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Grossman and Jennings examine 15 industrial companies and find unique characteristics in their values and management styles-characteristics that other companies would be wise to understand and emulate. Each of the example companies knew they were in business to make money. Dynamic, questioning, and actively in step with society's changes, they constantly asked themselves one critical question: What business are we in? The answers they found, the principles of management they discovered and practiced, and the values they recognized and adopted all led to prosperity.
In the current age of gurus, buzzwords, and fad theories, these companies' stories reaffirm that there are notions, principles, and management techniques that have proved themselves over time and can lead an organization toward a profitable, enduring corporate life. The authors offer frank insights into how businesses survive and grow. Anecdotal but based on solid research, with clarifying diagrams and other illustrations, this book is a major contribution to our understanding of the past, and a view of what is best in the future of today's organizations.
List of contents
Preface
Who They Are and What They DidIntroduction
Who Are These Companies?
Why Study Fifteen Companies and 1,526 Years of Dividends?
The Stories of Past Survivors
The Stories of Present Survivors
How They Did What They DidThe Five Keys to the Long-Term: Purpose; Performance; Perfection; Priorities; and People
Key One: Purpose--Why Are We in Business?
Key Two: Performance--What Business Are We In?
Key Three: Perfection--Will We Ever Be Satisfied?
Key Four: Priorities: What Will We Do and What Won't We Do for Results?
Key Five: People--Who Matters? Employees Do.
How Do You Do It?Getting to 100 Years: Creating a Climate for the Long-Term
The Steps to the Long Term
Index
About the author
LOUIS GROSSMAN is Professor Emeritus at Arizona State University.
MARIANNE M. JENNINGS is Professor of Legal and Ethical Studies, College of Business, Arizona State University. Author of award winning textbooks, monographs, and journal articles, her weekly columns are syndicated nationwide, and her other writings have appeared in the
Wall Street Journal,
The Chicago Tribune,
The New York Times, and
Reader's Digest. Jennings has conducted more than 200 workshops and seminars in business, human resource management, government, law, and academic and professional ethics.
