Execution [antikvár]

ex-e-cu-tion (ek si kyoo shun), n. 1. The missing link. 2. The main reason companies fall short of their promises. 3. The gap between what a company's leaders want to achieve and the ability of their organizations to deliver it. 4. Not simply tactics, but a system of getting things done through questioning, analysis, and follow-through. A discipline for meshing strategy with reality, aligning people with goals, and achieving the results promised. 5. A central part of a company's strategy and its goals and the major job of any leader in business. 6. A discipline requiring a comprehensive understanding of a business, its people, and its environment. 7. The way to link the three core processes of any business— the people process, the strategy, and the operating plan—together to get things done on time. 8. A method for success discovered and revealed in 2002 by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan in Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done. INTRODUCTION LARRY*: My job at Honeywell International these days is to restore the discipline of execution to a company that had lost it. Many people regard execution as detail work that's beneath the dignity of a business leader. That's wrong. To the contrary, it's a leader's most important job. This particular journey began in 1991 when, after a thirty-four-year career at General Electric, I was named AlliedSignal's CEO. I was accustomed to an organization that got things done, where people met their commitments. I took execution for granted. So it was a shock when I got to AlliedSignal. Sure, I knew it would be in rough shape, but I wasn't prepared for the malaise I found. The company had lots of hardworking, bright peo- *Throughout this book, coauthors Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan will provide insights written in the first person. Larry talks primarily from his experience as a senior executive at General Electric, AlliedSignal, and Honeywell International. Ram speaks from his wide-ranging thirty-five years of experience as an adviser to business leaders and boards of directors around the world.