Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty: Managing in a Downturn

by Ram Charan

Book Overview

"There is no better person than Ram Charan to provideadvice on managing in a downturn."
-Larry Bossidy, former Chairman & CEO Honeywell International Inc.

"This is all classic guru writing, stressing the extremity of the situation. But from Charan - who has already brought us bestsellers such as Execution and What the CEO Wants You to Know - it seems plausible. His forte is bold advice, delivered with convincing rhetoric...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0071626166
• ISBN13: 9780071626163
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.86 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.7" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

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.

Costs down within days! Most inspiring to make changes

In short: I would highly recommend this book to entrepreneurs who are looking for ideas on how to change their organizations. I would also recommend it to consultants who assist entrepreneurs in changing or strengthening organizations. Thank you, Ram, for this book! There is only a small number of books that really inspire to change things. Within a week of reading the book, I halved the rent at my company (managing for cash), eliminated consultants changing lots of what they did into systems, prepared for the worst scenario and on with other execution that is too long to list here. Well, a lot of cash recovered just in a week which is a measurable result. No other books have inspired me to do such things in such a short time. And my staff loved it (not all of the consultants.....) I have my company in Japan, and want to give lots of copies to people I know. Japanese entrepreneurs need to read it as a wake up call, so hope we would get a Japanese translation VERY soon. It is a shame to see long reviews that do not reflect on any changes they have made at their companies inspired by the book. For business books no point talking about how good or bad they were, they either inspired and helped with changes or not. Ram, thank you so much again, and look forward to your new books for entrepreneurs/leaders/change makers. Entrepreneurs, don't listen to academic reviews of this book, read, execute and judge for yourself.

Leadership is important in bad times

Ram Charan continues to help with developing leadership qualities. In these tough ecconomic times, it is even more critical. This book helps think through what should be done in these bad times.

A GPS Navigator for your Business

Is this the same Ram Charan who, along with Larry Bossidy, wrote Execution in '02 and Confronting Reality in `04? I didn't think so at first. Those books are more abstract. Execution is about linking a business's operational, strategic, and people processes to achieve superior results. Confronting Reality takes a high-level look at how successful companies "model reality" en route to creating fundamental value and making money. This book, by comparison, is more concrete. Gone are the frameworks and rubrics and occasional slips into professorspeech. Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty is delivered at street level for leaders who, because of the downturn, have to make "a huge change in how they manage day-to-day." The older books provide roadmaps but leave the driving up to you. This time Dr. Charan keeps one hand firmly on the wheel: most of the book's pages are filled with specific directions, i.e., new rules for CEOs and other functional managers. (which at times read like marching orders; he even uses a few uncharacteristic war-related references) BUT... Dig deeper and you start to connect the dots. His earlier works, for example, are also about navigating uncharted terrain. (From `04: "The old ways don't work in this age of lightning-fast change, high volatility, hyper competition and compressed margins.") And his basic prescription for surviving and thriving? It's essentially the same, too. What's different is the topsy-turviness of the current external environment and the implications for leaders. One is that CEOs, in particular, have to walk a fine line: "On one side you will have to convince the employees that the company is up against a serious crisis that requires urgent actions, some of which may be painful, most notably big reductions in head count. Yet while you are laying out the unvarnished truth about the economic environment, you also need to present a compelling argument and a credible plan to show that the problems the company faces can be solved..." Dr. Charan walks the same line as the book's author. And I think he does a masterful job. How's he pull it off? First, by outlining the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. Then, by letting us know this book isn't just about what actions to take - it's also about the attitudes leaders should maintain in the process. Finally, by packing the rest of the book with sage advice. For me, that advice boils down on the ACTION side to this: Manage the way he's been suggesting you manage all along. Focus on creating fundamental value, being realistic, and staying on the offensive. Only, now make sure you address five or six key objectives first. ("Manage for cash" is one such objective.) On the ATTITIUDE side: Simple. Dr. Charan believes "few problems are insoluble" and, as a leader, you need to make it clear "you're focused on the future and intend to be a winner." Do these things and your company will survive the downturn and emerge even stronger. This, on

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 sys