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Soaring with the Phoenix: Renewing the Vision, Reviving the Spirit, and Re-Creating the success of your company

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James A. Belasco and Jerre Stead use the metaphor of the mythological phoenix to underline the need for a leader to embrace change. They suggest using the phoenix to create a new vision for yourself and your company. Their "phoenix principles" include personal renewal, recognizing your connection with others and promoting their successes, committing to learning and to taking "ownership" of your life and your company. While the book is easy-to-read, and uses a nifty new metaphor, the ideas are a familiar restatement of Principles of Marketing, Management, and Organizational Behavior 101. We [...] recommend this book to those who haven't taken the basic course lately, or to those whose spirit needs a little old-style renewal dressed in fancy feathers. If you have employees whose focus is flagging, give them a flight on the phoenix.

More often not, companies launch series after series of change initiatives which result in greater and greater failures. Why do these change initiatives fail? The authors of this book argue that it is because companies attempt to make a series of small changes. They see these series of small changes as simply tweaking hey present and therefore doomed.
The authors argue that in the new economy, companies are faced with radical and constant global, technical, social, and for many, personal change. With these sweeping changes, the authors argue that a company must also make drastic changes or encounter the failures of those that have opted for small incremental changes. How does a company make these sweeping changes? Can it be done?
The authors are consultants that had great success reviving the NCR division of AT&T. They draw on the knowledge gained from their success to deliver a step-by-step guide to what they call "revivolution," the process to renew in a revolutionary way the management, team, or organization.

The steps are grounded in the following principles for the "revivolution:"

· Self-renew is Job 1.
· We are all part of interconnected, interdependent networks
· Create successes for all of your connections
· Learn more in order to contribute more to others' success.
· Take ownership of your company and your life.