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Guts!: Companies that Blow the Doors off Business-as-usual (Paperback)
by Kevin Freiberg
| Category:
Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Business model, Critical thinking, Management |
| Market price: ¥ 160.00
MSL price:
¥ 138.00
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
Fifteen companies, hundreds of examples, and loads of specific steps-all incorporated in an entertaining and inspiring story depicting the power of gutsy leadership. |
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Author: Kevin Freiberg
Publisher: Doubleday Business
Pub. in: September, 2005
ISBN: 0767915003
Pages: 288
Measurements: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA01502
Other information: ISBN-13: 978-0767915007
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- Awards & Credential -
The authors also wrote the National Bestseller (in the US) , Nuts! |
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- MSL Picks -
The Friebergs have met their own mission "to tell stories that improve organizations and inspire people to live bigger, better, more fulfilling lives." Backed by years of research and interviews, Guts! gives voice to a disparate group of business leaders who show us that vision, passion, living one's values, and treating people with openness and trust are the keys to greatness.
Like Nuts!, Guts! is a different kind of business book. Most are either dry (and boring) or simple "enter-trainment" (fluff without substance). This book is a delight to read. It's written using the same principles it espouses for business: it's fun, different, creative and gutsy. And filled to the brim with practical advice that can and should be used by anyone - business owners and men and women at all levels in their organizations. The Gut Checks are especially good as both summaries of the information and guidelines for the reader's own actions.
The principles in Guts! aren't just great business ideas; they make sense for any organization. Imagine these principles in use in schools, government institutions, in fact in human relationships in any setting. The book inspired me. I read it and found myself dreaming of great new ideas for use with my business clients, my university students, and my family. I am giving copies to everyone.
(From quoting a guest reviewer)
Target readers:
Business biography and corporate history readers, entrepreneurs, and MBAs.
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KEVIN and JACKIE FREIBERG, the authors of the bestselling Nuts!, are professional speakers and consultants on leadership development, culture innovation, and building lifetime customer loyalty. Kevin is the president and Jackie is a co-owner and managing partner of the San Diego Consulting Group, Inc. They speak at more than one hundred events a year, and consult top companies such as Ernst & Young, FedEx, General Electric, and Federated Department Stores. They live in San Diego, California, USA.
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From Publisher
Kevin and Jackie Freiberg’s previous book, Nuts!: Southwest Airline’s Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success, described the unconventional leadership that made Southwest an airline industry dynamo. In GUTS!, the Freibergs look at twenty-five gutsy and extraordinarily successful businesses and introduce the chief executives who are creating a new corporate ethos that blows the doors off business-as-usual.
Drawing on five years of research, the Freibergs provide a behind-the-scenes look at these intensely focused, passionate, and unconventional leaders and their companies. Among them:
- James Blanchard, CEO of Synovus Financial, a financial services giant with more than 16 billion dollars in assets
- Roy Spence, Jr., President of GSD&M Advertising, which AdWeek magazine named Southwest Agency of the Year seven times
- James Goodnight of SAS, a world leader in intelligence software
Although the leaders in the book represent a wide-range of industries, they share a common vision: They see business as a heroic cause and understand that good leadership isn’t a matter of position, but of influence. They reject hierarchical rules, rituals, and expectations, and have replaced in-the-box management with a culture based on passion and innovation. They regard their employees not as “human resources,” but as individuals with unique gifts and talents. And make everyone in the company responsible for the company’s brand and culture.
An exciting follow-up to Nuts!, which has sold nearly 500,000 copies in hardcover and paperback, GUTS! proves that it is possible to have fun, live your values, and still make money.
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INTRODUCTION
Back in 1996, we published our own up-close account of one of America’s great businesses. We called our book Nuts! Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success. Much as we admired that legendary airline and its irreverent culture, we were flabbergasted by the book’s success. As of 2003, Nuts! has sold more than 500,000 copies, and it continues to sell thousands more each month.
Why such interest? Well, it seems that people all over the world crave stories about extraordinary achievers, and Southwest fits the bill. Even in the aftermath of 9/11, with other airlines hammered by financial turbulence, Southwest Airlines soars on wings of success.
Instead of laying off people and cutting flights, it has hired 6,500 new employees and added new routes. Instead of alienating customers, it has generated such loyalty that its passengers often donate unused portions of their tickets to the company and even send in cash. Post-9/11, Southwest is the only major carrier to make a profit every quarter.
Inspired by the Southwest story and its impact on all those who hear it, we set out to find other Southwest-like companies with unusual strategies for attracting talent and ensuring success. Nuts! became our passport to amazing organizations, not only those on Fortune magazine’s various “best” lists, but also companies that may not be on any list at all yet are known as the best within the communities they serve. We discovered organizations full of great people who are turned on, passionate, in love with what they do, and eager to use their skills, gifts, and talents to the fullest. We were determined to pinpoint just why such companies are so unusual.
We confirmed that Southwest Airlines is still outrageously unique and still ingeniously nuts even after all these years, but we discovered something else as well. Many other enterprises, all nutty in their own ways, share an uncommon characteristic with Southwest. They’re all run by what we call “gutsy leaders,” meaning passionate men and women who don’t hesitate to slaughter the sacred cows of convention. We discovered such organizations in Welds ranging from software to advertising to the U.S. military. All are led by people with the courage to discard traditional management rules, rituals, and expectations. They are gutsy enough to forge new paths, consistently serve their people first, and pursue a brilliant new way of working, one that we are convinced must dominate business in the decades to come.
Our hope is that this book will help you become more gutsy, too–more engaged, more considerate, more courageous, and most important, a better leader. You may just blow the doors off business as usual in your corner of the world. All it takes is guts.
CHAPTER 1
Gutsy leaders reject the mercenary notion that their employees are nothing more than human resources, akin to capital, fuel, oil, or machine tools, that can be allocated or discarded at will. Instead, they see their people as individuals with unique gifts and talents, eager to realize their potential. Gutsy leaders aren’t afraid of being criticized or even mocked by their competitors. With bravery and vision, they have dismantled fear-based management and replaced it with heart, soul, discipline, loyalty, humor - and long-term record profits. By being gutsy leaders, they have led their enterprises to new levels of performance. Exactly why and how gutsy leadership produces such impressive results is the focus of this book. These leaders teach us that it is absolutely possible to work hard, have fun, love what you do, live your values, and still make lots of money. After six years of observing these leaders in action, we want to spread the word.
Jim Blanchard Has the Guts to Work for His People.
Employees work for their boss, right? Not if you work at Synovus Financial. James H. Blanchard, chairman and chief executive officer of Synovus, told us repeatedly that he works for his company’s people. His mission is to provide whatever they need to thrive, including inspiration, training, resources, and peace of mind. Blanchard’s offbeat style is called “servant leadership,” a radical concept sweeping many successful businesses today. One of Blanchard’s rituals is a weekly meeting with a rock-the-boat agenda. First question at the meeting: “What are the 25 dumbest things we do around here?”
Servant leadership has delivered all sorts of benefits to Synovus’s employees - and to its bottom line. For a hint on the employee side, consider this: The corporation, which employs 10,400 people, consistently ranks high on Fortune magazine’s list of “the 100 best companies to work for in America.” In 1999, it was number one. As for the bottom line, hear this: As of 2002, it had a market capitalization of $71 billion, assets of more than $21 billion, revenues of more than $1.7 billion, and profits of $365 million. Challenged, dedicated employees and rock-solid financial - see a connection there?
Synovus is a financial-services giant based in Columbus, Georgia. It started more than a century ago as a local bank, Columbus Bank & Trust Company (CB&T), and now encompasses 40 community banks in the Southeast, along with Synovus Insurance, Synovus Mortgage, Synovus Securities, and Synovus Trust.
In addition, Synovus owns more than 80 percent of TSYS, one of the largest payment-processing operations in the United States. CB&T was a pioneer in the credit-card business, in 1959 becoming one of the first banks in the world to issue the cards. Fourteen years later, the company developed a breakthrough software product that permitted electronic access to bank-account data, and began processing other banks’ paper, particularly their booming number of credit-card accounts. In addition to its card-processing business, TSYS provides computer-equipment sales and leasing, direct-mail and telemarketing services, and commercial bank-card printing.
As big as it is, Synovus is all about serving small towns, where its community banks offers retail banking, mortgage banking, and credit cards and play a major role in local affairs. It’s a name to do business with in more than 250 locations, and the number is growing. Though most of its banking revenue comes from Georgia, the company has been crossing state lines over the last decade, with bank acquisitions in Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Synovus has also increased its stake in Internet and investment banking, while gradually diversifying its portfolio, buying auto- and life-insurance companies and Wallace & De Mayo, a leader in the debt-collection field.
In case you were wondering, the name change from Columbus Bank & Trust Company to Synovus came in 1989. “Synovus” is a coined combination of the words “synergy” and “novus,” which the company defines as “of superior quality and different from the others listed in the same category.”... |
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Don Hall, Jr., President and CEO, Hallmark Cards, Inc. , USA
<2008-10-17 00:00>
Should be on the top of the reading stack of anyone interested in learning from the discoveries of executives who are explorers, innovators, motivators and charismatic, gutsy leaders. |
Larry Kurzweil, President and Chief Operating Officer, Universal Studios Hollywood, USA
<2008-10-17 00:00>
A must read for executives in search of their leadership "soul"... Defines the spirit, courage and passion necessary in providing leadership in today's challenging business environment. |
Roger J. Dow, SVP, Global and Field Sales, Marriott International, USA
<2008-10-17 00:00>
Will provide you with real business ideas and inspiration straight from some of the world's gutsiest and gifted leaders in business today.
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