Wisdom of the CEO: 29 Global Leaders Tackle Today's Most Pressing Business Challenges (Wiley Audio) [Paperback]

G. William Dauphinais (Author), Grady Means (Author), Colin Price (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471357626 | ISBN-13: 978-0471357629 | Publication Date: January 24, 2000 | Edition: 1

How Will Yahoo! Stay on Top in the Twenty-First Century? Sony? DuPont? Why Not Ask Their CEOs? Wisdom of the CEO introduces you to 29 visionaries who are actively changing today's business paradigm. These top global business leaders explain how they are confronting the eight key issues driving business today-Globalization, Growth, Shareholder Value, Innovation, E-Business, Disruptive Technology, Organization, and Knowledge Management-and give you valuable guidance for maintaining and strengthening your own company's market share. Listen to the voices of experience as they discuss hot-button issues including:
* The Internet-How will e-commerce change customer demands and expectations? K. Blake Darcy, CEO of online trading powerhouse DLJdirect, explains the new rules.
* Shareholder Value-Can a leader focus all of a company's strategic efforts on shareholder value? Sir Brian Pitman explains how managers throughout the Lloyds organization-acting as value-creation strategists-are helping him to do just that.
* Disruptive Technology-Can established companies exploit disruptive technologies as effectively as their start-up competitors? CEO Roger G. Ackerman reveals how Corning can-and does.
PricewaterhouseCoopers is renowned for its commitment to helping world-class companies make better business decisions and hone their competitive strategies. With Wisdom of the CEO, Dauphinais, Means, and Price assemble an impressive, unprecedented gathering of today's leading business minds to discuss the trends that are propelling global business into the twenty-first century-and how they are positioning their companies to take full advantage of those trends.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Not many of us have the benefit of sitting down and picking the brains of top CEOs, the kind of guys who get their pictures on the covers of Forbes and Fortune and whose companies' quarterly earnings are reported on the evening news. Wisdom of the CEO doesn't exactly give you face time, but it does feature 29 corporate leaders talking about the issues that drive modern business--growth, innovation, shareholder value, and globalization among them.

Some of the names are those you'd expect--Michael Dell talking about growth, Sony's Nobuyuki Idea on innovation--but others are a surprise. For example, the postmaster general of the United States has written a chapter called "Firing Up the Evangelical Organization," in which he talks about the inherent contradictions of a company that is a monopoly but still has to compete for market share with publicly traded companies. The chapter on knowledge management comes last in the book, but contains the most interesting metaphor: Yahoo! chairman and CEO Timothy Koogle compares the proliferation of new information to bug spray, which works by forcing bugs to keep twitching until they run out of food or oxygen and thus die. Knowledge workers and organizations are like that, he says: If they can't find the information they need quickly, in language that's meaningful to them, they'll just keep searching until they run themselves into the ground. Not that this is a book built on clever metaphors. Two of the authors are partners with PricewaterhouseCoopers, the giant accountancy firm, and the third is a former partner. A reader doesn't expect zinging prose from this trio, and shouldn't be disappointed when it's not found. Instead, the book offers straightforward analysis of how business has changed in the past two decades and how it figures to continue changing. --Lou Schuler

From Booklist

This is a PricewaterhouseCoopers book that the editors, leading partners in that accounting firm, contend provides important insight into near-term agenda issues for the global economy. Contributors include the CEOs of AT&T, Texaco, Unilever, Baxter, ABB, and Sony and cover globalization, growth, shareholder value, organization, e-business, disruptive technology, innovation, and knowledge management. Although all 29 contributors have notable corporate responsibility, their selection by PricewaterhouseCoopers could be guided by business development considerations, as the firm offers this forum for publicizing the ideas of its clients and prospective clients. Mary Whaley

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (January 24, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471357626
• ISBN-13: 978-0471357629
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,404,787 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unique Access to 29 CEOs, February 3, 2000

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wisdom of the CEO: 29 Global Leaders Tackle Today's Most Pressing Business Challenges (Wiley Audio) (Paperback)

The authors have anthologized commentaries by 29 CEOs who "tackle today's most pressing business challenges." In their Introduction, they note that "Global eras of fundamental change -- geopolitical, technological, economic -- that might once have taken centuries are now completed in a few years. Corporations that mapped out five-year strategic plans now review their strategies monthly." Quite true. They then identify and briefly discuss four: The Era of Internationalization (1984-1990), The Era of Global Convergence (1990-1994), The Era of Global Consolidation (1994-1996), and The Era of Acceleration (1998-2020?). The 29 commentaries are then distributed within eight chapters...for each of which the authors provide a brief introduction.

The naming and dating of these eras is much less important than the authors' comments which are coordinated with what the various CEOs have to say. Each CEO has selected a specific subject to discuss. Together, the 29 CEOs represent a wide range of global corporations which, in turn, represent an equally wide range of industries. It remains for each reader to determine which subjects are of greatest interest; also, to determine which CEOs' comments have the greatest value. Obviously, space does not permit a complete list of the commentaries and their authors. It would be rude to provide a partial list which excludes any of them.

For whom was this book written? My guess (just a guess) is that at some point, Dauphinais, Means & Price agreed that the general subject of "pressing business challenges" on a global basis would be an interesting subject for a book published in 2000. Perhaps they then considered co-authoring one. What we now have is a conceptual framework which they devised within which are clustered the observations of CEOs who (with their associates) face various "pressing business challenges" each and every waking moment. The book therefore, in my opinion, was written for whose who appreciate having such a framework, and, who are eager to know what these various CEOs have to say.

Because of the Internet and especially the WWW, by 2002 or 2003 at the latest, I am convinced that almost all companies (at least in North America) will either compete on a global basis or be strategically involved somehow with those which do. I conclude, therefore, that the collective "wisdom" provided by those who head 29 of the world's largest corporations has significant implications now for many other companies...also, that those implications will have even greater significance for most (if not all) other companies within the next 12-24 months.

If this brief commentary has stimulated your interest, I suggest that you obtain a copy of Wisdom of the CEO and check out the Table of Contents. Determine for yourself this book appeals to you as much as it did to me. Most of us have few opportunities to share the thoughts of even one CEO of a major global corporation. Thanks to Dauphinais, Means & Price, we can now do so with 29.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars USELESS, November 6, 2000

By 

"roniebob" (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wisdom of the CEO: 29 Global Leaders Tackle Today's Most Pressing Business Challenges (Wiley Audio) (Paperback)

I was given this book to read as part of my studies. It is useless information that you could get from your drunk grandmother on any given Sunday! It is nothing more than a retort of common sense, and a CEO's bragging about individual company's accomplishment out of context, with no real information or solutions offered.

I was particularly dismayed at Middle-school level comments such as "Our work with clients and with the analysis of markets suggests that growth energizes those firms and management groups that creates outstanding shareholder value." It's classic rhetoric that makes Dilbert's life a living hell, and shows just how headless large corporations really are.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Home Run, March 4, 2000

By 

Carolyn Marsh (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wisdom of the CEO: 29 Global Leaders Tackle Today's Most Pressing Business Challenges (Wiley Audio) (Paperback)

The authors clearly have presented us top wisdom from these business leaders. The stories are fascinating and the ideas I got from the business leaders was numerous. Well done.

I also recommend a book my company uses successfully for its leadership development program - it has worked well with new and existing managers: "The Leader's Guide: 15 Essential Skills."