Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your time.
Review: This book fails to even come close to broaching a new topic. Further, its hawking of Six Sigma has the feel that it was "copy and pasted" right from another source. Bossidy's incessant need to pat himself on the back for his work at AlliedSignal becomes irritating before the close of the first chapter.The writing itself is terrible by both authors, especially Bossidy; unfortunately, his contributions comprise the bulk of text. Charan's portions of the text, while more readable and useful than Bossidy's, are quite poor given his more academic-oriented career. Avoid this book like the plague. It is NOT worth your time. Essentially no information can be gleaned from this work that hasn't been already been discussed to death.
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Summary: getting down to the business of business
Review: In 30 words or less...This book takes a Kick [Booty] approach to getting results in business. Dreamers who want to become doers need to read this book.
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Summary: What Are These Guys Talking About?
Review: I found this book to be excellent. No, I am not a CEO of a fortune 500 company, but a pastor of a small rural church. Sure, we're not doing billion dollar deals, but people are people and the principles of execution found in this book work no matter what size your company or non-profit organization is. Sure, there were some chapters I suffered through; all the talk about Six Sigma was Greek to me; yet, I found the book intriguing. If you are a professional who is struggling in getting things done, this is well worth the read. Take a chance, you might be pleasantly surprised.
Rating: 
Summary: Mas o Menos
Review: I guess I had high hopes for this book. And don't get me wrong, its a good strong book with great ideas. But I have already read this book. Just with different names. I guess its like when someone tells you a movie is great, it can't help but be a let down. I had a few people tell me how wonderful this book was. I can only guess that people told them the book was going to be bad. Still, worth reading if you don't know the points the book covers. ...
Rating: 
Summary: NON-EXECUTION
Review: I bought this book because some managers with whom I was working were reading it - their CEO had pushed it at them. I was very disappointed. Great title but... there didn't seem to be anything about the discipline of doing anything in it. I did force myself to read it from cover-to-cover, underlined and made notes in the margins, and at the end flipped back through it to see if somehow I'd missed somehting. Lots of verbal arm-waving and self-evident maxims for anyone who is halfway thinking. Execution? No. Might be good fodder for a CEO who is struggling with putting together a good speech or rallying cry to the troops. And... I'll give the author credit for at least tackling a topic that IS important. This is a book that I would have wanted to be very good.
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Summary: Replicatable People, Strategy, and Operational Processes
Review: A big fan of Ram Charan, I was looking forward to reading Execution. I started the book twice and couldn't get through it (I suspect good intentions, but poor execution on my part.) Upon the third attempt, I made it all the way through and found the book to be extremely valuable. As an HR person, I often struggle with finding reasons for the success of some people and organizations to get things done while others simply talk about things and cannot deliver results. It is often our role to lead the leaders and to help build the capability of our people. The authors attribute much of the ability to execute to strong leadership, corporate culture, and systematic processes with regard to: people, strategy, and operations. CEO's are finally realizing that having the right talent in the first place is critical to delivering high performance results. The first part of this book is cumbersome. Moving back and forth between Larry and Ram conversation was distracting, and I think that is why some didn't find the book valuable. If you move quickly through that section, you will discover the best parts of the book. First, that execution happens because of a corporate culture that is steeped in discipline. That very word may make some people bristle. Larry and Ram are not talking about punitive treatment of people (a la "neutron Jack"), but more of consistent processes and systems that can be replicated across a culture, in strategic business units, with repeatable results. It puts responsibility where it belongs, with corporate leaders. Leaders must be authentic and hands on. Leaders must know what is going on, must hold people accountable, and must communicate on a daily basis with people at all levels. I openly admit that as an HR leader, I am biased. I was delighted to read from a CEO the reality that leaders cannot hand off responsibilities such as performance management, corporate culture building, talent review, and rewards and incentives to HR. Having the right people in place is the leader's responsibility. So leaders must take an active role in those processes. Yet many of my HR counterparts struggle to get in the CEO's office to discuss these topics. According to the authors, a surprising number of strategies fail because leaders are not realistic about the capability of an organization to execute against a strategic plan. It never occurs to them that the right talent may not be in place or available, or that the culture or structure may not support the necessary changes. My favorite part of the book was the section on getting the right people in the right jobs. The failings of the traditional interview process, performance, and rewards systems leads to poor fit between job and leader. Using a leadership assessment summary to give an overview of those who are promotable based on predetermined success factors can give a good view of the leadership pipeline and organizational capability. While written for the general business reader, Human resources professionals will be the biggest fans of Execution. I hope it leads to consistent people, strategy, and operational processes in many organizations that will undoubtedly result in building a culture that gets things done. And, I hope many CEO's will read it and take action.
Rating:
Summary: Not very good
Review: I stopped reading this about half way through. If you have any common sense and reasonable people skills, you don't need to read this to be able to "get things done."
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Summary: Tips for the CEOs and Group Heads of Large Conglomerates
Review: Larry Bossidy is clearly a five-star leader, and Ram Charan is a gifted consultant and teacher. It surprised me that their book didn't work as well as I had hoped. Execution's title confused me. Hopefully, you won't have that problem. I thought Execution would be all about how to take a strategy and operating plan and implement them well. Instead, Part III makes it clear that Execution is about meeting overall financial objectives through being an effective organization in setting strategies and operating plans to serve customers well while building an organization that can implement the plans for outperforming competitors. Part I, by contrast, makes it sound like Execution is only about implementation, noting that almost all organizations have the same strategies (or can quickly get them from consultants), access the same top talent and can easily acquire and employ competitively effective innovation. I also thought Execution would apply to all business people. Instead, the context for most of the AlliedSignal (Honeywell International's name when Mr. Bossidy became CEO there the first time) and General Electric examples which dominate the book is that of the CEO or group executive to whom divisions report in a large conglomerate. In this sense, Execution is like reading the latter chapters of Mr. Welch's book, Jack. The main difference between Jack and Execution is that Execution tries to build a framework for the book's concepts while sharing examples (mostly of failure) from other organizations. Mr. Charan's sections of the book mostly focus on that positioning. Mr. Bossidy mostly tells about his own experiences at AlliedSignal and Honeywell. Mr. Bossidy, of course, worked with Mr. Welch at General Electric for many years. Mr. Bossidy reports that you could take execution for granted at GE, but that it was lacking at AlliedSignal when he arrived. The two coauthors alternate in providing long monologues on the chapter topics and subtopics. Three aspects of Execution are valuable to almost any business leader: how to hold a strategy review (chapter 8), building an organization (chapter 5) and the "Dear Jane" letter to a new leader (conclusion). For those who would like to become CEOs and heads of divisions of large, disparate organizations, Mr. Bossidy's many anecdotes from his experiences at Honeywell International about how to do the leader's job will provide a valuable model that can be used repeatedly. In many such organizations, there are no good leadership examples and this book can help fill the gap. Here's the book's structure: Part I: Why Execution Is Needed Chapter 1. The Gap Nobody Knows Chapter 2. The Execution Difference Part II: The Building Blocks of Execution Chapter 3. Building Block One: The Leader's Seven Essential Behaviors Chapter 4. Building Block Two: Creating the Framework for Cultural Change Chapter 5. Building Block Three: The Job No Leader Should Delegate -- Having the Right People in the Right Place Part III: The Three Core Processes of Execution Chapter 6. The People Process: Making the Link with Strategy and Operations Chapter 7. The Strategy Process: Making the Link with People and Operations Chapter 8. How to Conduct a Strategy Review Chapter 9. The Operations Process: Making the Link with Strategy and People Conclusion: Letter to a New Leader Execution addresses these problems. First, many company and division heads have little knowledge about the businesses or the most important functions and processes needed to prosper. Boards, for example, often bring in a brilliant person who has performed as a "role player" elsewhere, and they cannot scale up into the CEO job. When a company has had poor leadership, its processes and organization also become weak and it's hard to get anything done. There are several poignant examples including Richard Thoman at Xerox and Richard McGinn at Lucent Technologies. It's hard to fix that problem. It took years at AlliedSignal and can be quickly lost (which happened in the two years after he retired the first time). That's why Mr. Bossidy had to come back to restore execution (as he means it) at Honeywell International. Lacking these perspectives, the business system is misdirected (see The Fifth Discipline). Second, many leaders make bad assumptions about their circumstances. Acting on those assumptions makes matters worse. Third, companies plan to pursue strategies for which they lack the processes and organizations to implement. The strategies need to match the ability to execute. As a solution, you as leader must: "--Know your people and your business
--Insist on realism
--Set clear goals and priorities
--Follow through
--Reward the doers
--Expand people's capabilities
--Know yourself." I was uncomfortable with many of the examples. The unending praise of Dick Brown at EDS didn't seem to make any sense knowing that EDS's stock melted down and he was asked to leave. He was in big trouble when Execution was written, having encouraged his people to grow by taking on large unprofitable new accounts. It seems like he might have been executing the wrong strategy, one that couldn't be executed. Most of the "failure" examples are anonymous which makes them less credible and less compelling. Finally, Dell is heralded for executing very well (which it certainly does). However, in describing how the company has evolved its business model to outperform competitors, Execution fails to notice that its business model innovation has been essential to success. No competitor has this business model. Execution's assumption that everyone can have the same strategy ignores research that shows that business model innovation creates unique strategies and superior execution compared to making the old business model and strategy more efficient. Unless you are shooting to be CEO of GE or Honeywell International, I suspect that you would do better to read Good to Great for getting ideas related to improving effectiveness. After you finish this book, ask yourself what one thing you could improve would make the most difference in your organization's performance over the next week, month, quarter, year and three years.
Rating:
Summary: What a Joke!!
Review: Anybody who thinks this book is worthwhile doesn't know a thing about business and that includes all of the people listed on the back cover. I have spent the last three years earning a Black Belt in Six Sigma, completing Master Black Belt training, earning a graduate certificate in logistics and supply chain management from Penn State, and earning an MBA with a specialization in Industrial Management and Distribution while working full-time as a Manager on Inbound Transportation for the largest craft store retailer in the world so I know a good business book from a bad one. After reading only two chapters I was ready to throw up from all of the closet feminist nonsense espoused by these two. As for there "great" advice, these two brag about how knowledgeable a CEO Dick Brown is and how the reader should emulate Mr. Brown. If Bossidy and Charan are so freaking smart why was Dick Brown forced out at EDS? This book has "hire me as your consultant" written all over it....Don't waste your time on this book. Instead, buy 'Built to Last' and 'Good to Great' instead.
Rating: 
Summary: Optimize your execution with Optimal Thinking
Review: This book is inspirational and based on solid research. If you want to optimize your Execution, read Optimal Thinking: How to Be Your Best Self and the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
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