Copyright: 2009
Publisher: McGraw Hill
ISBN: 978-0-07-162616-3
Ram Charan is an interesting character that intrigues me with his view of strategic management. I will confess that much of what I read in this realm is way above my head in terms of usefulness. I simply read his work as sort of a guilty pleasure because strategic management is fascinating to me. In Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty, Ram talks specifically about what companies need to do in light of the recent turmoil in the world's capital markets. The book dates itself but is a great primer on how to manage in crisis mode.
Leaderhip Traits
Ram lists six essential leadership traits for managing in times of crisis. I found these interesting because they aren't necessarily what you would list as essential traits in general, although they aren't a bad starting point.
- Honesty and Credibility
- Ability to Inspire
- Real time connection with reality
- Realism tempered with optimism
- Managing with intensity
- Boldness in building for the future
Numbers 1 and 2 seem pretty standard fare for leadership traits as does number 6. In the book Ram points out some specific details about these traits that explain why he finds them essential for this time of turmoil and change.
Random Thoughts
- In normal times, sales focuses on helping customers cut costs. In these times, sales needs to focus on helping customers gain market share, improve margins and help with general customer satisfaction
- It doesn't cost anything to brain storm with people in side your company
- Operational goals in a downturn
- Lower operating costs
- Efficient use of resources
- Lower working capital
- Conservation of cash
Conclusion
As I mentioned, my primary motivation for reading this book was pleasure. I wrote down a few nuggets that I gained as I read but many of the notes I took were actually for emails that I wanted to share with my co-workers immediately. That is a sign of an immensely practical book which exactly describes this book.