This volume provides a rigorous examination of 25 contemporary business executives who have provided great leadership over an extended period of time. Lasting Leadership is the result of a collaboration of Nightly Business Report and Knowledge@Wharton. Credit Mukul Pandya and Robbie Shell with organization and presentation of material in ten chapters which range from “Best of the Best: Inside Andy Grove’s Leadership at Intel” to “Conclusion,” the final chapter which–all by itself–is worth far more than the cost of the book. Many of the “usual suspects” (e.g. Warren Buffet, Andy Grove, Steve Jobs, Herb Kelleher, Ted Turner, Sam Walton, and Jack Welch) but also others who may be less familiar as business leaders–at least to some readers–but are nonetheless eminently worthy of inclusion (e.g. John Bogle, James Burke, William George, and Muhammad Yunus). According to Pandya and Shell, those who provide “lasting leadership” throughout any organization create a strong corporate culture, emphasize and exemplify “truth telling,” identify and then develop under-served markets, recognize “winners” as well as market and even industry trends before their competitors did, use pricing strategies to establish and then sustain competitive advantage, build and then manage a dominant brand (if not several), are fast learners, and effectively manage risk. Granted, some of the 25 had business careers in which all eight attributes were not required, Peter Drucker, for example. However, all of them affirmed their importance to sustainable excellence. For example:
They also suggest a specific “Leadership Lesson” (or lessons) for each of the 25. For example:
As Pandya and Shell suggest when concluding their book, “In the end, leadership boils down to a personal approach to the business of managing.” Leaders are able to communicate their ideas, values, and beliefs to employees and the business community at large. They encourage innovation at times when none seems necessary. They work in chaotic environments and bring discipline and a vision of the future to their stakeholders. Yunus envisions a world that will be free of poverty, one in which the market for his bank will no longer exist. This would be a world, Yunus says, “We could all be proud to be in.”
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