The book that shows how to get the job done and deliver results whether you're running an entire company or in your first management job. Larry Bossidy is one of the world's most acclaimed CEOs, a man with few peers who has a track record for delivering results. Ram Charan is a legendary advisor to senior executives and boards of directors, a man with unparalleled insight into why some companies are successful and others are not. Leading these processes is the real job of running a business, not formulating a "vision" and leaving the work of carrying it out to others. Bossidy and Charan show the importance of being deeply and passionately engaged in an organization and why robust dialogues about people, strategy, and operations result in a business based on intellectual honesty and realism. The leader's most important job-selecting and appraising people-is one that should never be delegated. With the right people in the right jobs, there's a leadership gene pool that conceives and selects strategies that can be executed. People then work together to create a strategy building block by building block, a strategy in sync with the realities of the marketplace, the economy, and the competition. Once the right people and strategy are in place, they are then linked to an operating process that results in the implementation of specific programs and actions and that assigns accountability. This kind of effective operating process goes way beyond the typical budget exercise that looks into a rearview mirror to set its goals. It puts reality behind the numbers and is where the rubber meets the road.

Subtitle from container. Unabridged.

I: Why execution is needed -- The gap nobody knows -- The execution difference -- II: The building blocks of execution -- Building block one : the leader's seven essential behaviors -- Building block two : creating the framework for cultural change -- Building block three : the job no leader should delegate : having the right people in the right place -- III: The three core processes of execution -- The people process : making the link with strategy and operations -- The strategy process : making the link with people and operations -- How to conduct a strategy review -- The operations process : making the link with strategy and people.