Product Description

Straight talk from the world’s most influential consultant on how to survive and thrive during the global economic meltdown

Economic turbulence has arrived with a vengeance, and only companies that face it head-on at the beginning of this world-wide crisis will be the ones left standing once the dust clears. Renowned consultant Ram Charan traces the causes of this crisis, identifies the essential priorities managers need to focus on now, and offers clear guidelines for top executives and managers.

From executive concerns to finance, marketing, sales, and manufacturing issues, Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty is the necessary primer for seizing opportunity and preserving profit in today’s global economy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #131802 in Books
• Published on: 2009-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 160 pages

Review
This seasoned globetrotter knows business well...the book [contains] sagacity and good sense. --Management Today, March 1, 2009

A teacher for the times: Ram Charan's no-nonsense business advice resonates in a recession. --The Economist, February 27, 2009

Practical and immediate steps ... to help the business emerge from the crisis both leaner and stronger. --Strategy magazine, September 1, 2009

Review
A bold and pithy primer for tackling crises.

From the Back Cover

“You’ve never experienced so much change and uncertainty or faced such a deep downturn. Yet others are looking to you for strength and guidance. Are you up to the challenge? Whether you lead a company, business unit, or small group of people, Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty will be an invaluable tool for navigating today’s troubled economic waters.”
—from the Foreword by Larry Bossidy

Inside, business advisor Ram Charan describes steps you can take right now to steer your organization away from the pitfalls and position it for a new future. You’ll find practical techniques that will help you cope with:

• CASH AND CREDIT CRUNCHES
• SHRINKING BUDGETS
• COLLAPSING MARKETS
• SINKING WORKFORCE MORALE
• DISAPPEARING SUPPLIERS
• NERVOUS STAKEHOLDERS

Great business thinkers like Ram Charan see opportunity in chaos. His innovative, commonsense way of approaching problems has made him one of the world’s most sought-after consultants. Here, he provides help to leaders at every level, from the CEO and country managers to department heads in finance, marketing, sales, and manufacturing.

Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty offers clear guidelines for seizing opportunity and persevering in today’s global economy. Fight your fear and anxiety— and take your leadership to the next level, now.

Customer Reviews

The "hands on, head in" imperative during an "economic cyclone"

I have read and reviewed all of Ram Charan's previously published books and was thus eager to read this one in which he shares his thoughts about how to follow "the new rules for getting the right things done in difficult times." Although the rules he discusses are hardly "new," these are indeed difficult times and require decision-makers in all organizations (regardless of size or nature) to provide effective leadership. More specifically, leadership that is honest and credible because it is authentic (i.e. transparent, visible, and consistent), inspires others, is connected with reality in real time, realistic tempered with (cautious) optimism, hands-on "in the foxhole," and bold while in pursuit of what Jim Collins characterizes as a "BHAG" (i.e. big hairy audacious goal). According to Charan, "being a leader in tough and uncertain times means always anticipating the next challenge and building the fortitude and skills to face it."

Easier said than done? Of course. In fact, developing a new mindset may be the single greatest challenge that C-level executives (especially CEOs) now face. "The new reality is that barring acquisitions, your company will be smaller two years from now than it is today." Therefore, success in what will continue to be a volatile business environment "requires frequent adjustments at the operational level of the business as well as an occasional disruptive shift. It demands what I call [begin italics] management intensity [end italics]: a deep immersion in the operational details of the business and the outside world combined with hands-on involvement and followthrough." As I suggested earlier, Charan offers no head-snapping revelations, nor does he make any such claim. He is a world-class empiricist and pragmatist with highly developed street smarts who helps executives to understand what works, what doesn't, and why. Everything he recommends is common sense. The business world he now surveys, however, is quite different from the one he surveyed when writing The Leadership Pipeline: How to Build the Leadership-Powered Company. The advice he offers in Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty is essentially the same as it has been since then (2000) but with one great difference: There is no longer any margin for error. "You must dig into the right details with much higher frequency than ever before."

To paraphrase Thomas Paine, "These are the times that try CEOs' souls." The realities they must recognize and to which they must then respond are more numerous and more perilous than ever before. In a previously published book, Know-How, Charan discusses the eight skills that separate people who perform from those who don't:

1. "Positioning (and when necessary, repositioning) your business by zeroing in on the central idea that meets customer needs and makes money;
2. Connecting the dots by pinpointing patterns of external change ahead of others;
3. Shaping the way people work together by leading the social system of your business;
4. Judging people by getting to the truth of a person;
5. Molding high-energy, high-powered, high-ego people into a working team of leaders in which they equal more than the sum of their parts;
6. Knowing the destination where you want to take your business by developing goals that balance what the business can become with what it can realistically achieve;
7. Setting laser-sharp priorities that become the road map for meeting your goals; and
8. Dealing creatively and positively with societal pressures that go beyond the economic value creation activities of your business."

All of these skills are needed when accommodating "the new rules for getting things done in difficult times." Board members, C-level executives, and heads of departments all need "know-how" but they also need "know-what." I agree with Peter Drucker that "There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all" and with Michael Porter that "The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do." Leaders must also be effective communicators so that everyone involved knows what their organization's goals are and understands why those goals must be achieved. Charan cites Chad Holliday, CEO of DuPont, as an example of a leader who answered the call when realizing that a global economic crisis was imminent. "He stared into the face of uncertainty and accepted the change he saw coming. Neither fear nor uncertainty paralyzed him. He took charge, pulled people together, and took decisive action. This is what every leader must do now."

Only 127 pages, this is Charan's shortest book. It is also, in my opinion, his most valuable book thus far because it offers both a call to action and a wealth of sound advice about what to do as well as what not to do, how to do what must be done, and why "hands on, head in" is the guiding principle. "Adjust your mindset, gather your people, and tackle the problems squarely" As noted earlier, Charan aserts that "being a leader in tough and uncertain times means anticipating the next challenge and building the fortitude and skills to face it." With all due respect to CEOs such as Chad Holliday, an organization's success will ultimately depend upon having effective leaders at all levels and in all areas. In this context, presumably Ram Charan agrees with me that this brief excerpt from Lao-Tzu's Tao Te Ching provides an appropriate conclusion to my review of Charan's latest book:

"Learn from the people
Plan with the people
Begin with what they have
Build on what they know
Of the best leaders
When the task is accomplished
The people will remark
We have done it ourselves."

Timely management handbook for hard times
This short, pointed book by one of America's leading management thinkers offers a checklist of to-do steps for managers who are coping with the economic crisis. Ram Charan covers all the bases: the board of directors, chief officers, operations, sales, research and development, and more. He offers direct, unambiguous, actionable advice for managing at each level, including: manage for cash, watch the numbers, know which customers to fire and recognize that annual targets make no sense when demand is unpredictable. The author's record as a coach to CEOs and as an author of best-selling business books speaks for itself. In this book, getAbstract finds that he more than lives up to his reputation, avoiding jargon, generalizations and lofty theoretical pronouncements to focus on what managers must do now to survive.