Rating: 
Summary: Execute optimally!
Review: This book describe a necessary leadership behavior in the Execution paradigm -- Insist on realism. As thinking is the basis of action, this concept requires more exploration and explanation. Prior to the introduction of Optimal Thinking into the corporate world, the pervasive motto was Think Positive. Optimism promotes persistence, but it is a poor strategy when the cost of failure or probability of failure are high. With the current integration of Optimal Thinking into leading corporations, the transformation from AnyCorp (consisting of any thinkers) to Opticorp (consisting of Optimal Thinkers) empowers the corporate culture to practice optimal realism. Optimal Thinkers accept what is out of their control, and optimize what is within their control. Using Optimal Thinking to ask questions like, What is within my/our control here? What are my/our options here? What is the worst event scenario? What is our optimal contingency plan? What is in our best interest? What is our highest priority? What are the best actions we can take to achieve it? What is the best thing you/we can do under the circumstances? empowers us to set clear priorities, and take the most constructive actions to follow through -- essential for optimal leadership and optimized execution. Execution-driven leaders who thrive on accountability and reward performance, must select the right people for the right jobs. This is achieved with Optimal Thinking. Read these two books, get your key people to read them too, and you will OPTIMIZE productivity.
Rating: 
Summary: Execute to win
Review: In sales we teach that you have to be able to close a sale or you are not a salesman.In business you have to execute to win. Execution is to business leaders/managers what closing is to the saleman. If you don't execute, you have nothing. It's as simple as that.
Rating:
Summary: One of the few books about a crucial topic for managers
Review: I found this book to be extremely useful. Larry Bossidy's view is that the main function of a CEO is to manage the nexus between strategy, operations, and people. He outlines practical techniques to do this that are simple to implement, and may seem obvious to some, but will result in measurable performance improvement in your business. Your staff will be happier with clear goals and Rewards linked to Performance, communication will improve, and things will get done. Most companies I have seen, be they large or small, have a big gap between what the Board is trying to do strategically and what people actually do day to day. There are many examples of companies whose strategies sounded great but never really happened, resulting in catastrophic loss of value (eg the AOL Time Warner merger). This is the only management book out of hundreds I have read that tells you how to fill this gap, and make your business achieve its strategic goals. Others here have mentioned Jim Collins. While Built To Last and Good to Great were interesting case studies of successful large companies, they gave me nothing that I could implement immediately in my business. Larry and Ram's book let me bring world class business practices into my small company, as soon as I had finished reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent - As far as it goes
Review: Execution is a fresh of breath air, especially after reading so many business books about 'vision', where the entire book is all 'vision' and no 'substance'. The two authors of the book do know something about creating realistic plans, linking actual operational considerations with goals for achievement, and getting down to a real rubber-meets-the-road approach to planning. In fact, the later chapters about creating strategic plans and tying those plans to the operating plan and budget in a realistic manner are, in my opinion, by far the best the book has to offer, and make the book well worth the read. Where I wish they had broadened the scope of the book is to cover effective execution at lower layers of the corporate hierarchy - almost the entire book takes place at, and really applies to, the CEO/EVP/VP level of fortune 500 companies. It rarely if ever covers strategies that work for managers of smaller busines units or groups, or who work in smaller companies. In both cases, the strategies in this book, while still being valuable as theory, lose their practical value. It becomes clear as you read the book that the authors have no real experience with those levels/companies, and I think the book suffers for it. Overall, I think this book is worth the read, but I can't bring myself to give it five stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Buy it, read it, do it
Review: The question on the lips of the busy-executive-potential-reader will be: Well, do they do it, do they execute on the promise of this book? The assignment is a tough one - to provide a compelling, expansive, yet intensely practical guide to getting things done. Bossidy and Charan have nothing against theory and big ideas, but without execution they are worthless puffs of ideation. Even iconic intellectual Albert Einstein, the authors rightly point out, spent ten years developing the detailed proof of his stupendous insight which we call the theory of special relativity. Execution, the link between aspiration and results, seems like a simple matter yet countless corporate corpses demonstrate otherwise. It cannot be left as an afterthought, but must be integral to strategy, is the major job of the business leader, and must form a core element of the organization's culture. The authors refer to these three understandings as the "building blocks of execution" and devote a chapter to each. Into the breach step Bossidy and Charan to lay out the three core processes of execution. Each of the core processes - the people process, the strategy process, and the operations process - rise from the building blocks, each the leader needs to be deeply involved in all three. Putting this all together presents a massive but vital challenge to leaders. At its best it embodies a rigorous sense of realism and intellectual honesty. The thoughtful reader might spy an apparent paradox in the book. As the authors themselves note, you cannot truly learn how to execute from a book (although books can help). Nor is experience alone sufficient, for some people never learn. Clearly and deeply focusing on experience is the only route to full understanding of your particular business and people, your own strengths and weaknesses, and the qualities of your organizational culture. Bossidy and Charan have produced a helpful book that points in productive directions and gives examples of good questions to ask. But in the end some readers will feel disappointed by the absence of a distinct recipe or set of instructions. But business leadership is not science and no universal recipe exists to replicate. Nevertheless, Execution nicely counterbalances the predominantly abstract, inspirational, and "visionary" approach of many leadership tomes. Buy it, read it, do it.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Books
Review: Every manager needs a library of books like this. Let me suggest the following: "Good to Great" by Collins
"Built to Last" by Collins & Porras
"Strategic Organizational Change" by Beitler
"Crucial Conversations" by Kery, et al.
"The Sales Bible" by Gitomer
"Execution" by Bossidy & Charan This book helps restore the focus on getting things done. After what Beitler calls the "romanticized practice of leadership development" this book provides refreshing guidance.
Rating:
Summary: Good advice
Review: The primary value of this book is its emphasis on "management" as being the primary focus of successful business leaders. Far too many business books talk in flowery terms about strategy and enablement, and relegate the management function of execution to lower ranks than those occupied by their enlightened readers. This book has its priorities right and for that reason can be recommended to those who wish to make a difference. A criticism might be that the advice given requires considerably less than the 278 pages devoted to it. ... and what is that advice? Primarily, of course, it is to focus on accomplishing one's objectives rather than trumpeting them. Seemingly obvious but the fog of emotional involvement in difficult and fast-paced business situations can make even the most experienced and level-headed business leaders lose their bearings. And, of course, there's always hubris. 1. Know your business, internally and externally, in detail
2. Know your people intimately 3. Make your objectives clear, few, simple and realistic
4. Reward achievement of the explicit objectives and no others
5. Know yourself and subordinate your ego; eat your own cooking
6. Good people are everything
Rating:
Summary: And the gap still exists
Review: In the "Introduction" and the first chapter "The Gap Nobody Knows", the authors did promise their book to be superior to most of the common "leadership", "strategy", "corporate culture" management books with its ability to explain and solve the universal problem of why business outcomes almost always fall short of those predicted under the grand strategic plans laid down by golden parachute protected American top corp CEOs. Though it is fluently written, it just resembles most of its competitors in any book store, except by an author coming from a big enterprise called "Honeywell" carrying an eye catching rare term named "Execution". Before I conclude my review, I would like to give you a brief summary of what this book is about. To understand execution, readers have to keep three key points in their mind: 1) Execution is a discipline, and integral to strategy 2) Execution is the major job of the business leader 3)Execution must be a core element of an organisation's culture. The discipline of execution is based on a set of three building blocks that every leader must use to design, install and operate effectively the three core processes rigorously and consistently. The seven essential behavour of Building block I are: know your people and your business, insist on realism, set clear goals and priorities, follow through, reward the doers, expand people's capabilities and know yourself. Building block II is about creating the framework for cultural change whereas building block III is about having the right people in the right place. Meanwhile, the three core processes are those of making links between people, strategy and operations. Without prejudice, the above ideas are quite fundamental. However, I am not saying that this is a bad management book. After reading tens, if not over a hundred books of the same kind, I really cant agree that this book is exceptionally outstanding. Can be a leisure reading, but definitely not on the priority list.
Rating:
Summary: Learning to execute
Review: The book is a great tool for developing discipline and being able to execute in important moments. I also purchased the Emotional Intelligence Quickbook that was recommended by the other readers and found it to be another great resource in improving this skill. With the emotional intelligence piece, I am able to manage myself in the moment and across situations, but I"m also able to manage interactions with others, which is so important in executing and getting results.
Rating:
Summary: Book that force you
Review: An excellent book that provide very useful advice on deliver result, or as the title named - Getting things done.
Both it "Inner" aspect (Philosophy, the mental component),
and the "outer" aspect (The method, technique, and tactical) suggestion is very practical, plain and straight to the "point". Me personally benefit alot from this book. May be this excerpt can well express my point: "There is so much pressure on people to perform that nice round words become a luxury you can't afford anymore"
No nice round word in this book. Just robust, straight, and practical advice.
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