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| The best "visions," writes Kotter, are those that focus on customer needs and how employees can deliver agreed objectives. |
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John Kotter is an excellent, thought provoking, engaging speaker. He can easily command a room's attention whether speaking before Fortune 500 executives, his students at the Harvard Business School or a crowd of impatient, ready-to-pounce entrepreneurs. Fortunately, he is an equally gifted writer presenting his observations in a compelling way. He gets to the point quickly, explains it and builds further.
Kotter's central thesis, repeated in other works, is that most companies are over managed and under led. The companies that lack true, effective leadership will stagnate, become bloated from layers of unproductive management and eventually suffer the consequences. Take Command business builders should take note this can happen in any size organization, however smaller, growing businesses may not have a cushion of cash to correct poor leadership problems and mistakes.
Take note, Kotter is wary of vision setting based on innovation, novelty or media appeal. The best "visions" are those that focus on customer needs and how employees can deliver agreed objectives.
A business founder is, by default, the leader. Therefore, Take Command entrepreneurs have to set over-riding direction. Without effective leadership, an emerging company can become as Kotter says "a black hole capable of absorbing an infinite amount of time and energy." He also notes that setting direction is not the same as strategic planning. Great leaders have to gather large amounts of industry data and look for patterns relevant to the company. Strategies and core objectives emerge providing the basis for managers to follow through.
The best part of the book is the recognition that companies must have more than one leader. Actually, a company seeking growth must develop leaders at the helm of each corporate division where change is required. Kotter notes that after years of studying hundreds of companies, most fail to achieve their potential, most fail to follow the direction set out by the leadership, and most fail to implement change. Read What Leaders Really Do if for no other reason than his assessment of the top 8 reasons why companies fail to implement change.
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