First and Fast

First and Fast

by Stuart Cross
Released March 2016
Publisher(s): Business Expert Press
ISBN: 9781631574726

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Book description

For the past 30 years, business leaders have been exhorted to move faster and adopt a “ready, fire, aim” approach to the growth of their business. As the level of change and turbulence increases in all markets, all organizations must adapt—quickly!—or risk decline and decay. But what are the real behaviors, processes, and techniques that are critical to lead your organization at pace without creating confusion, frustration, and unnecessary risk? First and Fast provides business leaders with a comprehensive and pragmatic set of tools and ideas to enable them to increase pace, build momentum, and accelerate growth in a systematic way. This book is written for business owners, chief executives, other senior executives and managers, consultants, and business advisors.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half Title Page
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Dedication
  6. Contents
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. Chapter 1 Are You Fast or Irrelevant?
    1. The Decline and Fall of Nokia
    2. What’s Driving the Need for Speed?
    3. Why are Companies Still Too Slow?
    4. Shifting Focus from Perfection to Pace
  9. Chapter 2 Creating a High-Speed, High-Growth Culture
    1. Avoiding the Cultural Danger Zone
    2. Act Like a Start-up and Adopt a Challenger Mind-set
    3. The Cultural Traffic Jam: The Seven Most Likely Roadblocks
    4. The Critical Role of the “Sprinter-in-Chief”: Richard Baker Puts “The Chemists” Back into Boots
  10. Chapter 3 Organizing for Speed and Agility
    1. The Power of Simplicity in a Complex World
    2. Destroying Silos, Accelerating Growth
    3. Decision Making on the Run
    4. Turning Your Organization on a Dime
  11. Chapter 4 Rapid-Fire Strategy
    1. Strategy Ain’t What It Used to Be
    2. The 3Rs of Strategy
    3. Organizing for Rapid-Fire Strategy
    4. The 6-Day Strategy: Why Spend 6 Months Developing a 1-Year Plan?
  12. Chapter 5 Fast-Lane Innovation
    1. Releasing the Innovation Brakes
    2. Building Up Speed: Focusing Innovation on What Won’t Change
    3. Shifting Gear: Acceleration Through Action
    4. 8 Accelerators for Fast-Lane Innovation
  13. Chapter 6 Implementing at Pace
    1. The Speed of Light at the Center of the Sun
    2. Focus, Focus, Focus: You Can’t Chase Two Hares
    3. Lead By Results: The Inverse Relationship Between Detailed Planning and Performance Management
    4. Think Big, Start Small: Tesco Express Versus Fresh & Easy
    5. Remember, Delivery is the Day Job: The Secret to Rapid Transformation
  14. Chapter 7 Allowing Your Customers to Navigate
    1. Steve Jobs was An Error: The Customer’s Not Always Right, But That’s the Way to Bet
    2. Who to Implore and Who to Ignore
    3. How to Work with Customers to Accelerate Innovation
    4. Customer Navigation in Action: Embedding Customer Focus at DFS
  15. Chapter 8 Sustaining Success and Kicking On
    1. How Fast Is Too Fast?
    2. Moving Onto New Heights
    3. Seven Immediate Steps You Can Take Today
  16. Index

Product information

  • Title: First and Fast
  • Author(s): Stuart Cross
  • Release date: March 2016
  • Publisher(s): Business Expert Press
  • ISBN: 9781631574726