The Breakthrough Imperative: How the Best Managers Get Outstanding Results

by Mark Gottfredson and Steve Schaubert

Book Overview

Two long-time directors of consulting giant Bain & Company and former line general managers themselves, distill the results of their 20-year study of successful managers into the essential four laws... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061358142
• ISBN13: 9780061358142
• Release Date: March 2008
• Publisher: HarperBusiness
• Length: 367 Pages
• Weight: 1.43 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.3" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

The Breakthrough Imperative

Exceptional read on how leaders must obey four laws in the expanding global economy. The first law, cost and prices always decline, helps leaders understand the dynamics of global competition and disruption theory. The second law, competitive position determines your options, helps leaders understand the importance of being one or two in their market space. The third law, customers and profit pools do not stand still, helps leaders understand the fast pace of innovation. The fourth law, simplicity gets results helps leaders think through their strategies and boil them down to the critical few initiatives that make a difference. One of the best business books released in 2008.

The Breakthrough Imperative

The Breakthrough Imperative is one of the best business books I have read in the past 10 years. After reading the book I required all my Senior Management Team to read the book and write me a simple two page report. Page One - what did you learn, Page two - how are you going to apply those learning to drive the business forward? Since the reading assignment I follow up with my Executives during weekly one on ones to keep the learning concepts fresh and most importantly applied in our business day to day. The book has been an excellent resource for all of us to learn from other's success and failures. I highly recommend other CEOs share this book with their Leadership Teams!

A must read for every CEO, Consultant or CFO

I am a CEO of consulting firm based in Doha, Qatar. One of my recent contarcts involves turning aroung a major corporation which consist of nine divisions and each division is good enough to be a company on it own. I read an article depicted from the book in the HBR. The contents are well arranged, the language is easily understood, and the practical usage of the book is best of all. I am really indebted to the authors for sharing with us such a deep experience.

Good tools, good insight, mostly good writing

When I started reading this book it was like discovering that an old friend you hadn't seen for a while was staying at the same hotel. It made me want to catch up. The old friend in this case was the experience curve. It was a staple of management wisdom, lo these many years ago, but no one seems to talk about it any more, even though it's a simple and powerful tool. A good thing about this book is that the authors' aims are clear, helpful, and modest. They tell us: "Our aim is not to convey new strategies; rather it is to articulate a short list of business fundamentals that are essential to performance improvement and then show how to apply them." They do that well. The first chapter is about the "Two Keys to Breakthrough Results." We learn about the increasing pressure on CEOs and others to deliver results quickly. The "two keys" that the authors identify turn out to be both obvious and in need of re-stating. Key 1: Breakthrough leaders have a deep understanding of the fundamental laws of business. Key 2: Breakthrough leaders identify and follow a clear path to performance improvement based on their assessment of the organization's potential using their understanding of the fundamental laws of business. It's tempting to blow this off as third grade stuff, but it's profoundly simple. And it's worth re-stating because so many people seem to have forgotten it. For a recent example of someone who got it, read Jim Kilts' book about the turnaround at Gillette or Lou Gerstner's book about the turnaround at IBM. In both cases you'll witness a seasoned and savvy executive bring a deep understanding of the laws of business to bear to determine the best course of action to take. Then you'll see that same executive lay out a clear path to improvement (easier said than done) and follow it. It's simple, but it's not easy. To help you get at those "laws of business" the authors lay out four of them. Each one gets its own chapter. Law 1: Costs and prices always decline. This is my old friend, the experience curve. It's a visual tool that shows the relationship between accumulated experience and the long-term decline in costs. This tool isn't as popular as it used to be, but it's still a powerful way to understand market dynamics and it's easy to use. Law 2: Competitive position determines your options. The authors suggest another chart, this one showing you and your competitors' returns on assets plotted against your market shares. Do this and it's easy to see why driving down costs should be a continuing obsession. Law 3: Customers and profit pools don't stand still. The advice is basic: protect your existing profit pool while you find new ones. The value-added in this book is the description of some of the predictable aspects of the ways customers' tastes and behaviors change. Law 4: Simplicity gets results. You don't have to stand out on every dimension. Three is enough. The simpler you can keep your product line and your strategy, the more l