Profitable Growth Is Everyone's Business : 10 Tools You Can Use Monday Morning (book)

Well, not exactly. The ideas first brought forward 23 years ago in Tom Peter's and Bob Waterman's "In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies" and reiterated in this book have never really gone away. They did get pushed aside somewhat in the bubble years, but leaders of those companies mentioned in Ram Charan's book that understood and applied the concepts made it through the ensuing bust probably better than anyone else.

Compare Charan's 10 tools with Peter's and Waterman's 8 attributes and you might end up with something like this:

1. Revenue growth is everyone's business. = 5. Hands on, value driven.

2. Hit many singles and doubles, not just home runs. = 1. A bias for action.

3. Seek good growth and avoid bad growth. = 6. Stick to the knitting.

4. Dispel the myths that keep both people and organizations from growing. = 8. Simultaneous loose-tight priorities.

5. Turn the idea of productivity on its head by increasing revenue productivity. = 4. Productivity through people.

6. Develop and implement a growth budget. = 1. A bias for action; 3. Autonomy and entrprenuership.

7. Beef up upstream marketing. = 2. Close to the customer.

8. Understand how to do effective cross-selling (or value/soltions selling). = 2. Close to the customer; 7. Simple form, lean staff.

9. Create a social engine to accelerate revenue growth. = 3. Autonomy and entreprenuership.

10. Operationalize innovation by converting ideas into revenue growth. = 1. A bias for action.

My point isn't to map the two lists one for one. If you look at both, though, you'll see a lot of parallels. I think Charan's take is more concise and with fresher examples, of course.

The main lesson from the book for me was that these ideas seem to have stood the test of time. Having been published in 1982, much of the materials for "Excellence" were probably researched in the mid to late 1970's. Think how the world has changed since then.

A worthwhile effort and a quick read. I think I might eventually get a copy of his book on execution.

I have really enjoyed Ram Charan's writing in the past. I have really enjoyed Ram Charan's writing in the past. He is generally simple, clear, but most important actionable. This book, however, was a real disappointment to me as it fails to deliver on it's promise: 10 tools to use on Monday morning. I guess Ram got stuck on simple and clear but the sad fact is that profitable growth is neither and this is where actionable is left in the cold.

One point was outstanding: look for singles and doubles (not out-of-the-park home runs) and build on those over time. But he could have said that in a journal article or a business magazine commentary and saved us all a lot of wasted time reading.

I purchased this together with Ram's other highly-praised book, "What the CEO Wants You to Know." I'd give the CEO book a D review and this a C review because this at least gave me a few new ideas. Charan's style of using stories to reiterate his points started to quickly annoy me, but I did get a few tips. As an operations person, I thought it had a pretty big marketing focus, but still reinforced a few good ideas such as the need to ensure you're not always just looking for ways to cut costs, but grow revenue with the same amount of costs.

I had heard great things about Ram Charan, so perhaps my expectations were set a bit high. I realy got very little out of this, indeed, I didn't finish it. This review is of the audio edition. I have a bias against professional readers who don't understand what they are reading. While the reading was very professional, it tended to put one to sleep, because the reader didn't know where the important infections were. Other details like pronouncing DEC (Digital Equipment) as "Dee Eee Cee" added to the impression.

I do not know Ram Charan. Although impressed by his lecture at the GE Mgmt. Dev. Institute in the early 1970's I did not read Execution.

I advise anyone who was underwhelmed by Profitable Growth to read it again. In addition to the seemingly simple checklist for fostering success, Ram presents an underlying lesson in systems thinking that, once subsumed, will serve you well far beyond the the ten tools presented at the iceberg's tip.