Becoming a Top Manager
"In Becoming a Top Manager, Kaiser, Pich and Schecter skilfully and cleverly address the three vital pieces of this transformation: managing the business, managing others, and, most important of all, managing oneself. You will not read a book that addresses the transition to general management in a more astute and engaging way." —Ricardo Ferrero, Global Marketing Lead, Baker Hughes
Made in America
The book is a classic rags-to-riches tale emphasizing grit, risk-taking, believing in your vision even when others doubt it, and long-term compounding. As Sam Walton tells the story of Walmart, it is clear that success didn't come overnight—Walmart was a slow build over decades, starting small and scaling through discipline, trusting in people, and a focus on customers, and an appreciation for the critical role of each and every employee.
The Toyota Way
“All we are doing is looking at the time line from the moment the customer gives us an order to the point when we collect the cash. And we are reducing that time line by removing the non-value-added wastes. (Ohno, 1988)”
The Blue Line Imperative
"Every living system knows, deep in its cells, that energy is scarce and must earn its keep relative to every other possible use. When a company—or a body—allocates resources below this natural hurdle, trust evaporates, engagement dies, and the system begins its quiet slide toward extinction. Fairness isn't sentiment; it's survival math. Violate the blue line, and nature votes you off the island."
Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?
Early on I discovered, to my dismay, that the open exchange of ideas - in a sense, the free-for-all of problem solving in the absence of hierarchy that I had learned at McKinsey - doesn't work so easily in a large, hierarchical-based organization.
Thus began a lifelong process of trying to build organizations that allow for hierarchy but at the same time bring people together for problem solving, regardless of where they are positioned within the organization.
Antifragile
Some things benefit from shocks; they thrive and grow when exposed to volatility, randomness, disorder, and stressors and love adventure, risk, and uncertainty. Yet, in spite of the ubiquity of the phenomenon, there is no word for the exact opposite of fragile. Let us call it antifragile.