Breakthrough: How Great Companies Set Outrageous Objectives and Achieve Them - Hardcover

Davidson, William Harley

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471454400 ISBN 13: 9780471454403

Publisher: Wiley, 2003

Synopsis

Breakthrough will help executives lead their teams to peerless, unsurpassed performance by helping them define a grand goal and engage the organization to pursue and achieve that goal, no matter how difficult the challenge seems. Based on a ten-year landmark study of more than seventy bold, breakthrough companies such as IBM, Dayton-Hudson, Progressive Insurance, EMC, American Standard, Charles Schwab, and Dell Computer, the book shows how these remarkable companies adopted outrageous objectives and then did what it takes to achieve remarkable results.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

Every corporate success story begins with a breakthrough business model that triggers superior performance and rockets a company to a leading position. But unless a company continues to challenge itself to do more and do it better, success can be the beginning of the end for market leaders who rest on their laurels.

Breakthrough is a fact-based, practical guide that helps business leaders keep their success cycles turning with constant business innovation. Based on a landmark ten-year study of more than seventy bold, breakthrough companies–such as IBM, Countrywide, and American Standard–this book shows how the world’s best companies stay on top. The secret these high-performing companies share: challenging themselves to achieve goals that seem unreasonable.

Breakthrough shows business leaders how to develop business goals that seem outrageous, and then foster the cutting-edge thinking, the focused effort, and the teamwork to achieve breakthrough results. Leaders of breakthrough companies do things differently: they develop master plans that integrate every area of the company and they understand their organization’s core identity. Breakthrough requires more than just good ideas or extra effort–it comes from practical, real-world steps that lead to unbelievable results.

This book describes all the ways breakthrough companies separate themselves from their rivals, including:

• Starting and managing the success cycle
• Focusing on a single core strategy
• Understanding competitive realities and opportunities
• Innovating at the core of the company
• Following a framework for transformation
• Embracing program management techniques
• Tying employee compensation to transformation strategies
• Communicating effectively

Packed with case studies and revealing data, Breakthrough combines proven advice for aspiring leaders with practical strategies for effective business innovation. For market leaders and insurgent companies alike, the key to outrageous success is setting the outrageous goal–and using the power of Breakthrough to achieve it.

From the Back Cover:

"Teams that embrace bold goals and breakthrough strategies can accomplish remarkable results. This book will be invaluable to anyone embarking on that path."
– Bart Butzer
Executive Vice President, Target Corporation

"Yellow’s continued industry leadership will result in large part from embracing Bill Davidson’s philosophy and approach."
– Bill Zollars
CEO, Yellow Corporation

"Strategic change is a high-risk, high-return proposition. Davidson’s framework provides a sure, firm foundation for success."
– Roger MacFarlane
CEO, UTi Worldwide

"This is a serious piece of work which should be required reading for all business leaders. If you plan on remaining or becoming number one in your industry, have your top management team read this right away."
– Bob Herson
CEO, Executive Focus International, Inc.

"I could not put it down–stunning insights into corporate strategy and tactics."
– Randall Lunn
General Partner, Palomar Ventures

About this edition

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0471454400
• ISBN 13: 9780471454403
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256