The New Global Leaders: Richard Branson, Percy Barnevik, David Simon and the Remaking of International Business (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership) [Hardcover]

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries (Author), Elizabeth Florent-Treacy (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0787946575 | ISBN-13: 978-0787946579 | Publication Date: March 19, 1999 | Edition: 1st

Spend some time with three of today's most noted business pioneers and share their secrets for achieving international success. The New Global Leaders takes readers into the private worlds of Asea Brown Boveri's Percy Barnevik, Virgin founder Richard Branson, and British Petroleum titan David Simon to provide rare and candid profiles of how these charismatic leaders have redefined organizational growth and development in the latter 20th century. The authors were granted unprecedented access to these men and the results are as fascinating as they are informative. Readers are treated to personal interviews with these very powerful and very different personalities, each of whom provides a behind-the-scenes account of how he put his company on the global map. Sharing their philosophies, visions, and strategies, they exemplify leadership in an age of rapid and relentless change and provide new models of success for our post-industrial era.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

What does it take to run a global company during this age of international competition, technology, and downsized work forces? In The New Global Leaders, Manfred F.R. Kets De Vries and Elizabeth Florent-Treacy provide some answers by examining the lives and work of three of Europe's most storied business leaders: Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group; Percy Barnevik, architect of the merger that created the ABB engineering conglomerate; and David Simon, who resurrected British Petroleum. The authors find that each of these leaders succeeds with charisma and a managing philosophy that centers on speed, openness, and a disdain for bureaucracy. "As organizations go through a global 'revolution,' they require the leadership of a significantly different kind of CEO," write the authors. "Leaders at the helm of the corporations of the future will need the capacity to step out of their own comfort zone and adapt to other realities."

While the book is a bit obsequious at times, it's easy to read and understand. Common among all three executives is their simple and direct style. Simon, for example, is a zealot about meeting benchmarks. His slogan is "Performance, reputation, and teamwork." The book shines because it's three biographies and three business histories in one. Managers at companies of any size can benefit from the experiences of Branson, Barnevik, and Simon. --Dan Ring

From Library Journal

The authors, affiliated with INSEAD, an international business school in France, call Branson the "Builder," Barnevik the "Integrator," and Simon the "Transformer." These three corporate executives (of Virgin, Asea Brown Boveri, and British Petroleum, respectively) are presented as role models of leadership styles for the new global executive. Such leaders must be "charismatic" and "architectural." The executive profiles, including personal interviews, are uneven, often rambling. The authors attempt to throw in a dash of nearly every management concept in vogue in the past ten years. Each of the three units in the book ends with a "key points" page outlining the company's competitive edge based on the executive's style. At least that feature pulls together elements of the unit, giving some structure to the content. Not a necessary purchase, except for collections striving to be all-inclusive.ASusan DiMattia, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 188 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1st edition (March 19, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787946575
• ISBN-13: 978-0787946579
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #784,718 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brillant leadership study., May 9, 1999

By 

Turgay BUGDACIGIL (Istanbul, Turkey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New Global Leaders: Richard Branson, Percy Barnevik, David Simon and the Remaking of International Business (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership) (Hardcover)

A brillant leadership study from M.F.R. Kets de Vries and E. Florent-Treacy. The New Global Leaders is the success stories of three global leaders : " Richard Branson (founder and head of the Virgin Group), Percy Barnevik (mastermind behind the merger of ASEA and Brown Boveri to form ABB), and David Simon (former CEO of British Petroleum) all looked for ways to create a greater sense of purpose for their employees while putting in place the structure necessary for a global organization."

With case studies and interviews, this book has been built around the personal development of these world-class global leaders and the evolution of their companies.

As stated by Kets de Vries and Florent-Treacy," we first discuss the values that provide a foundation for excellence and a new psychological contract in vanguard companies such as Virgin, ABB, and BP and then show how these values can be translated into practice in any organization."

I highly recommend this brillant study.

A detailed and succesful study about ABB and Percy Barnevik see "ABB the Dancing Giant/K. Barham & C. Heimer".

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great study of leadership and business philosophy, August 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The New Global Leaders: Richard Branson, Percy Barnevik, David Simon and the Remaking of International Business (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership) (Hardcover)

The book gives valuable insight into the way these three ground-breaking European leaders think about business, and how they successfully manage global organizations. The book clearly illustrate the different personal traits of the subjects (the builder, the transformer, and the integrator), and ecourages the reader to challange the pros and cons of the different philosophies. The book reads very much like a case study, and provides an excellent but basic overview over the global marketplace and on how to be able to draw on the ideas implemented by these great leaders.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Read!, June 2, 2004

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The New Global Leaders: Richard Branson, Percy Barnevik, David Simon and the Remaking of International Business (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership) (Hardcover)

Authors Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries and Elizabeth Florent-Treacy idealistically foresee a new era where visionary, innovative CEO's will lead a new type of employee. Through insightful interviews, they position Richard Branson of Virgin, Percy Barnevik of ABB and David Simon of British Petroleum as icons of the modern, improved CEO. Certainly, Branson and Simon seem to be valid role models and their leadership of European global companies presents interesting alternatives. Although it is not reflected in this 1999 book, today Barnevik's reputation is tarnished in the wake of a 2002 severance pay scandal and problems that BusinessWeek refers to as "the mess at ABB." For good or ill, this book will provoke you to ask if emphasizing a leader's charismatic ability to motivate distracts attention from critical core business issues. Despite their varied outcomes, these charismatic visionaries created family-like corporate cultures and inspired their employees. Thus, they demonstrated that the new economic era requires a new type of leader. Whether they together constitute a composite of that leader is another question. We recommend this solid book to management students and to upcoming executives.