Book Resource List

Building Public Trust: The Future of Corporate Reporting
by Samuel A. DiPiazza, Robert G. Eccles

A new 2002 release which argues companies should expand the relevant information provided to investors.They propose specific ways to develop three key elements (a spirit of transparency, a culture of accountability, and people of integrity) that work together to "create public trust in markets." This involves a three-tier model: Tier One is GAAP reporting, Tier Two is industry-specific performance metrics developed by each industry segment, and Tier Three is company-specific information.

Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan, Charles Burck

An excellent new (June 2002) book on how to get things done by a business leader trained by Jack Welch. In our view, a must-read. Amazon: "Execution is 'the missing link between aspirations and results,' and as such, making it happen is the business leader's most important job. While failure in today's business environment is often attributed to other causes, Bossidy and Charan argue that the biggest obstacle to success is the absence of execution. "

Read it from the horses mouth - or at least through his writer! Jack Welch is regarded as one of the best business executives in the world. Learn about the very disciplined processes he put in place at GE to create an innovative and performance driven culture. Our favorite: Jack writes personal notes to executives he meets with after every meeting recapping his perceptions and actions needed. This is then reviewed at their next meeting. Simple but extraordinarily effective.

Culture is the biggest barrier in driving performance effectively in most organizations. Lencioni has refined his theories on this to create a very crisp, and we believe insightful, summary of cultural attributes that need to exist to be performance driven, or on the flip side dysfunctions that typically block organizations from achieving their potential. The dysfunctions build on each other: absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results. He uses a story-book approach, which keeps your interest, in the first part of the book, with more structured analysis in the last section.