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Zoom: How 12 Exceptional Companies Are Navigating the Road to the Next Economy
 
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Zoom: How 12 Exceptional Companies Are Navigating the Road to the Next Economy [Hardcover]

James M. Citrin (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)


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Book Description

January 22, 2002
A groundbreaking new book that examines the companies leading the charge in merging the practices of traditional and e-commerce business -- and the lessons we can learn from them.

In Lessons from the Top, James M. Citrin, of the world-renowned executive search firm Spencer Stuart, identified and interviewed (with coauthor Thomas Neff) the fifty top CEOs in America, and distilled the essential principles of leadership they all share.

In Citrin's compelling new management book, Zoom, he offers in-depth analyses of twelve market leaders -- including General Motors' e-GM, BEA Systems, eBay, Sun Microsystems, and General Electric -- and reveals how they are bridging the complex demands of yesterday's and today's economies. From the hard-won lessons these pioneering market leaders have learned along the way, Citrin identifies the principles that characterize success today and will help chart success in the future -- principles that other companies can use to redirect their thinking, resources, and energies. Among them:

Encourage flexibility. Relationships are much more fluid and multidimensional today. Rather than using a strategic planning process, the best leaders use a strategic framework, with a lot of room for improvisation.

Share the vision. It's not enough to just talk about the company's vision -- you need to evangelize about it, and repeat its mantra so often that it becomes second nature to everyone in the company.

Create a genuine learning organization by shortening feedback cycles, effectively transferring knowledge, and expanding a company's "listening circles."

Reward Failure. It is important to find ways to mitigate personal and organizational risk, and identify and encourage risk takers. They are the ones who can transform a company.

What makes this book invaluable are the strategies top managers and executives reveal on how to implement their principles of success: how to flatten the organization, be first to market, measure the right things, and manage customer information. The result is an indespensable road map of the twenty-first century economy that corporate leaders can use to guide and shape their own efforts.

In the bestselling fashion of First, Break All the Rules and Built to Last, Zoom is essential reading for those determined to triumph in the years ahead.

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Businesspeople are always looking for strategies to improve their companies. James M. Citrin's Zoom serves up a fine compendium of them, distilling lessons learned from 12 leading firms into a half-dozen "success factors" whose nuances are illustrated by case studies of the spotlighted enterprises. Citrin, a Spencer Stuart managing director who specializes in CEO searches, mixes "enduring leadership principles with e-commerce management strategies" in plotting a map to follow as one negotiates the ever-changing road to the New Economy. His resultant themes are Go for Speed; Create a Learning Organization; Obsess the Customer; Reward (Appropriate) Risk-Taking and Failure; Absorb Uncertainty; and Master Deal-Making and Partnering Skills, illuminated by examinations of such firms as Akamai Technologies, The Motley Fool, Wal-Mart.com, Yahoo! and Cisco Systems. Some of the ideas have certainly been expressed elsewhere previously, and not all of the corporate models look as good in hindsight as they may have initially, but the specifics and the directions offered are nonetheless potentially valuable to anyone searching for possible routes past today's increasingly mixed signals. A final section called "Execute" and a series of implementation tips for each of the six guideposts solidly move the ideas from abstractions to possibilities. --Howard Rothman

From Publishers Weekly

The snide answer to the subtitle is "not very well." Soapbox.com did not survive 2000. A $10,000 investment in three other companies (Yahoo!, Akamai and Commerce One) in January 2000 would be worth $400 today. Unluckily, Citrin picked his companies in 2000 and had the hubris to boast how much they had outperformed the S&P 500 at that point. But past performance does not guarantee future returns, and stockholders of these companies have lost 83% of their investment since the beginning of 2000, while the S&P 500 is down only 21%. Of the companies, only eBay has managed to beat the index. Despite these companies' failures, there is much useful information here. Thoughtful interviews with innovative business people are presented with minimal intrusion from the author, and broad themes abound: embrace change, encourage risk taking and obsess about customers. However, the executives differ in how these tenets are implemented in different industries and organizations. For example, George Conrades of Akamai likes to share his vision with employees, then measure how well they can realize that vision; he sees himself as a referee. But Tim Koogle of Yahoo! stresses hiring people who will bring their own visions and views himself as a coach. And John Chambers of Cisco focuses on acquiring companies whose employees have already developed the skills Cisco needs, as if he were a team owner. Although this business management book carries an albatross (the failures of its subjects), it nonetheless has merit. Agent, Rafe Sagalyn.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


Product Details

  • Hardcover: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Doubleday Business; First Edition edition (January 22, 2002)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0385501315
  • ISBN-13: 978-0385501316
  • Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.7 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,119,753 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jim Citrin is a noted expert on leadership, executive success, and CEO succession. He is the author of six books, including the brand new critically acclaimed release "You Need a Leader, Now What? How to Choose the Best Person for Your Organization."

Jim is one of the world's foremost executive recruiters and leads Spencer Stuart's North American Board & CEO Practice. Throughout his 18 years at Spencer Stuart, Jim has completed more than 475 CEO, board director, and top management searches for leading media, technology, communications and consumer companies, as well as private-equity firms and major not-for-profit institutions.

Jim graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Vassar College and served as a trustee on the Vassar Board for 12 years and is currently a trustee at Wesleyan University (where two of his three children are students). He obtained his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, graduating with distinction.

Jim lives in Connecticut, USA.

 

Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, making sense of the post-dot.com world, January 15, 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Zoom: How 12 Exceptional Companies Are Navigating the Road to the Next Economy (Hardcover)
If I have to read one more book about how all the dot.coms messed up, I think I will be ill. Here, FINALLY, someone is talking about what the world will be like going forward. Thank you.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful, good read!, January 23, 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Zoom: How 12 Exceptional Companies Are Navigating the Road to the Next Economy (Hardcover)
I picked up a review copy of this book because of its great cover and was quickly impressed! The author layed out a logical approach to leadership qualities from his last book and then wrote about "the world to come" from examples from large to small companies. The stories were great and the last part of the book had great vignettes and tips in a very presentable format. Great read, fun book. I highly recommend.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Tons of useful stuff for real business people, March 7, 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Zoom: How 12 Exceptional Companies Are Navigating the Road to the Next Economy (Hardcover)
Not too trendy, not too trite--just right, which is unusual in business books. Yeah, lots of companies have flamed out, and values are way down, and there's this Enron thing. But the Internet is still changing, if not everything, a lot of things. And perspicacious executives will be looking for ideas about how to stay ahead, because it isn't getting any easier or any less competitive. Citrin's book offers a lot of real, practical insight gleaned from an assortment of businesses that, whatever the stock price says this week, seem pretty likely to survive and prosper.
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