Going the Distance: Why Some Companies Dominate and Others Fail

Kevin Kennedy and Mary Moore have put together a book that is interesting, thought provoking, and extremely knowledgable and comprehensive. Although the book uses high-tech examples, Kennedy successfuly makes a correlation to other industries helping the reader understand the in-depth information. Furthermore, there is a constant focus asking the reader to question their own business adventures. This allows them to gain insight and help improve their own businesses. The knowledge that Kennedy and Moore share is backed by years of experience and success in the business world and should be looked at carefully because it is very valuable.

"Going the Distance, Why Some Companies Dominate and Others Fail" is an extremely valuable tool, whether you're working for a start up or Fortune 500 company. This books answers the question of why companies fail, and more importantly, how to stop them from failing. The ideas are clearly presented and easily digestable. I wish I had read this book earlier in my career.

Kevin knows how to run the largest businesses in the world efficiently with his no BS approach. The interesting thing about this book is that it shows not only how companies can succeed from the startup phase to being the most valuable corporation in the world (his experience from working with Cisco as a handful of employees to the day it topped both GE and Microsoft for #1 is unique), but also how to view and manage risk in several forms. These risks include everything from external threats such as technological disruption in the industry to internal threats such as a culture where employees and managers are complacent with what they have already accomplished and who no longer add value to the corporation. There is a reason this book is quickly becoming a favorite among business leaders trying to understand how their dominate positions in their traditional industries are changing and how their organizations can expel factions and processes that are serving solely as a resource drain, not as a value add to the business. Since the dot com collapse, it has been shown that the only companies who survive are those who are willing to take drastic internal streamlining and cultural approaches to take advantage of existing and future opportunities. This book serves as a resource on how to change an organization so that it is able to recognize new opportunities, and at the same time recognize internal inefficiencies that need to be purged in an organization before they infect the population and kill a once dominate company.

Going the Distance is a practical guide to facing complex business challenges in today's environment. The book uses easy to understand examples and graphic images to illustrate principles discussed in the book. The eight predictable challenges outlined along with the diagnosis tools provide an excellent sanity check. Chapters 10 & 11, which center on corporate governance and board oversight are must reads for any CEO. I'm recommending it to all of my clients.

This book outlines clear and consise ways to assess the health of any corporate organization and in economic times likes these catching problems early is imperative. This book is helpful to any executive, or aspiring executive. I highly recommend this book.