Alchemy for a Leader: Combining Western and Japanese Management Skills to Transform Your Company - Hardcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

About the author Described in a Wall Street Journal profile as "a trailblazer among American executives of companies fathered in Japan," JOHN E. REHFELD is the President and CEO of ETAK, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. He has also held positions as president of Seiko Instruments USA and, prior to that, as vice president and general manager of Toshiba America. He has also served at other leading global companies such as IBM, ITT, International Data, and Arthur D. Little. He lives in San Clemente, California.

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The book that shows you how to blend the world?s best management skills to outperform your competition ? "Alchemy of a Leader provides practical and useful interpretations for many of the most intriguing contrasts between Japanese and Western management styles. Rehfeld has drawn upon his substantial experience as an executive within the U.S. operations of Japanese companies to create a thoughtful, experience-based guide. He correctly asserts that synthesizing powerful, productive practices across management cultures will be an important skill for tomorrow?s winners in the global economy. Alchemy is well worth reading." ?Kenichi Ohmae Managing Director, McKinsey & Company, Inc. author of The Borderless World "Alchemy of a Leader shows us a new and unique global leadership style. John Rehfeld has held senior management positions in both business worlds and he shows us what works and what doesn?t work in the unique marriage of the opposing truths of the Western and Japanese management cultures." ?Spencer Johnson coauthor, The One-Minute Manager "John Rehfeld?s book is a quick and easy read. Based on his personal experience as an executive at Seiko and Toshiba, Rehfeld uses business practices of successful Japanese companies as a mirror to reflect on the problems of Western management." ?Michael Brimm Professor of Organizational Behavior and Management, INSEAD The European Institute of Business Administration "A practical, earthy, no-nonsense approach to business." ?Irvin W. Maloney President and CEO, Dataproducts Corporation "?John Rehfeld clearly articulates why the best way is not OUR way or THEIR way but an intelligent combination of the two." ?Edward M. Esber, Jr. President and CEO Creative Labs, Inc. "As companies continue to globalize, the search for a ?world management style? will continue. What may well emerge is something along the lines suggested in Alchemy of a Leader." ?Dennis Laurie, Ph.D. The Peter F. Drucker Graduate Management Center Claremont Graduate School "A delight to read and filled with just plain good stuff. It is experience and wisdom shared. John Rehfeld provides a fantastic learning experience on how to do things better." ?Walter F. Beran Ernst & Young

Aus dem Klappentext

Alchemy of a Leader A great challenge?and an even greater opportunity?awaits managers. Like the alchemist who transforms something common into something special, today?s business leaders now have the power, says John Rehfeld, to create in our workplaces an entirely new business culture, one that combines and transforms the best of both Western and Japanese management styles. First as vice president and general manager at Toshiba, where he helped build the lap-top business from zero to $350 million in annual sales in less than a decade, and more recently as president of Seiko Instruments USA, John Rehfeld discovered how to improve Western management style by combining it with some of the most successful techniques he learned from the Japanese. In Alchemy of a Leader he shares these insights, presenting literally dozens of specific, effective practices that can be applied right away by managers and entrepreneurs in every industry who are seeking to compete more effectively. The result is a synthesis that?s neither totally Western nor Japanese but uniquely suited for today?s global business world. In Alchemy of a Leader you will learn:

• How to utilize kaizen (the quest for continuous improvement)?one of the most powerful management tools you will ever encounter?and how to adapt it to Western companies
• Why you should abandon your annual cycle and adopt a six-month planning and budgeting cycle
• How to use aggressive patience to move the decision process along
• Permanent entrepreneurialism: How to make the "start-up mode" permanent by continually refining and communicating the mission of your organization to employees, customers, and the community
• How to use strategic silence as a way to enhance communication
• ? and much more

One of the first books written by a Western manager with extensive experience as a senior executive in a Japanese company, Alchemy of a Leader provides a unique cross-cultural learning experience. Like other people, managers in today?s business world are products of their own culture. There?s nothing wrong with that, but in today?s globally competitive and interdependent business world, culture-bound management skills are no longer good enough. Today?s manager needs to be an alchemist, combining business methods and knowledge from many cultures and transforming them into new skills needed to compete in the new business world. Alchemy of a Leader shows how to do this in a pragmatic and entertaining style.