In Their Time: The Greatest Business Leaders Of The Twentieth Century [Hardcover]

Anthony J. Mayo (Author), Nitin Nohria (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2005

From little known heroes to legends like Sam Walton and Bill Gates, this absorbing book weaves history, economics, and personality to reveal the secrets behind the success of the last century's greatest American business leaders. The authors show that a key to success was 'contextual intelligence': the ability to 'read' and understand the context of the times and seize the unique opportunities within them. This book is a powerful resource containing canon of the 20th century's greatest business leaders in one volume. It is an absorbing read; the stories include both well known and unfamiliar leaders. It features a New Leadership Theory. Many leadership profiles focus on the personality traits. The authors' theory of 'contextual intelligence' represents a fresh perspective and is well-researched, based on a Harvard Business School Leadership Initiative Study of 1,000 great CEOs and Founders of American companies from 1900-1999. Many of the leaders profiled hail from non-US countries.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The authors, Harvard Business School academics, offer profiles from their exhaustive study of the greatest business leaders of the twentieth century. Leadership arises from knowledge and appreciation of one's economic, social, and political situation in the world, and we learn about "contextual intelligence," or the understanding of how to make sense of one's time and to seize the opportunities it presents. Mayo and Nohira classify great business chiefs as entrepreneurs, those who create businesses; managers, those expert at taking advantage of every opportunity; and leaders, those who reinvent industries and see new opportunities in them. With the book's organization by each decade of the twentieth century, we learn the importance of such legends as Sam Walton, Walt Disney, Bill Gates, Henry Ford, Ray Kroc, Jack Welsh, Estee Lauder,^B Ted Turner, Lee Iacocca, and Lou Gerstner Jr. Recognition is also given to "unsung heroes," the large corps of nameless team members who provide support. Although written in a textbook manner, the book offers valuable insight into business excellence. Mary Whaley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Tony Mayo is the executive director of the Harvard Business School Leadership Initiative Program. Nitin Nohria is Richard P. Chapman Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 444 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press (September 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591393450
• ISBN-13: 978-1591393450
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #364,493 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not What I Expected, November 6, 2005

By 

Jason C. Steinle "author of Upload Experience... (Evergreen, Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Their Time: The Greatest Business Leaders Of The Twentieth Century (Hardcover)

When I ordered In Their Time I was expecting a book of business biographies. I thought the usual suspects--Gates, Ford, Channel, Walton--would all be featured. Instead the book went three steps further.

First the great business leaders were not only described but they were also characterized by their ability to seize the opportunities that existed in their time.

Second the book breaks down the "happenings of the time" into 6 key components.
1. Government Intervention
2. Global Affairs
3. Demography
4. Social Mores
5. Technology
6. Labor

Third it taught me how to look upon our current world to better identify where we are heading (while providing me with a solid understanding of where we have been.)

In Their Time was a massive undertaking by Tony Mayo and Nitin Nohria. Like good researchers they changed their focus several times as new trends became evident. The result is a book that is provocative and profound, entertaining and educational.

Jason C. Steinle.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pathbreaking Book on Leadership, November 18, 2005

By 

R. Gulati (Chicago, IL, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Their Time: The Greatest Business Leaders Of The Twentieth Century (Hardcover)

The field of leadership is littered with numerous books that are nothing more than anecdote based accounts that conclude with a list of platitudes for successful leadership. For those who want to go beyond the cute lists of success factors for leadership that lack much substance to a well researched, historically grounded, and comprehensive account of what really makes great leaders, this is your book. This book is among one of the first to try to go beyond contemporary fads and fashions that may be in vogue to take a detailed look over a 100 year time period and distill the essential qualities that have made great leaders across this extraordinary century in human history. The authors uncover the important quality of contextual intelligence evident in great leaders across this time period and provide inspiration and insight for those who aspire to follow in their footsteps. A must read for anyone on the journey to great leadership!

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A UNIQUE, OUTSTANDING APPROACH TO LEADERSHIP!, November 18, 2005

By 

Yvette Borcia and Gerry Stern "Stern's Manage... (Culver City, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Their Time: The Greatest Business Leaders Of The Twentieth Century (Hardcover)

This book explores how context, over time, creates different types of opportunities, and how business legends can be defined by the types of opportunities they pursued. What distinguishes this book from similar studies of legendary leaders, managers and entrepreneurs, is the underlying theme of contextual intelligence-the profound awareness and sensitivity to macro-level factors driving the creation, growth or transformation of business at a particular time. The authors discuss and assess the great names in business in the context of their time, organizing the book by decades, beginning in 1900 through the end of the last century. The book makes for fascinating,d enjoyable reading. This is a top-notch contribution to the study of those who have created and shaped business enterprises.