What Really Works: The 4+2 Formula for Sustained Business Success

by William Joyce, Bruce Roberson, Nitin Nohria, et al.

Book Overview

Based on a groundbreaking study, analysing data on 200 management practices gathered over a 10 year period. Reveals the effectiveness of the 4+2 practices (4 primary and 2 of 4 possible secondary)... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060512784
• Release Date: May 2003
• Publisher: Harper Business
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 0.8" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

This may be the only business book you ever need to read...

There are big, unanswered questions that we all face as part of the human condition including: "What's the meaning of life?"; "Is there life after death?" or "Can the Mets win the World Series" ;-) All kidding aside, perhaps the biggest unanswered question facing business in general is "What Really Works?" Unfortunately, most of the proof points that business gurus and consultative experts point to in answer to that question are theoretical, pure guesswork or anecdotal at best. However, the authors of the book - "What Really Works" - decided to rigorously explore that question over a 10-year period that studied dozens of companies in search of an answer. What the 50 business consultants and academicians assigned to the project found was the "4+2 Theory." While its name smacks of ivory-tower group think it's actually a compelling formula that proposes the optimal combination of primary and secondary management practices - it's that combination of managerial fundamentals that contributes to lasting business success and may be the ultimate answer to "What Really Works."

Useful and Practical

This book is the result of a research with a large amount of companies regarding their management practices in a ten-year analysis. The main outcome from this work is that there are some practices that really have a strong positive impact in a company's success whereas others - even some glamorous ones - do not contribute to the achievement of its goals. The division of companies in Winners, Climbers, Tumblers and Losers is very clever because it depicts the differences between them and provides a guide to evaluate any company according to its achievements / characteristics. It is interesting to apply the methodology to the everyday business news regarding global companies. Examples are very illustrative, specially in chapters 2 ("Meet a Winner", describing Dollar General) and 3 ("Meet a Loser", about Kmart). In summary, it crucial to focus on a clear strategy, execute it through the daily activities, make it a cultural behavior and keep a flexible and flat structure. It is important to have talented people, leaders committed to business, cultivate innovation and search for growth considering mergers and acquisitions.

Verification of an age old realization

Many times the answer is simple, seemingly to simple in fact and we feel the need to make it more complex. The best ads are always very simple (Got Milk or Just Do It). Commitment and consistency to the "answer" on the other hand is not simple or even easy to come by and that is the theme of this book. As a veteran marketer I have heard all of the 200 management practices as referenced by this book. I have watched (and particpated in) many of them fail and many win. But none seemed to ensure that the company would indeed be successful. Rather they are only tools to be used as part of a process. I need evidence and science (i.e. fact) to commit. This book's research has that evidence that gives it authority to express the simple but hard to follow thruths. It outlines (in real world examples) the neccessary ingredients that have made/keep many a company successful. This not only is A MUST READ but I feel a book that should become the textbook for business and marketing students. Thank you to the authors for their commitment of ten years and the focus in preparing this book. We have no reason to fail now.

A gold standard vs. tin Gods

For those of us on the receiving end of yet another directive from the corner office regarding the latest "fix the company" fad, help is on the way. In What Really Works: The 4+2 Formula for Sustained Business Success the authors (Joyce, Nohria and Roberson) actually have the temerity to introduce analysis instead of feel-good musings and, pshaw, to compile data from first-hand surveys from hundreds of companies over a 10 year span (1986-96) versus the typical seat-of-the-pants insights gleaned from a subway ride.The result is a well reasoned piece that eventually identifies a code of practices to which successful companies adhere. The first set, the 4, are the primary areas, namely, strategy, execution, culture, and structure. The secondary set, the +2, is comprised of talent, leadership, innovations and mergers and partnerships. The fundamental premise is that the key to long-term success is to merge the primary 4 with any 2 of the secondary set, hence 4+2 in the title. Extensive evidence is offered by way of the aforementioned corporate surveys to demonstrate the results that arise from application (success) or neglect (failure) of the 4+2 strategy. The key difference from traditional management strategy books is quite simple. The authors seem content to identify and codify a set of practices based upon extensive analysis of the survey data. Unlike many of the "all the rage" books of the day, one gets the feeling they did not begin with any particular conceptual axe to grind. They "pan" their data for the consistent themes and practices and, in the end, the business practitioner is pretty much left with a gold standard for guiding the enterprise. A far cry, indeed, from a field so often characterized by the newest offering from the latest tin God.

What Really Works DOES (work)

Finally, a book that cuts to the chase and directly attacks THE most fundamental managerial question: Which practices work and which ones don't? What should I focus on and what should I ignore? There is plenty to like about this book. No doubt its greatest strength is empirical rigor. Building off of the success of several similar studies and then improving on them by orders of magnitude makes their findings hard to ignore. So does the fact that the ultimate formula offers no easy solution. If it were easy, everyone would be winning. What Really Works doesn't oversell where it cannot. It focuses on the WHAT not the HOW. It doesn't tell me HOW to implement these practices; how arrogant would that be? However, it does offer just enough direction-illustrated with familiar case studies-so that I can translate the broad guidance into the specifics of any organized endeavor. In the end, what this book does so effectively is filter the noise, --and there's plenty of it out there. Finally, a trade book that not only doesn't ADD to the clutter, but one that helps me cut through it. To be sure, I'll be applying the authors' "4 + 2 formula" in every setting I enter to see if What Really Works, really does. Perhaps that's the ultimate praise for such a book-there is no doubt exactly what these authors' recommend. They've drawn their formula from hundreds of companies over ten years, now we get to test it ourselves.