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Ruthless Execution: What Business Leaders Do When Their Companies Hit the Wall

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Ruthless Execution

Ignore this book's somewhat overheated title and concentrate on Hartman's core concepts which he develops with meticulous care. He suggests a number of strategies and tactics by which business leaders can respond effectively when they encounter what Hartman calls the "rude awakening that occurs when a company has enjoyed consistently high-level performance, but comes up against some new factor: a downward turn in the economy, a lack of product innovation, growth that occurs too rapidly, a missed market opportunity, or as is most often the case, ineffective execution." Hartman organizes his material within five Parts which consist of a total of 12 individual chapters: Managing Through Tough Times, Leadership: Dealing with Rude Awakenings, How to Play the Game, Breaking Through the Wall, and What It All Means. The focus of Hartman's book is on "business reversals and the need to shepherd business leaders through those reversals because, quite frankly, corporations are passing through a new, more complex, more worrying age. The long and short of it is that it's far more difficult to be a successful business leader today than ever before."

The statistics support Hartman's last observation. In 2001, for example, 257 public companies (with a total of $258 billion in assets) declared bankruptcy. In 2002, another 67 did so. Go back even further to the 43 companies which Peters and Waterman quite properly praised in In Search of Excellence (1982). Most no longer qualify according to the criteria by which they were selected...and several do not exist at all. Scary? You bet.

In Chapter 8, Hartman offers a "Ruthless Execution Checklist" which can be of substantial value to all organizations, regardless of size or nature:

1. Do you have a cost and working capital management program that is driven through the business?

[NOTE: For small companies, the more appropriate question is "Is there a sound reason for the expenditure of each hour and each dollar?"]

2. Do you have a proactive and disciplined approach to identifying and assessing potential acquisitions and divestitures?

[NOTE: For small companies, the more appropriate question is "What should you add to what you now offer? What should you eliminate?"]

3. Do you regularly assess whether the corporate center is adding distinctive value to each business unit?

[NOTE: For small companies, the more appropriate question is "Does everything you do add value to each customer relationship?"]

4. Do you effectively and swiftly manage out non-performers?

[NOTE: Extensive research indicates that, on average, each mishire costs 24 times her or his annual salary. Hire slowly but fire FAST.]

Most organizations now face serious challenges. Many of those organizations will not survive. For their decision-makers, what to do? To his credit, Hartman does not propose a series of specific (one size fits all) answers to that question. Rather, in the final chapter, he includes a "Ruthless Execution Index" with instructions as to how to use it. It remains for each reader to provide correct responses to the 54 statements which comprise the "Index." Once this exercise has been completed, the far greater challenge -- obviously -- is to take appropriate action. Hartman can assist with that process. I also recommend a careful reading of Bossidy and Charan's Execution, Hammer's The Agenda, Collins' Good to Great, and Kaplan and Norton's The Strategy-Focused Organization.

What do you do if your company has been a high performer but then hits the wall? The economy may have slowed down, your product innovation has dropped off, growth has been too fast, or execution has been ineffective. According to Amir Hartman, what your company needs is ruthless execution (a term Hartman coined with John Sifonis while working with Hewlett-Packard). This consists of the method and strategies that Hartman's research suggests business leaders have employed to break through performance walls.

Ruthless execution consists of strategies organized into three categories: leadership, governance, and critical capabilities, each of which contains several practices. Hartman does not guarantee success in breaking through the wall if you use any of these strategies. But these approaches are common to those who have succeeded in the past and were used in the order presented in the book.

When troubled or uncertain times arrive, leaders typically but fruitlessly adopt either the "Run-and-Gun strategy" or the "Slash-and-Burn" strategy. According to Hartman, a third approach of ruthless execution works far better for most business leaders. In this book, he has no interest in identifying the major causes of companies hitting the wall. No matter what the cause it is an inability to focus and execute that is at the core of the problem.

By studying a diverse set of industries and companies of all sizes, using surveys, company documents, research reports, publicly available financial data (10-Ks), and interviews with key business leaders, Hartman believes he has discovered the practices used by those companies who succeeded in breaking through the wall. Much of the book consists of overviews of these efforts, many of them familiar to business readers, including Jack Welch's time at GE, Louis Gerstner's turnaround of IBM, Larry Bossidy's famous execution at Honeywell, along with Baxter, Novartis, and Cisco.

Ruthless execution proceeds through the stages of leadership, governance, and critical capabilities. The first part of the leadership aspect is strategic recalibration: the act of validating the direction and focus a company is going to take. This involves rearranging the portfolio of business initiatives (Hartman offers four rules for portfolio management), assessing how resources are allocated to initiatives, and setting a course while finding a healthy balance between performance and growth efforts.

After strategic recalibration, the second leadership practice is devising a business philosophy. Hartman prefers "business philosophy" to "organizational culture" because a culture may endure over generations but he is referring to the view that comes from the top and typically is identified with the CEO. He holds up Jack Welch as exemplifying the creation and promulgation of a business philosophy.

The second part of ruthless execution is governance. This consists of: Accountability - using a set of "alignment" strategies; Performance management system - using a small number of critical financial, strategic, and operating metrics (10 principles are offered); Discipline - communicating messages that are consistent, straightforward, and easily comprehended.

The final part of ruthless execution is critical capabilities: These are the specific actions that executives drive to break through the wall. They are the three critical skills and delivery capabilities with which business leaders need to be equipped: Productivity management - cost and working capital management, productivity management inc. technology-driven productivity improvement (which is aimed at optimizing, reconstructing, inventing and for which Hartman outlines six principles); Talent management - hiring the best talent and getting rid of underperformers; Focused corporate transactions - mergers and acquisitions, and divestitures.

The final chapter introduces a Ruthless Execution Index intended to help executives who want to understand where to improve their ruthless execution. While some executives will find much of the material familiar, the book gathers and organizes many aspects of the execution so vital to continuing and recapturing success.

Hartman presents trenchant analysis and documentation of an endemic problem in business: hitting the wall can happen to an enterprise anywhere, anytime. Discussions of the case studies are compelling. More importantly, the revealing of the many dimensions of what needs to be done to turn things around and how to do that are the core contributions of the book. Highly recommended read for senior and top managers...especially for those who think they are enjoying success.

Are you Ruthless? A must read for all business leaders!

This could not have come at a better time. Hartman clearly articulates the methods and strategies on how to recover after hitting performance walls. Ruthless Execution dives into this described methodology within each chapter developing itself into a comprehensive workplan for success.

As a former military officer, the major obstacles that I faced when entering the corporate world were the lack of focus, discipline and accountability within the corporate framework or organization. I applaud Hartman's approach to tackling these problems head on. As he states, leaders must be proactive, focused, disciplined and held personally accountable for all respective successes and/or failures.

These are just a few points that I will file into my business tool kit. Additional points to file will include Ruthless Execution Principles (leadership, governance, and critical capabilities), The Ruthless Execution Checklist, Case Studies and Interviews with some of the top business leaders (Jack Welch, John Chambers, and Lou Gerstner), and the Performance Portfolio Framework.

Special Note: For all military officers exiting the military, this is a must read.

Outstanding!

In today's world, constant change is the status quo. Companies are "hitting the wall" right and left amidst the headwinds of these turbulent times. In such times, leadership is the key to thriving. And rutheless execution is how the great leaders roll up their sleaves and get the job done. In his book, "Ruthless Execution", Amir Hartman cuts through the fog and gets to what really matters. He offers sound advice for how to both recognize that you're business is in trouble, and what to do about it. His book is filled with compelling interviews with great business leaders that have demonstrated an ability to lead change. And having worked directly with one of these great leaders, Larry Bossidy, during very difficult economic times, I can definitely concur with Mr. Hartman's conclusions and recomendations. It's worth the read!

This is a book that gives you a structured and clear vision about turnaround. If you are facing a turnaround situation and ask yourself " what to do ?" This book can give you some good ideas. I read many other books and usually they are "only" cases, stories that gave me nothing or books with pure theoretical views. This is not the case of Amir Hartman book. He has a very good ( and useful!) book here! I recommend.

Hartman has an obvious grasp on what it takes for business leaders to succeed in today's marketplace. The book clearly defines what it takes to surmount obstacles, redefine culture, and regain focus.

Hartman has the ability to share success stories and give examples in a very succinct and poignant manner. The reader sees what great business leaders have done (in this economy) to gain success through leadership, governance, and managing talent. He very clearly defines how NOT to hit "the wall" and how to lead your orgnization to ascendance.

In today's economy executives are getting hit from every angle. This book explains in very plain english how and when to execute the right methodologies to obtain success within an organization. The stories in RUTHLESS EXECUTION are well written and offer both inspiration and direction.

Definitely a book to have if you are in a leadership position. As the President of an INC. 500 firm, I find the book extremely useful and inspirational.

Amir Hartman does it again...not since his last book Net Ready, has such a practical and reality based business book been produced to help business leaders navigate the highly complex world of today's technology enabled businesses. Amir's ability to break down the fundamental challenges and put together key success factors of how to break through business plateaus are keys that we can all learn from.

ANOTHER BULLSEYE!

Dr. Hartman again provides us with a topical, timely, and absolutely accurate guidebook for solving real-life problems in the business world. Coming on the heels of his previous best-seller "Net Ready", his new book "Ruthless Execution" provides the reader with all the tools to survive one of the most dangerous hazards confronting senior managers today-"Hitting The Wall". Whether it be strategy that missed the mark, key personnel who seem unable to deal effectively with new challenges, or other internal problems that are de-focusing your management team just when total concentration is needed for survival, Hartman provides the tools to isolate the problem and the guidance to achieve the performance breakthroughs essential for continuing success in today's rapidly changing business climate.

This book is a "Must Read" for every executive who faces tough decisions on a daily basis and seeks some down-to-earth insights and tools to ensure success in the months ahead.

"Ruthless Execution" is one of a kind, full of breakthrough action items, lots of punches, one after another, that would take your breath away, so captivating, absolutely seductive... The ideas are so crisply presented there is no need for me to spend extra time to piece them together... It's so penetrating that if I were empowered as a CEO of a major corpoartion today, I would know exactly what to do to overcome that "wall" and bring the company from strength to strength, from greatness to greatness... Before this book, no one ever bothers to explain or even notices the difference between "business philosophy" and "culture"... This book tells it all.