those in the corporate world can learn from the experience. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Drawing from their military experiences in downsizing, restructuring, and reengineering, retired general Sullivan (army chief of staff from 1991 to 1995), now a consultant, professor, and lecturer, and retired colonel Harper (director of the army's Strategic Planning Group from 1991 to 1995), now an executive and consultant, explain their practical approach to the process of planning, thinking, leading, and acting strategically. Their work makes use of the changes the U.S. Army has weathered since the end of the Cold War and transforms the insightful lessons into experiences useful for leaders and executives in all kinds of organizations as they prepare for the next century. In ten chapters, the authors address people-oriented topics such as change, leadership, vision, human behavior, thinking and doing, creating, team building, campaigning, organizational transformation, success, learning, training, and the future. Their well-written book is recommended not only for upper-level business executives and professionals but also for students and aspiring leaders.?Joseph W. Leonard, Miami Univ., Oxford, Ohio
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Crown Business; Reprint edition (September 2, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076790060X
• ISBN-13: 978-0767900607
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 0.9 x 8.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #592,954 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Should be required reading in every organization. February 1, 1999

By John A. Underwood

Format:Paperback

I cannot remember a book so well written, so full of business principles, and yet so easy to understand. I am a management consultant in the housing industry, and this book is required reading for every existing client, and I do not take on a new client until this book has been read by the management team. Sullivan and Harper, with pinpoint accuracy, identify the principles which make good companies great, and great companies, untouchable.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A great read for serious business students January 2, 2008

By Joseph P. Sener

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I am an XGI who has spent his business career in a constant quest for change. I have been the change agent and now, in senior management, look back on our most recent exercise in Strategic Planning and have to admit we fall into several of the planning traps described by General Sullivan. I think this is so relevent for our company that I am going to buy at least 10 copies for my direct reports. We all spend so much time "tweaking the margins" instead of trying to develop truly breakthrough thinking. This is the best I have read in years.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great title; great book August 21, 2010

By J. Davis

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

As a manager and an officer, I liked this book. In my career I am constantly finding synergy between the leadership skills taught in the army and leadership in the business world. I found it to be a very enjoyable read and ended up going through it with a highlighter, picking out several key points for future reference.