Lessons from the Top: The Search for America's Best Business Leaders Book

What does it really take to run a successful company today? Thomas J. Neff and James M. Citrin, U.S. chairman and managing director, respectively, of the Spencer Stuart executive search firm, offer a revealing answer in Lessons from the Top: The Search for America's Best Business Leaders. In 50 short but perceptive profiles, they identify and analyse the men and women who drive today's most successful corporations. As might be expected, the authors lean heavily on well-known CEOs like Steve Case of America Online, Michael Dell of Dell Computer and Howard Schultz of Starbucks. But they also look at a number who don't get the same publicity, including Fannie Mae's Frank Raines, the Gap's Don Fisher and Autodesk's Carol Bartz. The result is a broad but surprisingly consistent palette of personalities and philosophies that in a concluding section Neff and Citrin highlight by synthesising into 10 common traits (passion, intelligence, communication skill, high energy, controlled ego, inner peace, a defining background, strong family life, positive attitude and a focus on "doing the right things right"), and six core principles (live with integrity, develop a winning strategy, build a great management team, inspire employees, create a flexible organisation and implement relevant systems). This book is for managers and anyone else looking for the patterns of success, both in and out of business. --Howard Rothman, Amazon.comRead More