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The Most Effective Organization in the U.S.: Leadership Secrets of the Salvation Army
 
 
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The Most Effective Organization in the U.S.: Leadership Secrets of the Salvation Army [Hardcover]

Robert Watson (Author), James Benjamin Brown (Author)
4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)


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Book Description

2001
The book about not just business but the meaning of life ... a guide for being the best at what you do and doing it with a sense of purpose that connects with something larger than yourself ...

For many people, The Salvation Army is most visible between Thanksgiving and Christmas. That's when its officers, soldiers and volunteers, in the ubiquitous Kettle Campaign, make music and collect money for good works. Few realize, however, that the Army is much, much more than this one effort and is in fact a powerhouse of an organization. None other than Peter Drucker called it "the most effective organization in the U.S." Not the most effective nonprofit, but "the most effective organization." Quite a compliment from the world's most preeminent management thinker, especially when you consider that he is comparing The Salvation Army to world-class corporations like General Electric, IBM and Johnson &Johnson.

Now, Robert Watson, the Army's recently retired national commander, is ready to share the Army's secrets about organization, strategy, and acting with a sense of mission. With its 9,500 centers of operation, $2 billion in annual revenues, and 32 million clients served in every zip code in America, The Salvation Army is the model for doing business with a purpose. As Peter Drucker says, "no one even comes close to it with respect to clarity of mission, ability to innovate, measurable results, dedication and putting money to maximum use":
* Clarity of mission: What you can learn from the Army's laser-like focus of evaluating everything it does in terms of its mission of preaching the gospel and meeting human needs without discrimination.
* Ability to innovate: How The Salvation Army's investment in people gets incredible returns and why it as much venture capitalist as charity.
* Measurable results: Learn The Army's unique ways of setting, monitoring and celebrating the achievement of measurable goals so you, too, can say, "look, we promised we would do this and we delivered."
* Dedication: How the Army accomplishes so much with such a small cadre of officers.
* Putting Money to Maximum Use: What you can learn from The Army's bare skeleton of a national organization in terms of making the most of your resources and making all of your operations self-sufficient.

By demonstrating the power of a sense of purpose combined with organizational effectiveness, this remarkable book has something essential to say to all executives, entrepreneurs, managers, and anyone with the ambition to bring people together to reach a goal.

Free subscription to the Crown Business E-Newsletter just for signing up, email CrownBusiness@Randomhouse.com


Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Most of us know the Salvation Army from its fundraising efforts and philanthropic programs, but the $2 billion-a-year transcontinental institution, now serving more than 30 million people with a vastly underpaid and overworked staff, is also a model business structure. Under a title taken from the description applied to it by management guru Peter Drucker, The Most Effective Organization in the U.S. outlines the fundamental tenets that the group has prospered under since its founding in the mid- to late 1800s. Written by former National Commander Robert A. Watson and freelancer Ben Brown, the book details eight principles that allow the Army to do so much with so little: focus on "a purpose that transcends quarterly earnings"; make "what you do serve human needs"; stay publicly accountable to visible standards; encourage feedback and act upon it; "invest real power and real responsibility" in top personnel; "accept the inevitability of change"; take calculated risks; and motivate employees by ensuring their jobs are both valuable and enjoyable. Some readers may not be comfortable with the organization's overt ties to Christian teachings, but few can argue with the success it consistently enjoys. --Howard Rothman

From Publishers Weekly

A clear mission, innovative techniques, commitment, efficiency and visible outcomes are the name of the business game, and also happen to be exemplified by the Salvation Army. In "The Most Effective Organization in the U.S.": Leadership Secrets of the Salvation Army, Robert A. Watson, an officer in the Salvation Army for 44 years, and freelance writer Ben Brown mine the organizational riches of this familiar group and present them as a model for others in the nonprofit and for-profit worlds. Watson, who as a child was clothed, fed and kept busy by the Salvation Army, reveals the skills and principles he learned as an officer of a company that completes projects from top to bottom from conceiving an idea and building a site to designing the financial plan and hiring, training and inspiring employees. The organization famous for its big heart also has plenty of sense. Proceeds go to the Salvation Army.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


Product Details

  • Hardcover: 243 pages
  • Publisher: Crown Business; 1st edition (2001)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 060960869X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0609608692
  • Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #585,937 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4.9 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Food for thought, not a how-to guide, January 31, 2002
By 
This review is from: The Most Effective Organization in the U.S.: Leadership Secrets of the Salvation Army (Hardcover)
Disclaimer: I was a civilian employee of The Salvation Army (i.e., I am not an officer or a Salvationist) for five-and-a-half years, and I am an academic sociologist by training.

This book is not a cookbook for effective leadership. You can't read this book, apply a couple of techniques, and expect to be as effective as The Salvation Army is at raising funds, running programs, and improving communities.

If you are interested in effective leadership and you're willing to reflect on your practices and, more importantly, the principles underlying your business and/or management style, this is a book you should consider reading. If you're looking for some sort of quick-fix to improve your own management, look elsewhere.

Instead, this book provides several general guidelines with supporting commentary drawn largely from Watson's experience as an officer with (and ultimately the National Commander, or Commissioner, of) The Salvation Army. According to Watson, the central tenet of The Salvation Army's leadership effectiveness is to, "engage the spirit."

The remainder of the book elaborates on this point with other related ideas (i.e., put people in your purpose; embody the brand; lead by listening; spread the responsibility, share the profits; organize to improvise; act with audacity; and make joy count). Watson and Brown don't tell you specifically *how* to do these things, but provide examples of how The Salvation Army and, in some cases, other companies and executives accomplish these things.

To be clear, the book isn't about The Salvation Army itself or its operations. You can gain insight into some of The Army's programs, but they vary too much from one community to the next to get a sense of the massive scope of what they do.
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging the Spirit, Mind, Body, Family, and Community!, November 6, 2001
By 
Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: The Most Effective Organization in the U.S.: Leadership Secrets of the Salvation Army (Hardcover)
The Salvation Army's role and effectiveness may be the best-kept secret that is out in the open for all to see.

Reading this book is a deeply moving spiritual experience. " . . . [T]he real secret of our success is getting them [those the Salvation Army serves] to accept responsibility for integrating their hearts, their minds, their souls with transcendent purpose."

In grading this book, I was most heavily influenced by how much it added to my knowledge of the Salvation Army (clearly a five star operation) as an organization, and its key leadership and management principles. Like most people, I mainly know about the Salvation Army through tiny glimpses of its work as seen in good neighborhoods (while most of the work takes place in more challenging environments) . . . rather than as a case history in organizational effectiveness. Now, as a result of reading this book, I can see the whole a little and see it as being much more than the sum of the pieces.

Compared to the potential to tell the Salvation Army's story, however, you may find that this book could be improved upon. I certainly did. The examples from businesses, sports, and music as well as the many references to famous management books usually just stole space, in my judgment, from telling more about the Salvation Army. A more useful counterpoint in the book would have been to explain how for-profit organizations fare in performing many of the same tasks that the Salvation Army does.

I'm also not sure that the book totally captured the full lesson of the power of the Salvation Army's mission: Potential and actual volunteers and donors, those who need the Salvation Army's services, the families of those who need the Salvation Army's services, and the communities in which the Salvation Army operates (regardless of religious faith and personal beliefs) find the Salvation Army's purposes of principles to be inspiring and worthy of both active and moral support. In this dimension, the closest I can think of another organization for its mission's powerful appeal is Habitat for Humanity.

As a student of leadership and management, I came away totally awed by thinking about how you provide services over 30 million people with around 5500 executives and managers (about a third of whom are "retired") in so many different, difficult activities: alcohol and drug rehabilitation; rehabilitating prisoners; helping homeless people get back to normal living; community recreation; disaster relief; rebuilding communities after disasters; and providing for the poor. The Salvation Army takes justifiable interest in measuring how effectively it performs these tasks compared to other organizations. The comparisons are usually very favorable. To put this in perspective, did you know that the Salvation Army had its first portable canteen on the scene within 20 minutes after the Oklahoma City bombing? Within minutes, three canteens were there.

Then, I was totally flattened to realize that those who run all of these activities must raise the funds for them locally. Beyond a little start-up money (which must be repaid), each effort must be financially self-sustaining. So when a need arises, the leaders must be serving the need and raising the money at the same time. Somehow, it all comes together.

Commissioner (retired U.S. national commander) Robert Watson describes these successes to the way the Salvation Army's mission engages the spirit of people. "We must always be mission driven." "If a proposal doesn't advance our twofold mission, we're not interested in it."

The mission is:

"The Salvation Army, an international movement, is an evangelical part of the universal Christian Church."

"Its message is based on the Bible. Its ministry is motivated by the love of God."

"Its mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in His name without discrimination."

This mission is based on the injunction to teach in Matthew 28:19 and to serve in Matthew 25:40. These are two inseparable obligations. Yet the book is full of examples of those who are not observers of the Christian religion who support the work of the Salvation Army.

In pursuing the mission, the Salvation Army looks for holistic solutions. As William Booth, the Salvation Army's founder, said, "Take the slums out of people." For homeless people, this may mean providing them a place to sleep, helping them overcome any drinking or drug problems, making clean clothes available, helping them polish up skills to apply for jobs, assist with learning to read better, and rekindling the spirit of wanting to take charge of their lives again. At the same time, their spiritual needs and self-worth need to be nurtured just as much.

The holistic solutions carry over to building its staff. Many are sons and daughters of staff members or families that received aid in the past, as was true of Commissioner Watson. Both the wife and husband share a job. They both wear the uniform, and follow the rules. Assignments are made in ways to be best for the family and the Salvation Army. The children are often enrolled in the same youth programs that serve the poor in the same community.

"God, please make us worthy of such trust!"

My favorite quote from the book is that "you can be forgiven a great deal for honest mistakes committed in the act of trying to save the world."

Does your work reflect your spiritual values? If not, have you considered taking on volunteer work that would? Who knows where it could lead?

As the book's final point reminds us, be sure you are having "the fun of work."

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5.0 out of 5 stars Great book about a great organization!, April 23, 2010
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This review is from: The Most Effective Organization in the U.S.: Leadership Secrets of the Salvation Army (Hardcover)
I am not a religious person, so the "Whys" of the SA weren't of great interest to me. However, the "Hows" and "Whats" are: this book is a compelling account of how the SA effectively converts almost every penny it receives into direct, real benefits for the needy and downtrodden. ANY organization could learn much from the SA (and this book) on how to deliver high-quality, low-overhead customer service to its target audience.

If government agencies, other churches, and or even most companies, were run even half as well as the SA, the world would indeed be a much, much better place!

A terrific story, well-told!
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