Shockproof: How to Hardwire Your Business for Lasting Success - Hardcover

Jacobs, Debra

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0470872543 ISBN 13: 9780470872543

Publisher: Wiley, 2010

Synopsis

Reinvent your company to deliver sustained profitable growth.

As performance lags in the midst of economic cycles, many companies turn to magic bullets such as EVA, Kaizen, or Six Sigma. Unfortunately, these initiatives-along with how they're implemented-often deliver only short-term positive impact or cause more pain than the preexisting condition.

Returning to competitive health and profitability in the face of economic downturns requires a dynamic realignment of business strategies, organizational design, and talent management. Based on timely research conducted by Axiom Consulting Partners, Shockproof empowers and enables business leaders, owners and managers to make and maintain the necessary connection between strategies and organization to achieve sustainable performance.

• Create an agile business that can rapidly reinvent itself as business conditions change
• Foster leadership that knows how to mobilize people to execute and deliver results
• Build a workforce that is adaptive, inherently innovative, and energized by the rewards of success

As priorities change and challenges arise throughout the ebbs and flows of the economic cycle, let Shockproof guide you to reinvent your company and deliver sustained profitable growth in good times and bad.

About this title

About the Author

Axiom Consulting Partners' DEBRA JACOBS, GARRETT SHERIDAN, and JUAN PABLO GONZÁLEZ have dedicated their careers to helping leaders and their organizations achieve their strategic objectives. As executives, advisors, speakers, and authors, they have helped clients across the globe align business strategy, organization design, and talent to improve execution and business results. Each has a deep appreciation of the complexity within today's business environment and what it takes for leaders to guide their organizations toward lasting success.

To learn more, visit www.AxiomConsultingPartners.com

From the Back Cover

You survived the recession …are you ready for what's next?

WITH RAPID DEVELOPMENTS and shifts in the economy, technology, and customer expectations, businesses even those that are widely regarded as successful are often only one shock away from failure. Leaders spend countless hours trying to derive the perfect business strategy or organization design, only to be thrown off-kilter by an unanticipated change. When faced with a crisis that puts a business in peril, some leaders make the mistake of turning to quick-fix solutions, such as downsizing, divestiture, hiring a "savior" leader, or overinvesting in the latest flavor-of-the-month management consulting fad.

Long-term success does not happen by accident. It happens when leaders are able to see what's going on in their businesses with absolute clarity and act with courage to ensure alignment between their business strategy, organization, and talent. These leaders realize that by balancing focus and flexibility they can better prepare their businesses to respond to or better yet, anticipate change.

Authors Debra Jacobs, Garrett Sheridan, and Juan Pablo González have helped the leaders of numerous companies such as AT&T, Intel, Pfizer, Sony, Nokia, American Express, Juicy Couture, and Qualcomm to better align business strategy, organization, and talent to improve execution. Now with Shockproof, these experts will show you how to do the same. The authors combine their experiences and proven approaches with the real stories of leaders who discovered the value of aligning strategy, organization design, and talent long before "shockproofing" became a verb. The insights offered by these successful leaders make Shockproof both compelling and practical. You'll find yourself finishing a chapter and thinking "That makes sense we can do this too!"

From the Inside Flap

You survived the recession …are you ready for what's next?

WITH RAPID DEVELOPMENTS and shifts in the economy, technology, and customer expectations, businesses—even those that are widely regarded as successful—are often only one shock away from failure. Leaders spend countless hours trying to derive the perfect business strategy or organization design, only to be thrown off-kilter by an unanticipated change. When faced with a crisis that puts a business in peril, some leaders make the mistake of turning to quick-fix solutions, such as downsizing, divestiture, hiring a "savior" leader, or overinvesting in the latest flavor-of-the-month management consulting fad.

Long-term success does not happen by accident. It happens when leaders are able to see what's going on in their businesses with absolute clarity and act with courage to ensure alignment between their business strategy, organization, and talent. These leaders realize that by balancing focus and flexibility they can better prepare their businesses to respond to—or better yet, anticipate—change.

Authors Debra Jacobs, Garrett Sheridan, and Juan Pablo González have helped the leaders of numerous companies such as AT&T, Intel, Pfizer, Sony, Nokia, American Express, Juicy Couture, and Qualcomm to better align business strategy, organization, and talent to improve execution. Now with Shockproof, these experts will show you how to do the same. The authors combine their experiences and proven approaches with the real stories of leaders who discovered the value of aligning strategy, organization design, and talent long before "shockproofing" became a verb. The insights offered by these successful leaders make Shockproof both compelling and practical. You'll find yourself finishing a chapter and thinking "That makes sense—we can do this too!"

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0470872543
• ISBN 13: 9780470872543
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288