Breakthrough
How Great Companies Set Outrageous Objectives and Achieve Them

Bill Davidson (Author)

9780471454403, Wiley

Hardback, published 25 November 2003

256 pages
24 x 16.1 x 2.3 cm, 0.479 kg

Walking in the footsteps of Jim Collins's business bestseller Good to Great, Davidson (The Amazing Race) offers a prescription for corporate greatness based on his study of more than 7 high-performing companies. But while Good to Great focused on lesser-known firms, this volume looks to blue chips like IBM, Dell, Schwab, Caterpillar and ADS. Davidson's premise is that "breakthrough" companies achieve what they do by setting outrageous objectives and pursuing them with single-minded intensity. The go-for-broke, swing-for-the-bleachers approach that he favors means that there are plenty of intriguing innovations on display. For example, Progressive Insurance vowed to deliver the fastest claim resolution to auto policyholders and-taking that idea to its "outrageous" conclusion - broke the industry mold by putting claims agents in vans, ready to go at a moment's notice to meet a customer at the scene of an accident. However, the emphasis here is not on storytelling but on building a case for the "breakthrough" approach that can apply to the reader's own business. What's most impressive is that the companies cited are by and large established players who've radically transformed their operations, rather than startups that begin with a "clean slate." Overall, Davidson's argument is credible and logical; the trouble is, it's a little too familiar. So much has been written about corporate transformations through technology or re-engineering during and after the Internet bubble that it's hard to muster a sense of excitement or discovery. In the end, this is a worthy title, but one that lacks the "breakthrough" spark of visionary thinking to take it to the next level. (Nov.) (Publishers Weekly, November 3, 2003)

"Breakthrough" - Das Ziel dieses Buches ist einfach: Es will Führungskräften dabei helfen, ihre Teams zu einzigartiger Leistung anzuspornen und dem Unternehmen aussergewöhnliche Ergebnisse zu bescheren.

Indem Führungskräfte ein groß angelegtes, scheinbar unrealistisches Ziel setzen - kein Ziel, das leicht erreichbar ist - können sie die Stärke, die Motivation und die Zusammenarbeit im Team fördern, um dieses unrealistisch erscheinende Ziel dennoch zu erreichen.

Das Buch basiert auf einer 10-jährigen großangelegten Studie mit über 70 erfolgreichen Unternehmen, wie z.B. IBM, Dayton-Hudson, Progressive Insurance, EMC, American Standard, Charles Schwab, and Dell Computer.

Es zeigt, wie diese Unternehmen sich unerhört hohe Ziele gesteckt haben und fast alle damit beachtliche Ergebnisse erzielt haben.

"Breakthrough" erhält Empfehlungen von Top-Führungskräften, die der Autor kennt, z.B. Lou Gerstner (IBM), Peter Lewis (Progressive Corporation), Emanuel Kampouris (American Standard), Charles Schwab (Charles Schwab Corporation), Jean Monty (BCE), Michael Dell (Dell Computer) and Dick Brown (EDS).

Autor Bill Davidson ist ein angesehener Akademiker (ehemaliger Professor für Management an der University of Southern California), erfolgreicher Consultant (zu seiner Klientel gehören u.a. die Bank of America, Chevron, Lockheed, NASA, Pfizer, Safeway und Target) und Redner mit über 50 Redeverpflichtungen pro Jahr.

Chapter One: Breakthrough Dynamics.

Chapter Two: The Enterprise Principle.

Subject Areas: Business & management [KJ]