ex-e-cu-tion (ek si kyoo shun), n. 1. The missing link. 2. The main reason companies fall short of their promises. 3. The gap between what a company’s leaders want to achieve and the ability of their organizations to deliver it. 4. Not simply tactics, but a sys­ tem of getting things done through question­ ing, analysis, and follow-through. A discipline for meshing strategy with reality, aligning peo­ ple with goals, and achieving the results promised. 5. A central part of a company’s strategy and its goals and the major job of any leader in business. 6. A discipline requiring a comprehensive understanding of a business, its people, and its environment. 7. The way to link the three core processes of any business— the people process, the strategy, and the oper­ ating plan—together to get things done on time. 8. A method for success discovered and revealed in 2002 by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan in Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done. Pr evious books by Ram Charan What the CEO Wants You to Know Boards That Work Every Business Is a Growth Business (coauthor) The Leadership Pipeline (coauthor) E-Board Strategies (coauthor) Strategic Management: A Casebook in Policy and Planning (coauthor) EXECUTION THE DISCIPLINE OF GETTING THINGS DONE L A R RY B O S S I DY A N D R A M CH A R A N with Charles Burck Copyright © 2002 by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or trans­ mitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the pub­ lisher. Published by Crown Business, New York, New York. Member of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc. www.randomhouse.com CROWN BUSINESS is a trademark and the Rising Sun colophon is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bossidy, Larry. Execution : the discipline of getting things done / Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan ; with Charles Burck.—1st ed. 1. Management. 2. Performance. 3. Achievement motivation. I. Charan, Ram. II. Burck, Charles. III. Title. HD31 .B626 2002 658—dc21 2002018743 ISBN 1-400-04617-3 v1.0 To the hundreds of people who touched our business lives and influenced the thoughts artic­ ulated in this book. A special recognition to Jack Welch, who in our time was the predomi­ nant practitioner of “getting things done.” Larry Bossidy Ram Charan CONTENTS Introduction 1 PART I: WHY EXECUTION IS NEEDED 1: The Gap Nobody Knows 13 2: The Execution Difference 35 PART II: THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF EXECUTION 3: Building Block One: The Leader’s Seven Essential Behaviors 57 4: Building Block Two: Creating the Framework for Cultural Change 85 5: Building Block Three: The Job No Leader Should Delegate—Having the Right People in the Right Place 109 CONTENTS PART III: THE THREE CORE PROCESSES OF EXECUTION 6: The People Process: Making the Link with Strategy and Operations 141 7: The Strategy Process: Making the Link with People and Operations 178 8: How to Conduct a Strategy Review 207 9: The Operations Process: Making the Link with Strategy and People 226 Conclusion: Letter to a New Leader 265 Index 271 viii EXECUTION This book has been optimized for viewing at a monitor setting of 1024 × 768 pixels.