Managing for the Short Term: The New Rules for Running a Business in a Day-to-Day World (Hardcover)

by Chuck Martin (Author) "Work today is like a perpetual motion machine set on fast forward..." (more)
Key Phrases: verbatim comments from respondents, incremental forward motion, managing for the short term, United States, Wall Street, Consumers Union (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"An instructive guide to creating an intense focus and alignment throughout your organization."
-- Michael D. Parker, President and CEO, The Dow Chemical Company


"Managing for the Short Term is about flexibility within a sustained strategy. Chuck Martin has developed a framework that turns this into a skill for every executive."
-- Robert W. Selander, President & CEO, MasterCard International


?His blueprint for aligning urgent action with a constant focus on strategy will help spur organizations to faster and higher levels of achievement.?
--Leo Mullin, Chairman and CEO, Delta Air Lines


"A must read for any business leader who wants to maximize their effectiveness in today's business environment."
--Edward Cypert, Vice President and Deputy General Manager, TRW Systems


"Martin's book is packed with helpful insights to do the right things to get you through today, to stay alive for a prosperous tomorrow."
-- Don Tapscott, President, New Paradigm Learning Corporation


"A much needed strategic plan for our increasingly chaotic business landscape."
-- Daniel Marovitz, CIO of Corporate Finance, Deutsche Bank -- Review

Review
"An instructive guide to creating an intense focus and alignment throughout your organization."
-- Michael D. Parker, President and CEO, The Dow Chemical Company


"Managing for the Short Term is about flexibility within a sustained strategy. Chuck Martin has developed a framework that turns this into a skill for every executive."
-- Robert W. Selander, President & CEO, MasterCard International


“His blueprint for aligning urgent action with a constant focus on strategy will help spur organizations to faster and higher levels of achievement.”
--Leo Mullin, Chairman and CEO, Delta Air Lines


"A must read for any business leader who wants to maximize their effectiveness in today's business environment."
--Edward Cypert, Vice President and Deputy General Manager, TRW Systems


"Martin's book is packed with helpful insights to do the right things to get you through today, to stay alive for a prosperous tomorrow."
-- Don Tapscott, President, New Paradigm Learning Corporation


"A much needed strategic plan for our increasingly chaotic business landscape."
-- Daniel Marovitz, CIO of Corporate Finance, Deutsche Bank

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday Business (May 21, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385504357
• ISBN-13: 978-0385504355
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,187,145 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The book has immediate practical uses for managers and execs, May 31, 2002

By A Customer

Chuck Martin is focused on the real and now. This book is not about pondering philosophical truths or strange occurrences in business. It is about statistics observed in major companies and shows how executives deal with the things that make businesses run, grow, and fail. Managing for the short term helps executives and managers align themselves in a practical way through viewing the organization and oneself. To me, it is a business guide and reality check. I can use the book as a "consultant in print" to modify the way I work and direct my company.

Chuck may be the Sun Tzu of practical business management for 2002. The book's chapter 7 fortifies the value proposition in my company's strategic plan for supporting corporate communications services. Well done. Read it and do something to make your organization more effective today.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Like talking directly to the C-Suite, June 15, 2002

By A Customer

I once had the pleasure of being seated next to one of the nation's best known pollsters on a long flight. It was a wonderful conversation, like talking to "America." Reading Chuck Martin's new book is like that too. He has surveyed and visited with so many senior executives while researching this book, and presents the results with a killer reporter's writing skills. You feel like you are talking directly to the global C-suite, getting their very personal perspectives on managing for the short term.

The outcome is a book that is perceptive and practical, and completely real-world. I found the communications chapters alone worth the price of the book. The same could be said about the section on self-management, and other sections as well.

What is this book really all about? You'll know when you get to Martin's Law of Expanding Immediacy. If you're feeling busier today than you were yesterday, this is why.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Book far better than the title, June 20, 2002

By	Steve Larsen (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

I almost didn't read this book because of the title, but being a big fan of Martin's previous books, I gave it a try anyway. Good move, as it turns out. The title can be deceiving because the book is REALLY about tying the short and the long term together. It shows how to make what sometimes seem to some of us like meaningless day-to-day activities at the office fit within an organization's strategy.

It really brings home for me the major disconnect inside organizations, from what executives pronounce vs. what managers hear. It shows how to close those gaps by getting execs to spend more time inside the company, with the managers!

You can't get more practical than this. There must be a hundred managers quoted about how they run their departments and their companies (as well as themselves).

It's great to get a book that rather than being filled with ponderous theories, is filled with practical insight from executives and managers on the front lines - these are the guys who are really doing it and makes it a great read.