Saturday, June 14, 2008

Required reading for Business leaders and students

Some business books are just so good that you have to have it on the shelf.
Stall Points: Most Companies Stop Growing--Yours Doesn't Have To by Matthew S. Olson and Derek van Bever (Hardcover - April 28, 2008)Buy new: $27.50 $18.15

And be sure to check out thier blog:
http://stallpoints.executiveboard.com/resources.html

Amazing stuff. This isn't the same old strategy process book. This is hard core research results and practical, data driven, actionable recommendations.

If only all business books were this good. And business leaders read and followed them. Maybe worker would suffer less for the bad decisions that their bosses inflict on them.

If there is one thing I want my business students to walk away thinking, the that the decisions they will make will impact peoples lives. People who come to work everyday and put in a fair day's work, only to lose their jobs because their bosses won't read books like this and put the lessons into practice.

Ask yourself - why can't Toyota keep their cars in stock and why can't GM give theirs away? The answer isn't the workers. Why they haven't burnt their HQ to the ground during a board meeting is beyond me.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey,

This is Derek van Bever, co-author of Stall Points. I just wanted to write to thank you for your kind words on our book. We (obviously) think this subject is every bit as important as you do, and we are focused these days on how to encourage the development of "court sense" in the executive suite. New strategy tools would help a lot: Teams are generally pretty good at cataloging their goals and their uncertainties, but much less effective at articulating their beliefs in a way that they can be stress-tested.

Any new ideas/tools out there?

Derek

P.S. You can follow our blog at our site, www.stallpoints.com, if you are interested.

Anonymous said...

DvB:

Woops! www.stallpoints.executiveboard.com.

How embarrassing to forget to put your company name in the address!!

Derek

gnomic said...

Derek,

I follow every teleconference and report that the Corporate Executive Board produces. After 35 years, I've used just about every analyst group out there and I can say that your research and writing is by far the best I've come across. My over-the-top crazy rants aside, I think a subscription to your service should be required for every Fortune 1000 company. I just wish you sold individual and academic subscriptions for people like me. I'm just an overlooked mid-level manager at my company and will likely have to find a new job to put my skills to use, but it would seriously pain me to give up my subscription. (Hint!)