Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Execution  By  cover art

Execution

By: Larry Bossidy,Ram Charan
Narrated by: John Bedford Lloyd
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $15.75

Buy for $15.75

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

The audio that shows how to get the job done and deliver results...whether you're running an entire company or in your first management job.

Larry Bossidy is one of the world's most acclaimed CEOs, with a track record for delivering results. Ram Charan is a legendary adviser to senior executives and boards of directors, a man with unparalleled insight into why some companies are successful and others are not. Together they've pooled their knowledge and experience into one guide on how to close the gap between results promised and results delivered.

The discipline of execution means understanding how to link together people, strategy, and operations, the three core processes of every business. Leading these processes is the real job of running a business, not formulating a "vision" and leaving the work of carrying it out to others. Bossidy and Charan show the importance of being deeply and passionately engaged in an organization and why robust dialogues about people, strategy, and operations result in a business based on intellectual honesty and realism.

The leader's most important job - selecting and appraising people - is one that should never be delegated. As a CEO, Larry Bossidy personally makes the calls to check references for key hires. Why? With the right people in the right jobs, there's a leadership gene pool that conceives and selects strategies that can be executed. People then work together to create a strategy building block by building block, a strategy in sync with the realities of the marketplace, the economy, and the competition. Once the right people and strategy are in place, they are then linked to an operating process that results in the implementation of specific programs and actions and that assigns accountability. This kind of effective operating process goes way beyond the typical budget exercise that looks into a rearview mirror to set its goals. It puts reality behind the numbers and is where the rubber meets the road.

©2002 Crown Business
(P)2002 Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"A terrific book that will make smart managers rethink how business gets done within every level of their organization or department." (Publishers Weekly)
"A great practitioner and an insightful theorist join forces to write a compelling business story of 'how to get it done.'" (Jack Welch)

What listeners say about Execution

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    641
  • 4 Stars
    475
  • 3 Stars
    331
  • 2 Stars
    112
  • 1 Stars
    71
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    397
  • 4 Stars
    226
  • 3 Stars
    166
  • 2 Stars
    56
  • 1 Stars
    38
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    388
  • 4 Stars
    254
  • 3 Stars
    139
  • 2 Stars
    61
  • 1 Stars
    36

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Disappointed

I was very disappointed in this book, given the hype. I am an owner of a small business. Maybe this book would be found useful to CEO's and CEO wantabees of large corporations - like Honeywell and IBM - but very little was relevant to me. Also the concept is not earthshaking at my level ($2 Million annual sales) - we have to execute or we are out of business.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

65 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

the triumph of bad design over sound contact

It's sad when a child capable of getting an A turns in a C+. That's what Random House Audible has done with the audiobook version of Bossidy and Charan's EXECUTION. This is the triumph of bad design over sound content.

There is no doubt about Larry Bossidy's ability to get things done and to create an environment where others do the same. Based on his record, the authors have developed a compelling vision of the CEO as the man or woman who stays close enough to the details of his operation and the people who make it or break it to push through to success. Here are techniques and attitudes that deserve repeated listening.

Sadly, too few will have the perseverence to pick up the gold nuggets that Bossidy and Charan have scattered across the terrain, for Random House failed them miserably in the design. First, none of the three voices makes for pleasant listening. Bossidy's is harsh, though the best of the three. Through no fault of his own, Charan's South Asian accent will prove hard sledding for many North American listeners. John Bedford Loyd fine stage voice is stentorian in this format, and he comes across as condescending and sarcastic. Worse, the three voices seem mixed and, alas, unmatched as though thrown together at random rather alternated at seams in the book's development.

The audio version is not organized in a way that helps the listener grasp the book's rhythm. The musicial prelude and postlude is great material, but has not been used as it should have been to mark chapter divisions. A brief paragraph introducing a new chapter or section would have segmented the book and made it much more accessible to the harried listener, to whom the whole thing comes across as a slightly bizarre monologue of three voices.

This is just good pedagogy. Audiobook producers everywhere consider it their bread and butter. What was going on at Random House Audible?

Great material. 'Shame about the presentation.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

39 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Skip this one

I found the title useful. The rest of the book was not.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

26 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

What did he say?

The principles in this book are good, but the book is written to people in a 1000+ employee organization. By far the worst reading of any book I've listened to so far. It has multiple narrators, one is difficult to understand because of an accent, the other has a harsh voice. It is very difficult to tune your ear to narrators that are so unique and change so often. I would NOT recomend the audio version of this book. The written version may be better due to the ability to better identify the core principles and NOT have the authors' narrating.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

What Are These Guys Talking About?

I found this book to be excellent. No, I am not a CEO of a fortune 500 company, but a pastor of a small rural church. We are not doing billion dollar deals, but people are people and the principles of execution found in this book work no matter what size your company or non-profit organization is. Sure, there were some chapters I suffered through; all the talk about Six Sigma was Greek to me; yet, I found the book so intriguing that I listened to it three times. If you are a professional who is struggling in getting things done, this is well worth the read. Take a chance, you might be pleasantly surprised.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Great book for all.

Being new to the management ranks I found this book to provide guidelines that all managers should use. When talking with seasoned managers their comments were "this is all common sense." Yes, it is common sense, but it is about using your common sense to get projects done. That is what this book points out to the listener.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Solid Principles for any size Company

The key to this title is to focus on the principles being presented and visualize how they apply to your type and size of organization. Yes, the narration ranges from abysmal to entertaining at times but if you think about your business and listen for parallels, you?ll see the value.

Basically, there are 3 main pillars to execution; the Strategic, People, and Operational plans. These are components of every business regardless of market, size, etc. What the authors are stressing is that all 3 plans must be based on reality and be closely linked/aligned with the other two. Example: how does our People plan (recruiting, training, advancement, etc) support our Strategic and Operational plans? It doesn?t matter how well developed any/all of these plans are if they don?t accurately reflect reality AND support the other two. Leaders have to be deeply involved in all 3 areas to make this happen. They also stress that an ?Execution? based culture is driven from the top down through consistency, accountability, and a direct link with compensation and rewards. There are lots of other good points and examples but you?ll have to do your own interpretation of what an execution culture would look like for your organization. Overall, it?s a pretty long listen but has a kind of a ?storyteller? teller feel that?ll make the time pass easily. Of course, you may have to listen carefully and rewind a few times along the way ;)

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Absolutely Horrendous

Terrible readers, with thick Indian accent. Frustratingly tedious book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Unspeakably Bad

No original or interesting ideas, as well as poor reading by the authors, make this one of the worst audiobooks I've ever bought. Really, really bad. Don't get this book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

follow on

For any business this is a good review for some and a beginning for others. I have seen some of this book in action and the system works. I would recommend this book for anyone looking for an overview on trying to get accountability and an understanding of how people should work.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful