Customer Reviews

The Pursuit of Prime: Maximize Your Company's Success with the Adizes Program

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I started a service business and it grew rapidly, and hit some turbulence along the way. I found out about Dr Adizes and got his books, and was amazed at how he nailed it with my company and what we were going through. It was like looking in a mirror. The book was great, and we even hired some of their consultants to help us navigate a path, and it certainly helped to get us on the right path again. I am very impressed with this guy and his team, and think he has done a great service to identify the common path entrepreneurial companies follow -- and the path they need to take to survive and continue to prosper.

This book should be required reading for any technical and business architect. As contract work begins to dominate future job growth, this books provides a conceptual framework for interviewing for contract positions. We all talk about "fitting in with the team" but without a conceptual framework to categorize questions it is just unfocused discussion. I did two startups and one internal startup (internal strategic business unit) and this book is spot-on. Bloody shame I didn't read this book when it first came out.

I recommend your staff members become competent in "Corporate Lifecycles" and the "Zachman Framework" as team building enablers. Then you will have a common vocabulary for the business AND technical aspects of meeting topics thus creating better decisions. After all, management is making better decisions.

Every day a new book is published in the area of organizational transformation,but only a few have significant value and can help the companies to reach the prime. This is the subject of "PURSUIT OF PRIME", the last book of Ichak Adizes PH.D.,a famous consultant, based in USA, with 30 years of experience and success, in the USA and other countries, in the organizational transformation area. The Pursuit of Prime wrote in an easy to read language and according Adizes Methodology, gives to the companies's leaders a "HOW TO" guide to reach or keep their companies to the maximum vitality, creativity, proftability, performance and commitment, called PRIME by Adizes. Considering that every change ( they are allways occuring) causes a problem, for each stage of the organization's lifecycle, Adizes shows what is a normal and an abnormal problem and what we have to do in terms of style of manegement,structure, strategy, staffing, rewards and planning and goals, to correct or to avoid the abnormal problems. This is a great book to be used like a tool for all leaders that want to transform their companies, big or small, in benchimarking-"TOP OF ALL". Adolfo Conceicao (adolfo@brnet.com.br)

The following comments were sent to the Adizes Institute. They are solicited testimony. All comments are exact wording of the views of the readers: "His thinking is not done in an Ivory Tower but on the street. I have built several companies and there are phenomenal resonance. He takes up the cardinal issues. Using his thought is as real as anything I've ever done." DUDLEY G. BOYD, Fidelity Business Alliance Memphis, TN "Remarkably constructive advice for executives dealing with change. Adizes' framework enables top managers to see the kind of changes their companies may need and how to get there." PROFESSOR WILLIAM H. NEWMAN, Professor Emeritus Columbia University Graduate School of Business, "This book is a lighthouse which shows the position of the boat and leads the organization to its Eden. Extremely practical." DANIEL LEE, Head, Marketing and Sales NE Asia, CibaVision Taiwan "The Pursuit of Prime" is eminently accessible and chockfull of both visionary insights and practical lessons on leading the enterprise. Thoughtful, riveting, and intellectually compelling, this helpful leadership primer should represent great `take home value' for lay entrepreneurs and captains of industry alike." ED SAVAGE,Chairman, Stanton Chase International Los Angeles, California "Adizes has done it again! As with his earlier books, truly remarkable insights are combined with real-world action steps which show how to use them in a wide variety of organizational situations. He goes beyond the often superficial, quick-fix suggestions of so many of today's "how-to-do-it" manuals and goes to the heart of what is needed and how to make it happen." DR. E. KIRBY WARREN,Professor and Director, The Management Institute, Columbia Graduate School of Business "Adizes is not only the best, but the only business philosopher who provides comprehensive solutions to complicated problems. The rest of the business literature fails when compared to his work. You don't need to read anything else!" JOEL SCHIAVONE,Former President, YPO International President, The Schiavone Corporation. Note: commentary entered by Dr. Patrick H. Griffin, Director of Communications, The Adizes Institute

Few people really understand how important and powerful lifecycle concepts are for leaders of organizations. Whether you are in a start up, in a rapidly growing company, in a company that is professionalizing, in company that has "made it", or in a company that is losing ground in the marketplace - lifecycle concepts help you lead your organization back to the sweet spot with the biggest of big-picture views of where you are going and where you need to go.

There are many lifecycle theorists in the academy, but in the real world of working leaders and managers, no-one even comes close to offering such a solid and useful working understanding of corporate lifecycles as Ichak Adizes. You simply won't get this perspective on your organization from any other source.

The conceptual foundations of the Adizes Methodology do include a lot of interesting core concepts (so interesting to me that I once took 3 years off to research one of them, in a book called The Structure of Concern: A Challenge for Thinkers - which you can buy here or get legally online in softcopy at Scribd and other doc repository sites).

The book that gives the fullest account of how core Adizes concepts apply to lifecycle management is Dr. Adizes's Managing Corporate Lifecycles, but that is a pretty long and concentrated read. The Pursuit of Prime is much shorter and more accessible, and a great introduction to some of the core ideas. In fact, if you read this book first, you'll find Managing Corporate Lifecycles much easier and more accessible. So if you have heard rumours about this "Adizes" stuff, and you are looking for a place to start, this would be a good choice.

If you want an edge in the business world as a big-picture thinker, Adizes is one of the frameworks you'll want to have mastered! It will give you a perspective on leadership that nothing else can.

The is a must read for all business owners and entrepreneurs.

It provides you with great insights and concrete counsel on keeping your enterprise "green and growing" ... it speaks to the issue all entrepreneurs face ... how to keep the business vibrant and alive.