"The greatest business decisions of all time" by Verne Harnish and the editors of Fortune- A must read !
This book is published by Time Home Entertainment in 2013 and it has 208 pages.
Authors have chosen the best decisions made in the corporate world and presented them to the readers. It’s a fascinating book that brings the background, process and factors that influenced the decision and how the decisions shaped the future.
1- Bringing Steve Jobs back at Apple resulted in floundering Apple to become the most valuable company in the world.
2- Decision by struggling online shoe retailer Zappos, in 1999, to offer free shipping and free returns showed that competitive advantage was not price but customer service and that you need to be more than a website, you need to control the entire value chain.
3- Samsung decided to send handful of brightest young employees to far-away corners of globe to immerse themselves in culture, build the network and learn the language so some day Samsung would know how to supply those markets.
4- Johnson and Johnson decided that a leader’s first responsibility was to those who use its products and services. This when the Tylenol tablets were tampered and laced with poison resulting in deaths. They pulled the product off the shelves and introduced a tamper resistant bottle, at a high cost.
5- 3M decided to spend 15% off their time on their own projects that has kept company’s innovation engine humming.
6- Intel launched ‘Intel inside’ campaign and demonstrated that an anonymous ingredient of a larger consumer product might achieve its own identity. It prevented commoditization off computer chip.
7- GE CEO Jack Welch laid off 100,000 people and simultaneously invested in a training center GE’s corporate values and vision. This led to several GE alumnus becoming CEOs at other companies.
8- Bill Gates started ‘Think week’ when he would retreat from the world to focus deeply on a topic crucial to Microsoft’s future.
9- Softsoap introduced liquid hand soap to market. But to slow down P&G from launching the same, they bought entire supply of plastic pumps.
10- Toyota struggling in American market brought quality guru W. Edward Deaming transforming Toyota, and later manufacturing and service industry, too high quality, low expenses, high productivity, high market share.
11- Nordstrom revolutionized customer satisfaction to let customers return products- even if they didn’t buy the item at one of its stores.
12- Tata Steel decided to drastically reduce the work force to become competitive. They brought early separation scheme by which employee will get same salary till his retirement age after being laid off. It made sense economically and it preserved the goodwill.
13- In 1952 Boeing decided to invest more than Boeing’s net worth, on Boeing 707, transatlantic jetliner, that changed course of Boeing’s and Aviation industry’s history.
14- Struggling IBM launched ‘Operation Bear Hug’. Meet the customers, listen to them, understand their difficulties and N feeds, address them.
15- Walmart started Saturday morning meetings to go over previous week’s numbers. They perfected the art of learning fast and acting fast.
16- Eli Whitney decided to produce guns, when he had no experience of it. He produced tools that will fashion the work in correct proportions. He also introduced interchangeable parts. This transferred the job of gun making from skilled to unskilled workers.
17- HP decided HP Way by instilling teamwork, trust, risk taking throughout the organization.
18- Henry Ford decided to double wages of his workers in 1914 by sharing profits. It boosted moral, ensured retention and reduced turnover.
There are all fascinating decisions. Each one is unique. Each one was ahead of it’s time. Each one was a trend setter followed by many later. Apple has implemented many of these ideas and the results are there to see.
In his foreword Jim Colin’s says: The greatest decisions were people decisions. Decisions are for future, future is uncertain and the greatest hedge against uncertainty is having people who can adapt.
So true. It’s not the machines. It’s not the profits. It’s not the technology. It’s people. All these decisions were people centric. Make the people part of the process and you have better quality, better productivity and impeccable product. Intrinsic motivation always works better than extrinsic motivation
It’s a book that should be read by every student of management and leadership. It should be read by everyone else connected to corporate world.
Why did I read this book? Interesting topic.
What I didn't like? Sometimes the chapter summary doesn’t tell what the decision was.
What did I like? Crisp, to the point.
A must read.
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