Customer Reviews

How Cohesive is your Company?: A Leadership Parable - Top-notch business performance is impossible until you cohesively align mission, vision, goals, strategy, execution & culture

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A business text disguised as a novel, Coherent is an extraordinary accomplishment. Never before has this reader seen so many critical business management topics addressed so seemlessly. By using a fictional setting, author Kathuria is able to present challenges and solutions in a realistic progression. His lead character, Trent, is not some perfect angel appearing in the boardroom with all of the answers. To the contrary, this protagonist is driven, intelligent - and appears on the scene unaware of how much he needs to learn. In following his journey, the reader is presented with both an identification of core issues and a basic methodology for addressing them. Anyone responsible for running a business, big or small, will benefit from this read.

This book constitutes a great summary of fundamental administrative and leadership concepts that anybody working in an organization should know in order to properly steer behaviors, department and organizations to achieve their objectives. One of the fundamental questions that Ravi asks through their characters is: Is your company product centric, service centric or operations centric?

From that starting point a set of concepts (the cohegic method) unfolds to demonstrate how a successful executable business strategy needs to start long before you have a plan and an organization and describes very well which portions of your business can change to adapt to what a business demands to mantain the flexibility that is necesary to compete Vs. other concepts like values that are not expected to change and are the "Constitution" and the organizational glue of a company.

This book combines concepts that are similar to classics like the "Accidental CEO" or "The 7 habits of the highly effective people", and kicks it up a notch by adding several new concepts and linking them together to achieve a concise, down to earth, easy to follow methodology to take your organization to the next level.

I received this book as a gift from Fernando Duran (another reviewer) and can say it is an excellent gift to share and discuss.

This book is a description of the Cohegic Method told through the story of Trent Wertheimer, newly appointed CEO of Hintec, a business intelligence software company. The traits that made Trent a successful VP of sales, including an abundance of confidence and an orientation to quick action, are not the traits that will make Trent a successful CEO, as he quickly finds out. When his early actions meet with a poor response from the board of directors, Trent is humbled and finds himself with no one to turn to and no idea of what his next steps should be. Fortunately, his new neighbor, Watson Hughes, appears in the nick of time and they strike up a relationship. Watson is a retired business executive with much experience and is generous in sharing his wisdom with Trent. Watson's mentorship provides Trent with the keys to understanding both the organization and himself, leading to a challenging period of transition for both Hintec and Trent.

The author clearly has experience of many organizations and leadership teams as he manages to capture the essence of the strengths and weaknesses and diverse perspectives of individuals that can be found in most business organizations. We meet Simon, the hard-charging sales executive; Venkat, the competent and deliberate software engineer; Fran, the glue that keeps the administrative and financial components together; Oscar, the strategic human resource executive; Maxell, the failing executive whose behavior undermines the new CEO resulting in Maxell's termination; and Hector, the executive whose responsibility is operations and who continues to remind the team that ideas are great but at some point the reality of implementation has to be considered.

Together the team, with Trent just a step ahead of them thanks to Watson's mentorship, find a path forward for Hintec and reinvent the organization at all levels in the process.

This book is very readable and is a quick read, helpful in these times when attention spans are necessarily short given the multitude of demands faced by organization leaders. The Cohegic Method is clear - revealed through the story and amplified through the study questions found at the end of each chapter. The approach is effective and makes the book a useful tool for a variety of audiences, including:

1. Individuals who are in or planning for a leadership role in an organization - either through self-study or with a mentor. The book provides an excellent introduction to the multiplicity of issues that must be considered and offers a workable framework for integrating these.

2. Leadership Teams at all levels (organization, division/department, etc.) - as a discussion tool for reflecting on the organization and improving its ability to succeed. This could be done through guided discussion with a facilitator or in a "journal club" format as a management team.

3. Students of management - as an initial assignment to provide a model of a management system and context for deeper investigations into components of business strategy. Many students come to a class on strategy with little experience of the context in which strategy develops, either because they are still early on in their careers or because their careers are oriented towards professional careers, perhaps as individual practitioners or as stakeholders whose exposure to strategic business issues is limited. Providing a context for topics such as vision, mission, strategies, objectives and measures, such as is done through the story of Trent and Hintec, could make the concepts of strategic planning easier to grasp and then apply to other environments, including healthcare organizations. In thinking about our own course, one could see how most of the lectures could be reordered to follow the sequence of topics in this book. If the initial classes were a discussion of the book as a broad introduction to the concepts to be considered in the class, then subsequent discussions of each concept would deepen a student's understanding through the readings and class lectures.

The only suggestion to the author is future oriented - in the spirit of making a good thing better. We would like to see the author publishing a similar book, or perhaps a tailored study guide as a complement to this book, that focuses on healthcare organizations. The complexity of these organizations because of the nature of the relationships between stakeholders, similar to that of a professional services firm, makes clarity and coherence all the more important as a means to align diverse stakeholders.

This book is exactly what it says on it's sub-title-'An eye-opening parable'. All senior executives of businesses of all sizes will benefit from this book. Author has an exceptional talent for presenting solid business concepts in a candid manner.

As a senior manager in an engineering company in the oil & gas industry, 'Coherent Strategy and Execution' illustrated many situations that I deal with on a regular basis. Most importantly, the book presented a roadmap for solutions that I had not considered in the past, but which I am now able to execute.

The Cohegic Method has pulled my organization out of its slump. When I picked up "Coherent Strategy and Execution" I could not put it down. I finished the book in under a week, and began applying the method the next week. This method is easily applicable in many business situations. The method is applied throughout the book in everyday business situations. After the difference the Cohegic method made it soon caught on in my organization and has created a ripple effect.

An amazing book that is extremely informative. I enjoyed the way that it illustrates common problems in an organization, and it is told in a way that imbues a personal interest in the main characters. I love the way the story unravels and have even implemented this method into my own organization, realizing instant improvement. The lessons in the book are illustrated in a much different manner than many of the dry books on execution and leadership. It makes the methods taught very easy to apply because they are shown how to be applied in a hypothetical situation that is remarkably familiar to many workplace settings. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone involved in business, and will continue to use this as a guidebook to running my organization effectively. Not only is the cohegic method great for business, it can be used as a true guideline for one's personal life as well. I can honestly say that I have noticed a difference in the direction in my life since applying this strategy. This would do extremely well in a school curriculum.

I said it once before and I will continue to say it again and again, no other book tackles business strategy as CLEAR and COHERENT as Ravi's book "Coherent Strategy and Execution". Which makes perfect sense doesn't it? By the time you reach the end of the book (which will not take long because I am telling you, it is a page turner) you will be sitting there completely crazed by how simple it can be to get what you want out of life- in any aspect, not just your career or business.

The Cohegic Method is irrefutable. Not to mention highly endorsed. Thank you Ravi for such a fulfilling story.

Do yourself a favor, before you make another decision or directive, you owe it to yourself and more importantly, to your company to read this book. There are many good books written about business, leadership, project management, etc. This book shows a very logical, concise (yes Cohegic) approach to just how, when and why activities of "business", "leadership", projects", etc should be made.
This book, (as a previous reviewer so accurately described), reveals a powerful, all encompassing methodology "foundation" on which to build a coherent and healthy business. And, it does so in a pleasantly entertaining novel format. It is an easy read covering items which seemed elusive and complex before the book was started.

It covers, and builds on topics such as mission, values, execution, goals, culture, processes and metrics; tying them all (and more) together in a cohesive process that simply makes sense.

I know that our organization will never be the same. This book takes about three evenings, two if you are diligent, to complete; so you can start it again!

Do yourself a favor, don't wait another moment...(unless you are a competitor!)

(As a reference; some of my other favorite books are Good to Great, Gung Ho, Raving Fans, Blue Ocean Strategy, The Goal, The Breakout Company, Delivering Happiness, The Orange Revolution, Developing the Leader in (around) You, 7 Habits (to name a few)

A co-worker suggested this book which interested me immediately since the management techniques were told through a story format rather than the usual academic chapter format. (I completed the entire book in four days!) The growth shown by the main character to appreciate, understand and focus all parts of a company to a common goal proved an enjoyable read. While this was the first book I read that offered the concept of a coherent flow, this topic has proved very relevant and has continually surfaced at multiple clients in the past six months.