Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood. Why the Bottom Line Isn't!: How to Build Value Through People and Organization. New York. John Wiley and Sons, 2003, 304 pages
✍ Scribed by Tom Fahy
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2004
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 42 KB
- Volume
- 43
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0090-4848
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
The major premise of this book is that leadership really does matter in business. In fact, the authors contend that effective leadership contributes directly and substantially to the bottom line. The authors make a strong case for the notion that leaders at all levels, and from all functional perspectives, can have a powerful, enduring impact on the perceived market value of their organizations.
Ulrich and Smallwood note that many organizations consistently create greater market value than their competitors and maintain this value even in sluggish or bear markets. Further, even when they lose value in tougher times, these organizations tend to lose less value than their competitors. The authors argue that these firms are able to do so due to the effective management of certain "intangible" elements by their leaders. To bolster their arguments, the authors offer a four-level "architecture for intangibles," which can be used as a diagnostic framework for assessing the contribution of leadership practices to an organization's bottom line, and also as a framework for designing effective actions to build the intangible value of the firm. Each of the four levels in the aforementioned architecture is contingent upon success in, or the mastery of, the level below.