CTech's Book Review: Planning your play and playing your plan

Dror Pockard is the Chief Strategy Officer at Earnix, a provider of mission-critical systems for global insurers and banks. He has joined CTech to share a review of "Execution - The Discipline of Getting Things Done" by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan.

Title: "Execution - The Discipline of Getting Things Done"

Author: Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan

Format: Book, Tablet, Audiobook

Where: Home

Summary:

This is a great book I keep coming back to read again and again. We’re all great at planning, but actually executing these plans and making sure they achieved what you planned for, is something else. The practical value of achieving objectives and getting things done must become part of the DNA of your company culture. Execution, according to Bossidy (former Chairman and CEO) and Charan (Advisor and Leading Consultant) is all about taking the lots of planning we all do and transitioning it to a clear set of disciplined approaches on how to execute these plans and monitor how they're executed.

Important Themes:

A lot of organizations have tedious planning processes, but little of this planning is useful. To succeed, you need to translate these plans to a discipline of execution otherwise you'll fail. 'Strategies most often fail because they aren’t executed well’.

A leader needs to focus on the right details at the right time, and to make sure you fix the ‘missing link’ between high aspirations and the actual results, a lot via synchronization between the different team members.

Execution is a discipline you should practice, it’s every leader’s primary role and it should be a ‘core element’ of your company/business unit culture. To make this happen, you need to encourage cultural change, put the right person in the right job, and follow the key principles of leadership execution.

What I’ve Learned:

It’s all about execution. Companies who execute well will win the market and those with the right execution culture will also improve their planning as they continuously monitor plans vs. actuals.

My success as a leader will be always dependent on the synchronization of people, strategy, and operations, all focused on execution and monitoring the great plans vs. what we managed to execute.

Critiques:

I was always striving to make the right decision on what our strategy is. Some might claim that the importance lies in execution, much more than in choosing the right strategy, which is quite problematic. I believe, like Bossidy and Charan, that execution does not replace the need to have the ‘right’ strategy. On the contrary, it will make it clear, via monitoring and careful execution, that your strategy might not be a good fit.

Who Should Read This Book:

This is a book for any leader at any level of the company. Leaders in any organization and at any level should engage in the proper execution of their and their companies’ strategy.