Customer Reviews

Straight from the CEO: The World's Top Leaders Reveal Ideas That Every Manager Can Use

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Based on a collection of essays by global corporate leaders, the book is structured around 6 themes: globalisation, radical change, leadership, culture, innovation, and customer relationship. Percy Barnevik of ABB, explains how to balance global resources and local autonomy, Richard Evans of British Aerospace shows why radical changes required CEOs to get out of their ivory towers. The book is well illustred and easy to read. It doesn't contain academic theory or consultancy methods. It is a step by step guide explained by experienced CEO who can help solve your company's problems. Franck Renand, Prof. of Strategic Management, ISLA, Oporto, Portugal.

Very persuasive book, with new and bright ideas for the future. It has motivated me to become a more people oriented person. I will take closer looks and my employees needs and wants, taking care of the customer has become one of my greatest concerns. Thank you for the edge on life. Omar Cumberbatch, CEO Royal Family Pro.

Straight from over thirty of today's most innovative CEOs come the ideas that are reshaping and reinvigorating the modern corporation-written exclusively for this book. Straight from the CEO is a major work, because the world rarely hears directly from the great contemporary business leaders-the chief movers and shakers of major corporations. Working closely with the Price Waterhouse management team, a wide variety of chief executives who are successfully managing today's rapid pace of economic change present their ideas about leading and motivating people, unleashing innovation and creativity, and learning from customers to revitalize their businesses. Among the CEOs represented in the book are the heads of British Airways, Compaq Computer, Monsanto, Royal Dutch/Shell, Enron, Chase Manhattan Bank, and Warner-Lambert. The scope is worldwide: from Bangkok to Jakarta, from Dusseldorf to Dallas. No ivory tower theorizing, no speeches, no "consultant speak," these are the practical insights of leaders who every day must find ways to test and validate new ideas, implement change to improve the bottom line, and ultimately focus on the core ideas that will truly reshape their corporation.

Straight from the CEO is an important tool for managers at every level, focusing on such issues as creating loyalty to customers, organizing globally, fostering individual employee motivation, and leveraging corporate values to enhance performance. These are the pressing issues that face every manager who strives to sort out valuable contributions from impractical ideas, the gold from the dross, and then take action that gets results. As intellectually stimulating as it is practical, Straight from the CEO is an invaluable report from the executive trenches.

By necessity brief, the many pieces (I hesitate to call them chapters or even articles) lack depth, assume much and as a result are quite unstatisfying; but they do leave the reader hungry for more!

William Dauphinais is Vice Chairman, Human Capital for PricewaterhouseCoopers. He co-authored with Colin Price two previous books, The Paradox Principles and Better Change. He has 25 years of business experience covering a broad range of organizational change, business reengineering, financial planning, and information technology issues. He received both his undergraduate degree and his MBA from the University of Michigan. Colin Price was previously a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he oversaw a Strategic Change Consulting, a practice of 3,000 consultants working with global clients in managing large-scale corporate transformations. He has a BA in Economics and graduate degrees in Organizational Psychology. Married with one child, he lives outside London.

Reviewed by Azlan Adnan. Formerly Business Development Manager with KPMG, Azlan Adnan is currently Managing Partner of Azlan & Koh Knowledge and Professional Management Group, an education and management consulting practice based in Kota Kinabalu. He holds a Master's degree in International Business and Management from the Westminster Business School, London.

Small upstarts can successfully attack even giant, established corporations. You need to be a "smart" manager, to defend your organization from these threats.

If your company is facing some of the unique challenges of the 21st Century, you could benefit from the advice of CEO's who have already faced them. In this book, CEO's of successful companies have given advice on a wide range of issues facing corporations today, from balancing global resources and facing international competition, to brand building and corporate culture. In Straight From the CEO, you will learn about the innovative solutions, and the thinking behind them, that leaders in every industry have developed as a response to the challenges facing companies today.

Here are a few examples:

Percy Barnevik, chairman of ABB Asea Brown Boveri, explains how decentralizing a global organization can protect it from its own bureaucratic weight and encourage innovation.

Felix Rosenberg, CEO of Swisscom, explains how to combat global competitors by internationalizing your company fast and reinventing your company to prepare for change and innovation.

Sir Richard Evans, CEO of British Aerospace cautions that CEO's must not only have a vision of what needs to be done, but also a commitment to becoming deeply involved in the process from beginning to end.

Excellent book with many articles and opinions from top CEOs. These are some of the best business books out there, letting you see how the people who run these companies think. I don't know if the paperback has it or not, and honestly I would imagine given what happened it probably has been removed, but in the hardback version, the late Kenneth Lay, CEO of Enron for the majority of years (except for 4 months when Jeff Skilling took over), writes his own little 8 page article on it. I don't know if the paperback has it or not, but I do know any hardback copy from 1998 would.