Leadership Power Plays: How the World's Most Powerful Executives Reach the Top of Their Game

This is one of three anthologies of articles which first appeared in BusinessWeek magazine, the others focusing on strategy and marketing. The appeal and value of the material will obviously be determined by each reader's own interests. The same is true of other series, notably "Harvard Business Review on...." I really appreciate having these collections of articles because (a) I may not have read all of them the first time around, (b) assembled as they are in a single volume, I can easily compare and contrast the given executives and/or companies and/or issues, and (c) having the volume near at hand means I can easily locate one or more articles whenever I need to review specific material. I also appreciate the fact that it is "totable." Stephen J. Adler wrote the Introduction to each of the three volumes. In Leadership Power Plays, the focus is on "how the world's most powerful executives reach the top of their game." A separate chapter is devoted to each of 14 exceptional leaders who include the usual suspects who include Jack Welch (GE), Steve Ballmer (Microsoft), Carlos Ghosn (Renault and Nissan), and Dick Parsons (AOL Time Warner) but of greater interest to me are several lesser-known but nonetheless exceptional leaders such as George David (UTC), Jamie Houghton (Corning), Howard Solomon (Forest laboratories), and Fujio Mitarai (Canon). Then in a "Trends" section which follows the final chapter, readers are provided with an additional article written by John A. Byrne with Lindsey Gerdes, "The Man Who Invented Management: Why Peter Drucker's Ideas Still Matter." For example, here is the "Monday Morning" material at the conclusion of Brian Bremner's article about Carlos Ghosn and his leadership of Nissan: Problem: Turning around a company in the face of internal resistance, dwindling revenues, and a struggling brand The Solution: Sustain lightning-quick execution without sacrificing product quality. Set ambitious goals and empower your team with the tools and the space to achieve them. Motivate your troops with the levers that matter to them. Sustaining the Win: Collaborate with corporate parents, even when personal styles clash. The emphasis in this and in each of the other chapters is on "what" to do and then on "how" it was done. Of course, there are several excellent books that devote all of their attention to Carlos Ghosn and can therefore provide more information about him than Bremner can in a magazine article. Those who desire more information about any of the 14 executives are urged to consult other sources. For most of us, however, this anthology's greatest value will be derived from lessons to be learned from a number of quite different leaders who were at "the top of their game" when responding to major challenges.