Leading at the Speed of Change: Using New Economy Rules to Transform Old Economy Companies

by Lynn Jackson and Bill Capodagli

Today's business climate demands that companies move quickly, adapt rapidly, and innovate like never before...all without losing sight of their core businesses. And one of the biggest challenges... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 007137079X
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill
• Length: 245 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.8" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

It's a page-turner; it's a business book: It's both

Enjoy this book. Be gripped by it. Learn from it. I did all three. LEADING AT THE SPEED OF CHANGE is a different kind of business book: it almost reads like a novel. It's a riveting tale of vision, courage, and perseverance, with action guides after each chapter to nail the main points and help you be the hero of your own business story. Authors Capodagli and Jackson cheer Rick Roscitt and his maverick AT & T Solutions team as they Dream, Believe, Dare, and Do their way to phenomenal start-up success. AT & T CEO Mike Armstrong is praised for blessing and nourishing the breakaway unit, and he is also fairly and frankly assessed for re-shaping the corporation into a global communications one-stop shop, and then recently dividing it into four parts. Throughout, Capodagli and Jackson are passionate but clear-eyed observers, and masterful teachers, too. This will be no surprise to readers of their previous books THE DISNEY WAY and THE DISNEY WAY FIELDBOOK which established their business-as-show business approach. In the close, overstuffed warehouse of business books today, Capodagli and Jackson are a welcome and invigorating breath of fresh air.

A Tale of Two Cultures, indeed!

In Leading at the Speed of Change, Capodagli and Jackson combine artful storytelling with hard hitting facts about AT & T and its prize division, AT & T Solutions. The book begins with a flashback to 1993, where AT & T vet Rick Roscitt had a profound vision. And from this creative burst of business energy he, and a team of 12, pioneered Solutions into a model that can potentially alter the way things are done throughout all of AT & T. In a time where AT & T bashing is the norm, it was refreshing to read this book and find a bright spot. But don't think that Capodagli and Jackson were blind to what was happening just down the road. In fact, they pay considerable attention to the impending break up, and what CEO Michael Armstrong and AT & T could have possibly done to avoid this fiasco. In this chapter, I also found that it served as a wake-up call to any business. A small organization can falter as well (or perhaps more easily) from the same mistakes made by this telecommunications behemoth. Capodagli and Jackson rely on their management consulting background to provide criticism as well as prescriptive advice, breaking things down into eight simple, but essential, categories: Vision, Values, Alliances, Acculturation, Predictable Problems, Failing Forward Fast, Quintessential Teams, and Customer Intimacy. For those of you unhappy with the status quo, from the corporate CEO to the small business owner, Leading at the Speed of Change is a must read.

It's a page-turner; it's a business book: It's both.

Read this book. Enjoy it. Be gripped by it. Learn from it. I did all three. LEADING AT THE SPEED OF CHANGE is a different kind of business book: it almost reads like a novel. It's a riveting tale of vision, courage, and perseverence, with action guides after each chapter to nail the main points and help you be the hero of your own business story.Authors Capodagli and Jackson cheer Rick Roscitt and his maverick AT & T Solutions team as they Dream, Believe, Dare, and Do their way to phenomenal start-up success. AT & T CEO Mike Armstrong is praised for blessing and nourishing the breakaway unit, and he is also fairly and frankly assessed for re-shaping the corporation into a global communications one-stop shop, and then recently dividing it into four parts. Throughout, Capodagli and Jackson are passionate but clear-eyed observers, and masterful teachers, too. This will be no surprise to readers of their previous books THE DISNEY WAY and THE DISNEY WAY FIELDBOOK which established their business-as-show business approach. In the close, overstuffed warehouse of business books today, Capodagli and Jackson are a welcome and invigorating breath of fresh air.