Michael E. Gerber © 1995, Harper Collins Publishers ISBN 0-88730-728-0

 

COMMENTS

 

One of the most common issues discussed at CEB meetings is how the chief executive can remove himself or herself from the day-to-day operations of the business and focus on more strategic issues.

 

This book offers one of the best solutions to this dilemma that many chief executives face.

The book will teach you how to build a business that works without you.  A business that will free you to live a fuller life

 

10 OF THE BEST IDEAS

1.         In the U. S., over a million people start a business each year and 40 percent fail within the first year.  Within five years, more than 80 percent of them - 800,000 - will have failed.

2.         You want to work on your business not in your business.

3.         The sole function of a business is to find and keep customers.

4.         The goal is to develop a systems-dependent business, not a people-dependent business.

5.         McDonald’s is the best example of a systems-dependent business.  Systems run the business and people run the systems.

6.         You want to develop a systems-dependent business that could be replicated 5,000 times, so the 5,000^th unit would run as smoothly as the first.

7.         The systems-dependent business should have the following characteristics:

a.   Provide consistent value to your customers, employees, suppliers, and lenders, beyond what they expect.

b.   Be operated by people with the lowest possible level of skill.

c.   Stand out as a place of impeccable order.

d.   All work is documented  in operations manuals.

e.   Provide a uniformly predictable service to the customer.

f.    Provide uniform color, dress, and facilities code.

8.         Ask yourself how can I give my customer the results he wants systematically rather than personally.

9.         It is literally impossible to produce a consistent result in a business that depends on extraordinary people.  You will be forced to find a system that leverages your ordinary people to the point where they can produce extra-ordinary results over and over again.

10.       You want to develop extensive non-financial measures of your company’s performance.

"The benefits I continue to receive from CEBI are numerous. The principal ones revolve around the "real world" issues each and every one of us deal with on a daily basis and the ability of the group to help me feel that my concerns are not unique." Larry Destro