What's Your Corporate IQ? : How the Smartest Companies Learn, Transform, Lead

Rating:
Summary: A must read for managers, graduates and career changers
Review: Thank you Jim Underwood for writing this book. This is a much needed piece of literature in the business strategy section and is a must read for all managers who aspire to lead - not only the people within their firm, but also within their industry. This book provides a logical way to understand and evaluate a firm, an industry and its associated competitive environment

I would also highly recommend this book to business graduates and anyone who is looking to change to another firm or industry. After spending seven years in a Wall Street investment bank and recently changing to a different firm within the financial industry, I am certain that I now work for a smart company. Jim Underwood's description of what a smart company looks like is exactly on key. The people I work with are satisfied, they are valued and they stay for decades. They also make a lot of money for the firm.

In his narrative, Jim Underwood uses case studies from many firms that you may or may not have heard of. His strategic model defines 17 attributes that underpin corporate success provide a roadmap to implement the concepts outlined and discussed within each case study. While other firms cling to "core values", Jim Underwood challenges the reader to embrace the idea of change. He not only validates his strategic model through numerous case examples and studies, he also tells the reader how to ascertain the level of change and complexity that their firm must match. The "one size fits all" strategy or "mission statement" approach really does not work and simply breaks down under this paradigm.

In addition to the basics of change, Jim Underwood also focuses on another area that is often ignored in the business literature of strategy and is, more often than not, thought of as a human resources issue. This is the area of ethics. All one has to do is read the daily financial press to understand how a lack of ethics can hobble a firm. Jim Underwood folds this topic beautifully into ongoing corporate strategy.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and plan on loaning my marked up copy to friends and colleagues.


Rating:
Summary: How to Know You are Working for the Right Company
Review: While reading Dr. Underwood's Understanding Your Corporate IQ, it gives one the ability to measure if you are working for the right company. There were several discussions throughout the book to help the reader make these determinations:

- Discussions about companies that last for more than 100 years
- Different ways to measure the internal forces of a firm
- Easy-to-understand analysis of complex business theories
- How to measure the "Character" of a company
- Real-world examples to clarify each chapter's concepts

For me, the book comes at the right time. With managers and workers struggling with terrorism and outsourcing demands, how do we measure ourselves to make sure that we (as managers and workers) are making the right choices?

Of special interest to this reviewer, there was an entire chapter devoted to the character of a company. Management theory often discusses how corporate culture can affect a company. Rarely, if ever, does a management book explain the various components of corporate culture.

For me, a small business owner and IT manager, knowing how to measure a company is critical because: "If you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it." Your Corporate IQ gives you a way to measure your firm.

When you consider how Dr. Underwood's Corporate IQ fits with the explanations and analysis of the Mary Kay Cosmetics firm in More Than a Pink Cadillac, the reader walks away with a blueprint on how to run a successful company and how to potentially turnaround a failing one.