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Summary: A great study of leadership and business philosophy
Review: A brillant leadership study from M.F.R. Kets de Vries and E. Florent-Treacy. The New Global Leaders is the success stories of three global leaders : " Richard Branson (founder and head of the Virgin Group), Percy Barnevik (mastermind behind the merger of ASEA and Brown Boveri to form ABB), and David Simon (former CEO of British Petroleum) all looked for ways to create a greater sense of purpose for their employees while putting in place the structure necessary for a global organization."With case studies and interviews, this book has been built around the personal development of these world-class global leaders and the evolution of their companies. As stated by Kets de Vries and Florent-Treacy," we first discuss the values that provide a foundation for excellence and a new psychological contract in vanguard companies such as Virgin, ABB, and BP and then show how these values can be translated into practice in any organization." I highly recommend this brillant study. A detailed and succesful study about ABB and Percy Barnevik see "ABB the Dancing Giant/K. Barham & C. Heimer".
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Summary: A Good Read!
Review: Authors Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries and Elizabeth Florent-Treacy idealistically foresee a new era where visionary, innovative CEO's will lead a new type of employee. Through insightful interviews, they position Richard Branson of Virgin, Percy Barnevik of ABB and David Simon of British Petroleum as icons of the modern, improved CEO. Certainly, Branson and Simon seem to be valid role models and their leadership of European global companies presents interesting alternatives. Although it is not reflected in this 1999 book, today Barnevik's reputation is tarnished in the wake of a 2002 severance pay scandal and problems that BusinessWeek refers to as "the mess at ABB." For good or ill, this book will provoke you to ask if emphasizing a leader's charismatic ability to motivate distracts attention from critical core business issues. Despite their varied outcomes, these charismatic visionaries created family-like corporate cultures and inspired their employees. Thus, they demonstrated that the new economic era requires a new type of leader. Whether they together constitute a composite of that leader is another question. We recommend this solid book to management students and to upcoming executives.
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Summary: A great study of leadership and business philosophy
Review: The book gives valuable insight into the way these three ground-breaking European leaders think about business, and how they successfully manage global organizations. The book clearly illustrate the different personal traits of the subjects (the builder, the transformer, and the integrator), and ecourages the reader to challange the pros and cons of the different philosophies. The book reads very much like a case study, and provides an excellent but basic overview over the global marketplace and on how to be able to draw on the ideas implemented by these great leaders.
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Summary: Delivering shareholder value is not enough
Review: Well written, easy to read. Hard acts to follow. You will get to know three successful business leaders. What are their background, childhood, education and career? What happened to their companies when they were leading them? Interviews with each one of them in which many questions are answered that you probably would have asked. The companies are large, global and successful. There is a lot to learn. It is not a cookbook. The authors make a useful summary but when you reflect about what the three persons have done there are not only many things they all did but also many things they did differently. I bought the book because it was listed under the heading "business ethics" in an Amazon search. The book is not directly about ethics. It is useful in that context as it shows that these three leaders through their actions demonstrate having moral convictions. Part of that conviction is to deliver shareholder value but also strong feelings of responsibility for the environment and social issues. Furthermore they have been able, with a lot of hard work, to impart this concept on all of the employees. All three believe that employees become much more motivated and loyal to the organisation when they feel that they are working towards goals in addition to shareholder value. One also becomes convinced that they do not set these wider goals as a public relations exercise or a clever way to motivate people to work harder. These leaders are totally sincere in what they say and what they do.
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