Execution

Bossidy and Charan report that, in the year 2000, 40 CEOs (20 percent) of the top 200 Fortune 500 companies were let go. They were smart, highly regarded people, yet they failed to produce critical results-results they had promised to deliver. This trend, which is fast becoming an epidemic, is not due to the volatile, unpredictable business environment, say the authors, but is a direct consequence of the lack of execution. It is their premise that execution - the real job of business leaders and the key discipline for success today-bridges the gap between what leaders want to achieve and the ability of their organizations to achieve it.

They offer Execution, to senior leaders, as an essential primer on the subject. In it, they provide a practical definition that clarifies prevailing misconceptions of what execution is, why it is important, and who is responsible for its implementation. And, they present straightforward prescriptions for linking people, strategy, and operations, the three core processes of business, into a consistent, competitively advantageous discipline of execution.