What the Best CEOs Know : 7 Exceptional Leaders and Their Lessons for Transforming any Business [Hardcover]

Jeffrey Krames (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2003

Leadership lessons from the best--Gates, Welch, Dell, Gerstner, Kelleher, Grove, and Walton

What are the traits, tactics, and strategies of the business world's most transformative leaders . . . and what can the rest of us learn from them? In What the Best CEOs Know, leadership authority Jeffrey Krames examines the careers of seven of history's most accomplished CEOs--including in-depth interviews with Michael Dell, Lou Gerstner, and Herb Kelleher--to get candid answers to many of today's most compelling business questions.

The result is a blueprint-like framework that instructs as well as it informs, and provides managers with the firsthand secrets of leadership giants. Proven learning tools--from cases and lesson summaries to selfassessment exercises--reinforce the book's methods and key ideas. Each chapter of What the Best CEOs Know provides innovative features including:

• Assess Your CEO Quotient
• Leadership Lessons of the CEO
• What would Jack Welch et al. do?

A host of well-known and bestselling books have detailed the success formulas of specific CEOs. But until now, no single book has compiled the strategies of several CEOs--let alone the world's most well-known business leaders--into a handbook for achieving breakthrough corporate stewardship. What the Best CEOs Know does exactly that, combining the wisdom, strategies, and tactics of today's most accomplished CEOs into one powerful and one-of-a-kind business resource.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his opening remarks, Krames identifies the "celebrity CEO." This person is the company leader who's "idealized, even idolized," whose image graces magazine and book covers, and who is often asked to weigh in on the issues of the day. Celebrity CEOs ran wild in the 1990s and early 2000s. Alas, says Krames, v-p and publisher of McGraw-Hill's business books division, the celebrity CEO's era has ended. But some champion CEOs of that time do have wisdom to impart, and in this thorough and thoughtful examination of successful leadership strategies, Krames dissects the ideas of some of the biggest names that have graced business headlines in the past 10 or so years. The list is impressive: Michael Dell (Dell Computer), Jack Welch (GE), Lou Gerstner (IBM), Andy Grove (Intel), Bill Gates (Microsoft), Herb Kelleher (Southwest Airlines) and Sam Walton (Wal-Mart). Although only one of the subjects still holds the CEO title, all seven have implemented world-famous success methods. Krames pinpoints their defining traits (e.g., they are evangelical, but not necessarily charismatic) and strategies (e.g., prepare for change; foster learning), using specific examples and quotes. Sidebars (entitled "What Would Andy Grove Do?"; "What Would Jack Welch Do?" etc.) break up the text. This is a smart, timely book that deserves reading for the lessons it teaches and for the business history it inadvertently imparts.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Do seven of the most admired, most studied, and most quoted CEOs in the twenty-first century have no new knowledge to impart about their successes? Krames has created a new spin for the lessons from names such as Michel Dell and Jack Welch (plus five others) by fashioning a case-history-like approach. He sets the stage by isolating the six traits critical to great CEO success, from instilling a company-wide outside-in perspective to understanding the role of culture and how difficult it is to bring about meaningful cultural change. Then each of the seven CEOs is "assigned" a specific lesson. For example, Southwest's success in creating a performance-driven culture is introduced by a fictional business problem, headlined "What Would Herb Kelleher do?" and followed by a history of the airlines, the problem's answer, additional questions, and a synopsis of points to remember. Post-Enron, any corporate captain of industry can be tarnished; on the other hand, these lessons could remain valuable for years to come. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 204 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (March 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071382402
• ISBN-13: 978-0071382403
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,575,542 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Learn What Others Have Learned from Others...., July 22, 2003

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: What the Best CEOs Know : 7 Exceptional Leaders and Their Lessons for Transforming any Business (Hardcover)

Krames has an excellent concept for this book: select several exceptional corporate leaders, examine each in terms of a specific objective to which both he and his organization are fully committed, and then explain what can be learned from HOW that objective is conceived. Of course, he could have selected a different seven...or perhaps add several others to those he did. Few can question the inclusion of Dell, Welch, Gerstner, Grove, Gates, Kelleher, and Walton. After explaining "What Made Them Great" in Part 1, Krames devotes a chapter to each in Part 2 as he explains those defining strategies which have made each exceptional. I commend Krames for including exercises which actively engage the reader's mind. For example, a brief scenario "that puts the reader in the seat of the [given] CEO." Krames offers a series of business situations which enable his readers "to test their business acumen against that of each of the seven subject CEOs." Each chapter is filled with various lessons as well as "Assess Your CEO Quotient" questions which can be asked both of the individual and of her or his own organization. Throughout his narrative, Krames also inserts brief comments from the works of business thinkers such as Peter Drucker and Philip Kotler so as to provide different perspectives on the given business issue.

Here are the seven CEOs and their respective defining strategies:

Michael Dell: Place the customer at the epicenter of the business model

Jack Welch: Create an authentic learning organization

Lou Gerstner: Focus on solutions

Andy Grove: Prepare the organization for [in italics] drastic change

Bill Gates: Harness the intellect of [in italics] every employee

Herb Kelleher: Create a performance-driven culture

Sam Walton: Learn from competitors, but remain faithful to the vision

Listing the CEOs and their respective defining strategies is easy to do. The great value of this book is derived from Krames's rigorous analysis of each CEO and defining strategy within the context of their respective organizations. The reader learns not only the WHAT but also the HOW and WHY. I agree with Krames that these seven as well as other exceptional leaders have much in common: an "outside-in" perspective; an evangelical leadership gene; an understanding of the critical role of culture; a passion to create next-generation products, processes, or solutions; a determination to implement the best ideas, regardless of their origin; and, meanwhile, a commitment to increase and thereby advance the leadership body of knowledge. This is an exceptional book about exceptional leadership, one which I highly recommend to business students and recent graduates as well as to those well along in their business careers. I also presume to insist that maximum value will be derived only if the various "Assess Your CEO Quotient" questions are answered with appropriate care and then rigorously evaluated. Stated another way, there is much to learn from the CEOs but perhaps even more can be learned from these self-audits.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Condensed Books Version of Leading CEO Philosophies, March 16, 2004

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: What the Best CEOs Know : 7 Exceptional Leaders and Their Lessons for Transforming any Business (Hardcover)

If you have already read books by or about Michael Dell, Bill Gates, Lou Gerstner, Andy Grove, Herb Kelleher, Jack Welch and Sam Walton, you will probably think this is a two star book. If you are unfamiliar with any of these gentleman and their companies, you will find this book to be a helpful introduction that can direct you to more detailed reading on subjects that interest you.

What's new about this book is that Mr. Krames positions thought experiments in the sections about each CEO so you can address a business problem . . . and compare your answers to those the CEOs might have supplied. These are a cinch if you have read about the people involved, and are otherwise quite challenging. There are also helpful questions to test your organization's current applications of the concept at the end of each CEO's chapter.

What's not new about the book is any information that hasn't been written before about what the CEOs did in their own companies. I cannot remember seeing anything that I hadn't seen already. As a result, the book serves as a condensation of past learning. That's helpful for those who read little and have limited time. I didn't detect too many problems with the material. The consistent pattern of misfocus was concentrated in not in explaining enough about the context for the ideas. All of Jack Welch's big theme ideas were borrowed (as Mr. Krames points out for Sam Walton), and Mr. Welch was often quite late in picking up on and applying those ideas. Many of the initiatives in expanding service at IBM were well underway before Lou Gerstner arrived. I graded the book down one star for these slight misfocuses.

If you have the time, there's a better book either by or about each person than this one. Feel free to go to the better source!

As I finished the book, I began to realize that much study of great leaders is influenced by the size of their success . . . rather than the size of their accomplishment. If we were looking at leaders who had made great transformations, we would also be reading about Millard Fuller at Habitat for Humanity International, Jack Bogle at Vanguard, Mike Ruettgers at EMC, Richard Reese at Iron Mountain, Rob McEwen at Goldcorp, and Bernard Liautaud at Business Objects. I wonder what it will take before studies of best practices turn to those who are best at those practices.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What the Best CEO's Know, May 2, 2008

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Teresa Lombardi (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: What the Best CEOs Know: 7 Exceptional Leaders and Their Lessons for Transforming Any Business (Paperback)

An excellent encapsulation of real life situations and how to approach them. It affirms the good things a CEO might be doing now and offers great tips for how to possibly add a bit more cutting edge. Easy to read, easy to apply, entertaining, applicable. A real delight to read.