The Little Book of Business Wisdom: Rules of Success from More Than 50 Business Legends - Hardcover

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PETER KRASS, a freelance writer and editor who lives in New Hampshire, is the editor of all six volumes in Wiley's Book of Wisdom Series. Other titles in the series include The Book of Business Wisdom: Classic Writings by the Legends of Commerce and Industry; The Book of Leadership Wisdom: Classic Writings by Legendary Business Leaders; The Book of Investing Wisdom: Classic Writings by Great Stock-Pickers and Legends of Wall Street; The Book of Entrepreneurs' Wisdom: Classic Writings by Legendary Entrepreneurs; and The Book of Management Wisdom: Classic Writings by Legendary Managers. He has contributed extensively to Investor's Business Daily.

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Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, David Ogilvy, Michael Dell-imagine that the world's greatest business leaders, past and present, were there to coach you whenever you faced a crucial business decision. They are, in The Little Book of Business Wisdom. In this unique resource, the most brilliant and successful managers, leaders, investors, entrepreneurs, and CEOs of all time offer tips, advice, and rules on how to get ahead and how to succeed in business.

The Little Book of Business Wisdom brings together the speeches and writings of more than fifty business giants and presents their ideas and management secrets in their own words. These world-class leaders offer a range of practical advice on management and leadership, personal advancement, and accomplishing business objectives. You'll hear from Bill Gates on the "New Rules for the Age of Information," Thomas J. Watson Jr. on creating a corporate culture, and Lillian Vernon on how to succeed as an entrepreneur. P. T. Barnum shares his "Rules for Success in Business"; Warren Buffett imparts the investment principles that made him a multibillionaire; and Charles Wang lays out "Seven Steps to Being the Best." These are just a few of the major figures who reveal fascinating details of their characters and personalities as they educate, enlighten, and entertain you with their often surprising views on the most compelling issues that arise in every corner of the business world.

For easy reference, these essays and speeches are organized into eight categories, each of which highlights a certain aspect of business life. These include "Management Principles," "Leadership Secrets," "Qualities for Personal Advancement," "Wall Street Wizards," "Gunslingers and the Entrepreneurial Drive," "The Gurus," "Builders of Culture," and "Maxims for Life." Each essay is preceded by a brief introduction that places it in historical perspective and offers interesting and insightful information about the author's life and career. Highlighted passages call your attention to each author's most pithy, profound, or quirky ideas.

Offering timeless wisdom and practical advice from the most successful business managers ever, The Little Book of Business Wisdom is must reading for managers at every level, from the junior executive cubicle to the presidential suite.

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Part I: Management Principles

Born and raised in a working-class neighborhood of Allentown, Pennsylvania, Lee Iacocca never left his tough upbringing behind-his street smarts aided his rise to the top of Ford and Chrysler. He first stepped into the limelight in April o f 1964 when he made the covers o f both Time and Newsweek for his introduction of the immensely popular Ford Mustang. His celebrity status carried him to the presidency of the company in 1970, but then a fickle Henry Ford II, grandson of the legend, fired him in 1978. Iacocca, who developed a rigid management philosophy to survive good times and bad, was immediately tapped to head a virtually bankrupt Chrysler. The company's woes were ultimately turned around by the antithesis o f the Mustang-the groundbreaking, hugely popular minivan.

My Little Commandments of Management

1. Hire the Best. Nothing will make a CEO look better than a talented management team. When I'm asked about how I turned Chrysler around, I always make the point that I didn't do it by myself- a lot of smart, dedicated people did it. Actually, since according to Time magazine my ego is as big as all outdoors, I should probably take credit for having done all of it by myself.

2. Get Your Priorities Straight and Keep a Hot List of What You're Trying to Do. No matter how complex a business is, and ours is pretty complex, I believe you should be able to write down your top priorities on a single sheet of 8'/z-by-I 1 paper. It's always amazed me to see how many companies, even small ones, devote hours of effort and literally tons of paper to detailed plans of what they want the company to do over time. There are a lot of different names for themLong Range Strategic Plans, Ten-Year Business Plans, FiveYear Profit Plans, and so forth. I guess if you've got a big staff and lots of extra time on your hands, it's not going to hurt you. But I've never seen a long-range business plan that couldn't be boiled down to a single page of priorities.

3. Say It in English and Keep It Short. Everyone has seen examples of bureaucratic double talk in written communication. You know what I mean-along-winded document that takes the reader through two dozen options and alternatives and ends up with any one of six or seven different conclusions. Most of us associate this phenomenon with government bureaucracies. But take my word for it, a lot of double talk exists in corporations as well.

There are three factors behind the mumbo jumbo. First, the almost uncontrollable desire to tell all you know on any given subject. Second, the love of adjectives and adverbs over nouns and verbs. And third, the desire to impress your audience with your depth of vocabulary. I once read a fifteen-page paper that was tough to understand. I called in the author and asked him to explain what was in the tome lie had written. He did it in two minutes flat. He identified what we were doing wrong, what we could do to fix it, and what he recommended. When he finished I asked him why he didn't write that in the paper the way he'd just said it to me. He didn't have an answer. All he said was: "I was taught that way." And he was an M.B.A. to boot.

Write the way you talk. If you don't talk that way, don't write that way.

4. Never Forget the Line Makes the Money. The political maneuvering between staff and line organizations is a wasteful and costly exercise. Every chief executive has got to come to grips with how he parcels out authority and accountability between these two groups. So I have a single axiom that helps me remember how to manage these often conflicting organizations. When the chips are down, it's the line organization that makes the money; the staff doesn't make a dime. I view the role of the staff as primarily to help the CEO do his job and to act as a catalyst to the line. If you really want to get a line group motivated, just float up a "staff idea" with the right amount of "Why didn't you guys think of that?"

5. Lay Out the Size of the Playing Field. I'm a strong believer in letting line operations "operate"-delegating to good people and then letting them do the job. But, you might ask, if the key managers are running the business, what's left for the CEO to do?...