When Core Values Are Strategic

What do legendary leaders from Disney, GE, GM, Johnson & Johnson, Boeing, eBay, Microsoft, Time Warner, LensCrafters, Chiquita, Walmart, Pepsi, and Saatchi+Saatchi have in common? They all learned the critical importance of values as managers at Procter & Gamble. And, since departing for leadership roles elsewhere, many have remained members of the P & G Alumni Network. Now you can share the powerful lessons learned at P & G. The P & G Alumni Network's When Core Values Are Strategic offers no-nonsense insights into why values really are so important, and practical ways to propagate, strengthen, and act on them. Bringing together contributions from influential P & G alumni worldwide, it offers a legacy to future leaders across organizations of every type and size. Discover why core values are timely, universal, and the secret to long term success on both financial and other metrics ... how top executives were shaped at P & G to make historic change in energy, aviation, technology, government, transportation, entertainment, healthcare, consumer packaged goods, and other industries ... how to build a learning culture that increases shareholder value ... why values and marketing initiatives are inseparable, and much more. This book will be an inspiration and practical resource to emerging leaders in organizations of every size and type, in every field or industry. Procter & Gamble and P & G are trade names of The Procter & Gamble Company and are used pursuant to an agreement with The Procter & Gamble Company. P & G Alumni Network is an independent organization apart from The Procter & Gamble Company.

What do legendary leaders from Disney, GE, GM, Johnson & Johnson, Boeing, eBay, Microsoft, Time Warner, LensCrafters, Chiquita, Walmart, Pepsi, and Saatchi+Saatchi have in common? They all learned the critical importance of core values as managers at Procter & Gamble. Many of these leaders have remained members of the P&G Alumni Network and now you can share in their powerful lessons learned with The P&G Alumni Network's When Core Values Are Strategic. This practical resource for emerging leaders offers no-nonsense insights into why values really are so important, and identifies practical ways to propagate, strengthen, and act on them. Bringing together contributions from influential P&G alumni worldwide, it offers a legacy to future leaders across organizations of every type and size. Discover why core values are timely, universal, and the secret to long term success and learn how top executives were shaped at P&G to make historic change in energy, aviation, technology, government, transportation, entertainment, healthcare, consumer packaged goods, and other industries. Find out how to build a learning culture that increases shareholder value, see why values and marketing initiatives are inseparable, and much more. Procter & Gamble and P&G are trade names of The Procter & Gamble Company and are used pursuant to an agreement with The Procter & Gamble Company. P&G Alumni Network is an independent organization apart from The Procter & Gamble Company.

Good Strategy/Bad Strategy clarifies the muddled thinking underlying too many strategies and provides a clear way to create and implement a powerful action-oriented strategy for the real world. Developing and implementing a strategy is the central task of a leader. A good strategy is a specific and coherent response to—and approach for—overcoming the obstacles to progress. A good strategy works by harnessing and applying power where it will have the greatest effect. Yet, Rumelt shows that there has been a growing and unfortunate tendency to equate Mom-and-apple-pie values, fluffy packages of buzzwords, motivational slogans, and financial goals with “strategy.” In Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, he debunks these elements of “bad strategy” and awakens an understanding of the power of a “good strategy.” He introduces nine sources of power—ranging from using leverage to effectively focusing on growth—that are eye-opening yet pragmatic tools that can easily be put to work on Monday morning, and uses fascinating examples from business, nonprofit, and military affairs to bring its original and pragmatic ideas to life. The detailed examples range from Apple to General Motors, from the two Iraq wars to Afghanistan, from a small local market to Wal-Mart, from Nvidia to Silicon Graphics, from the Getty Trust to the Los Angeles Unified School District, from Cisco Systems to Paccar, and from Global Crossing to the 2007–08 financial crisis. Reflecting an astonishing grasp and integration of economics, finance, technology, history, and the brilliance and foibles of the human character, Good Strategy/Bad Strategy stems from Rumelt’s decades of digging beyond the superficial to address hard questions with honesty and integrity.

In the course of six years of research and more than fifteen years of field work, Amie Devero has distinguished many of the key characteristics common to the thousands of organizations that maintain better than average results and ethical performance over the long term. What stood out was the degree to which they all use deep-seated core values for their decision-making and management. If you are a leader or a manager, an investor or a student, the tools and practices that are presented here will become indispensible. Powered by Principle not only explains why these types of organizations do so well, but provides a detailed, step by step guide for how to create this kind of dynamic and aligned organization. From the rationale to the exact type of process one should use to measure the expression of core values, every step is outlined here. Along the way, you will also gain knowledge of ways to develop your own thinking and mindset for this profound journey to become Principle-Powered. Regardless of your title, role or tenure, you will find a way to make your organization far better, and to make yourself better along the way.

Successful leaders know the right strategy is needed to compete, while the right culture is needed to succeed. That is why they identify, define, and live by core values aligned with the vision of the business. This insightful and practical book defines five principles for achieving success through values-centered leadership. It outlines concrete steps to reap the extraordinary benefits of living core values in clear prose amplified by the real-life experiences of successful companies.

Simons presents the seven key questions a manager and his team must continually ask. Drawing on decades of research into performance management systems and organization design, "Seven Strategy Questions" is a no-nonsense, must-read resource for all leaders in any organization.

#1 New York Times Bestseller Legendary venture capitalist John Doerr reveals how the goal-setting system of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) has helped tech giants from Intel to Google achieve explosive growth—and how it can help any organization thrive. In the fall of 1999, John Doerr met with the founders of a start-up whom he'd just given $12.5 million, the biggest investment of his career. Larry Page and Sergey Brin had amazing technology, entrepreneurial energy, and sky-high ambitions, but no real business plan. For Google to change the world (or even to survive), Page and Brin had to learn how to make tough choices on priorities while keeping their team on track. They'd have to know when to pull the plug on losing propositions, to fail fast. And they needed timely, relevant data to track their progress—to measure what mattered. Doerr taught them about a proven approach to operating excellence: Objectives and Key Results. He had first discovered OKRs in the 1970s as an engineer at Intel, where the legendary Andy Grove ("the greatest manager of his or any era") drove the best-run company Doerr had ever seen. Later, as a venture capitalist, Doerr shared Grove's brainchild with more than fifty companies. Wherever the process was faithfully practiced, it worked. In this goal-setting system, objectives define what we seek to achieve; key results are how those top-priority goals will be attained with specific, measurable actions within a set time frame. Everyone's goals, from entry level to CEO, are transparent to the entire organization. The benefits are profound. OKRs surface an organization's most important work. They focus effort and foster coordination. They keep employees on track. They link objectives across silos to unify and strengthen the entire company. Along the way, OKRs enhance workplace satisfaction and boost retention. In Measure What Matters, Doerr shares a broad range of first-person, behind-the-scenes case studies, with narrators including Bono and Bill Gates, to demonstrate the focus, agility, and explosive growth that OKRs have spurred at so many great organizations. This book will help a new generation of leaders capture the same magic.