What the Best CEOs Know : 7 Exceptional Leaders and Their Lessons for Transforming Any Business

by Krames, Jeffrey A.

• ISBN13: 9780071382403
• ISBN10: 0071382402
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-03-01
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill

Summary

Leadership lessons from the best--Gates, Welch, Dell, Gerstner, Kelleher, Grove, and WaltonWhat are the traits, tactics, and strategies of the business world's most transformative leaders . . . and what can the rest of us learn from them? InWhat the Best CEOs Know, leadership authority Jeffrey Krames examines the careers of seven of history's most accomplished CEOs--including in-depth interviews with Michael Dell, Lou Gerstner, and Herb Kelleher--to get candid answers to many of today's most compelling business questions.The result is a blueprint-like framework that instructs as well as it informs, and provides managers with the firsthand secrets of leadership giants. Proven learning tools--from cases and lesson summaries to selfassessment exercises--reinforce the book's methods and key ideas. Each chapter ofWhat the Best CEOs Knowprovides innovative features including: Assess Your CEO Quotient Leadership Lessons of the CEO What would Jack Welch et al. do?A host of well-known and bestselling books have detailed the success formulas of specific CEOs. But until now, no single book has compiled the strategies of several CEOs--let alone the world's most well-known business leaders--into a handbook for achieving breakthrough corporate stewardship.What the Best CEOs Knowdoes exactly that, combining the wisdom, strategies, and tactics of today's most accomplished CEOs into one powerful and one-of-a-kind business resource.

Author Biography

Jeffrey A. Krames is a vice president and publisher at McGraw-Hill, and has two decades of experience in business and financial publishing. He is the bestselling author of The Rumsfeld Way and The Jack Welch Lexicon of Leadership.

Table of Contents

The Era of the CEO?	p. 1
What Made Them Great	p. 17
The Exceptional Seven and the Traits That Defined Them	p. 19
Defining Strategies of Exceptional Leaders	p. 53
Place the Customer at the Epicenter of the Business Model: Michael Dell and the Art of the Customer	p. 55
Create an Authentic Learning Organization: How Jack Welch Converts Learning into Results	p. 79
Focus on Solutions: Lou Gerstner on Creating a Customer-Obsessed IBM	p. 107
Prepare the Organization for Drastic Change: Andy Grove on Strategic Inflection Points	p. 131
Harness the Intellect of Every Employee: Bill Gates on Creating a Knowledge-Based Organization	p. 153
Create a Performance-Driven Culture: Herb Kelleher on the Importance of Creating a Family-Like Culture	p. 173
Learn from Competitors, but Remain Faithful to the Vision: How Sam Walton's Vision Created the World's Largest Company	p. 197
Acknowledgments	p. 221
Notes/Sources	p. 225
Index	p. 241
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