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| Author: Ram Charan
Publisher: Crown Business
Category: Book
List Price: $27.50
Buy New: $15.00
You Save: $12.50 (45%)
New (35) Used (17) Collectible (2) from $14.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  37 reviews
Sales Rank: 6741
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 5.6 x 1.3
ISBN: 0307341518
Dewey Decimal Number: 658.4092
EAN: 9780307341518
ASIN: 0307341518
Publication Date: January 2, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 101 course January 19, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Author Ram Charan has developed a holistic approach to what executives and managers must do and be to become successful leaders. According to Charan, leadership is a messy phenomenon because there are a number of things that influence it. Therefore, he has identified the skills, personal traits, and emotions that are required by today's business leaders.
Here is a breakdown of the eight know-hows:
1. Positioning and Repositioning: Finding a central idea for business that meets customer demands and that makes money.
2. Pinpointing External Change: Detecting patterns in a complex world to put the business on the offensive.
3. Leading the Social System: Getting the right people together with the right behaviors and the right information to make better, faster decisions and achieve business results.
4. Judging People: Calibrating people based on their actions, decisions and behaviors, and matching them to the non-negotiables of the job.
5. Molding a Team: Getting highly competent, high ego leaders to coordinate seamlessly.
6. Setting Goals: Determining the set of goals that balances what the business can become with what it can realistically achieve.
7. Setting Laser-Sharp Priorities: Defining the path and aligning resources, actions and energy to accomplish the goals.
8. Dealing With Forces Beyond the Market: Anticipating and responding to societal pressures you don't control but that can affect your business.
Command of the eight know-hows, according to the author, enables you to diagnose any situation and take appropriate action, lifting you out of your comfort zone of expertise by developing skills that prepare you to do what the situation requires, not just what you've traditionally been good at. The know-hows do not, however, stand alone. There are a million things that can block human beings from making sound judgments and taking effective action. That's where personal traits, psychology and emotions enter the leadership picture. Furthermore, the eight know-hows are especially influenced by a handful of personal traits that can affect leadership: ambition, drive and tenacity, self-confidence, psychological openness, realism and an insatiable appetite for learning.
I found this book too basic and common-sense. Is it because I have read so many business management books in the last year that I have come to expect more? Take for example the following statements:
"The true test of your positioning is the real world. If people like what you have to offer and you can sell it at a profit, you'll make money. If they're confused about what your business provides or they don't like it, you won't." (Is this too basic or just me?)
"The frequency, depth and abruptness of change in the world today means that you will be frequently shaping and reshaping your business so that it fits with the ever-changing landscape in a way that delivers your moneymaking aspirations." (Is it all about making money? Many management gurus will disagree with this last remark.)
"Selecting the right set of goals is the ultimate juggling act. The goals have to be of the right type and magnitude to be both achievable and motivational." (Again, too basic or just me?)
I personally found the book too basic for a manager at the helm of a big company. I think this book will appeal more to students in a 101 course on management and leadership. The stories of CEOs who turned large companies around make excellent case studies in a classroom environment.
 Save your Time and Money January 9, 2008
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
The only exciting thing about this book is its title. Neverthless, it does not tell you "how" in any practical way. It is merely a series of stories of CEOs who turned large companies around. What the auther failed to do is to extract the basic principles and present it in an applicable way to the avarage reader with a small business. The book was a great disappointment, after forcing my self to listen to more than half the CDs, I had to cut my losses and at least get to save my time.
Very poor content January 1, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
After waiting anxiously 3 days for this book,I set myself apart from my family, and it wasn't worthy of reading 15 minutes. Nothing new, nothing to use on Monday. It is a disguised rewriting of some of them most common known by All trues. It was like yelling to me, YOU NEED LEGS TO WALK, YOU NEED EYES TO SEE, IT'S YOUR HEART THAT KEEPS YOUR BLOOD FLOWING.The author I think better fits to a political party. I wish somebody to post what is worthy in reading it, I found little value in reading it.
 Keys to Excellence, Map for Leadership Success December 1, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
There are many intriguing aspects to this book, beginning with its author, Ram Charan, his background, and his experiences which led to its eventual publication.
Ram grew up in humble circumstances, living as he described, with "the joint family of twelve siblings and cousins under one roof" in India. The initial development and refining of his critical thinking skills and ability to observe and recognize elements characterizing a successful business took place while working in the family's business as a young boy.
Through his participation in the family's enterprise, Ram learned that no matter what activities occurred within a business, its bottom line value was directly tied to whether the activities in which the business was engaged delivered net value--net income to its owners.
The attributes of raw intelligence, commanding presence, and bold vision have all been used as the veritable measuring sticks to gauge the potential of one's ability to succeed in business. As rightfully described in this book, these attributes "are just a small slice of the leadership pie."
The increasing number of diverse factors impacting businesses at the micro and macro levels today have significantly increased the complexity of managing and growing a thriving enterprise.
The factors set to determine whether a leader will succeed in business as discussed in Know-How are simple and direct. Ram Charan's access to CEOs of the largest companies throughout the world has given him firsthand knowledge of principles of leadership which has helped propel companies to positions of leadership. This is one of the most insightful, thought-provoking books I've read on business and leadership. I highly recommend it to anyone aspiring to lead any organization of any size.
Wonderful Book October 20, 2007
I thoroughly enjoyed the level of detail in this business handbook. I believe that entrepreneurs,first line supervisors and even senior executives can benefit from Charan's account of the eight skills of successful executives. I strongly recommend this book along with Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done the author's earlier book coauthored with Larry Bossidy. Read both books.
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