Customer Reviews
Save Your Time and Money ! ! !
I thought this book was awful for three reasons.
First, the author spends way too much time discussing how to placate the 20-somethings in the workforce today. Managing a workforce isn't that difficult. Identify what motivates workers, and then establish opportunities to help workers achieve goals. Managers shouldn't be in the business of catering to the whims of their immature staffers. Managers should be leading by example.
Second, the author is extremely vague about the companies she worked with and the accomplishments achieved. The author should have provided a list of concrete examples - company names, their problems and the solutions to those problems. Instead the author dances around the specifics and speaks in broad generalizations. It leads me to believe the author was called into failing companies and made recommendations akin to rearranging the deck chairs on a sinking ship.
A company can have the best management in the world. But if nobody is buying its products and services, the company is doomed to failure. Companies need to figure out what customers want, and then give it to them. Unfortunately, too many e-businesses were trying to convince customers to buy products or services they didn't want and didn't need.
Finally, the author's speaking voice reminds me of nails scraping over a chalkboard. Very squeaky and irritating. Her voice lacked any sense of confidence. This lack of confidence was compounded because she failed to list specific businesses that may have benefited from her advice.
Most speakers do a better job in person. I would like to hear the author in a live presentation to see and hear the difference. I recognize that the book was written at the tail end of the dotcom boom and released in the midst of the dotcom bust. In the heyday of the dotcom revolution, what worked early on did not always apply down the road.
I also noticed that Nextera, "the leading global management consultancy firm" that the author use to work for, has sold off all of its operating units, and is looking for a partner to help relieve the net operating loss of $43 million as of December 31, 2003. Nextera's failure raises a series of questions such as:
Did Nextera not listen to it's own consultants?
Did Nextera follow its own consultants' advice and still fail?
Did Nextera's advice to other companies help or hurt those companies?
Then again, perhaps all the good consultants left the company before the financial problems started. I have searched the web some sort of rebuttal or follow up commentary from the author, but have not found anything.
The Bottom Line: I cannot recommend this book. Read Patricia Seybold's newsletters and publications to see what is and is not working in the technology field.
The tools of tomorrow
This book illustrated to me what needs to be done to be a leader in the new economy.Management really needs to read this book and implement some of its philosophies. People in most companies are not always satisfied with what they do and old techniques simply don't always work anymore. Organization managers need to accept this fact and commit themselves in making a change. After reading this book, I can clearly see that the company that I work for has a long way to getting where it needs to go and time is of essence.
Good points gained from a rapid reading
eLeadership is written not for new companies but for established companies whose formerly effective business rules are now causing them problems. Change-management specialist Susan Annunzio provides a five-step process for transforming established cultures and structures to enable flexible and fast-paced leadership. The author starts off with observations about the differences between the Baby Boom generation and the X and Y generations. This does serve to focus executives' attention on improving communication between diverse backgrounds, though it inevitably overgeneralizes.
A core part of her book revolves around the 20/60/20 rule. The top 20 percent of the workforce are the change leaders and high-potential performers at every level of the organization. These are the people who can be spurred to ignite change throughout the enterprise. The bottom 20 percent are the complainers and enemies of change. The middle 60 percent can be influenced by either the top or bottom groups, so Annunzio's strategy is to show executives how to use the top 20 percent to influence the middle group while diminishing the power of the obstructive bottom group. The best chapter is probably chapter 4: "Ask the Unaskable, Speak the Unspeakable". Through real-life examples and clearly articulated strategies, this chapter shows how to break through fear and open communications throughout the enterprise, allowing real change to begin. Most of the value of this book can be extracted by careful attention to this chapter while skimming the rest for the key points. The easy style of writing and the author's restraint in book length makes gleaning the core points rapid and painless. If you are part of a company where everyone feels trapped with old rules but where no one dares break out of the mold, this is a fine book to read and put to use.
