What the CEO Wants You to Know : How Your Company Really Works

This book offers keen insight into how success in the business world, regardless of size or form, is achieved. It provides a great foundation to understanding the fundamentals of organizational structure and the universal principles of business acumen. After reading this book, I feel assured of my ability to make a meaningful difference in a company, as well confident in my capacity ask intelligent business questions. Highly recommended reading material for those whom have C suite aspirations.

This book can be read in several hours and is definitely worth of the invested time. I am a total beginner in business, In fact, I study informatics. After reading this book I have a clear view of basic aspects of business. Also, it gave me a more clear understanging of what is a CEO's role.let's summarize my thoughts:+simple+short (less then 130 little pages)+gives a great overview of core business aspects+good for beginners (contains even links to popular business web sites)-focused on employees in a leader position-focused on international (stock) companies. (I work at software companies, can't see, how could I apply the velocity principle here. We have no shareholders, no transparent assests, nor stock, nor transparent margins)-quite repetitive. The word 'business acumen' is listed at least one hundred times. Some may find the repetition usefull...especially me notp.s.: I've found this book on the recommended list of PersonalMBA (personalmba.com)

Well laid out and written

What the CEO Wants You to Know : How Your Company Really Works In my view, this is probably the single best business book written because it simplifies the fundmentals of business through comparing a simple business in India with decisions make in complex corporations.Any confusion readers may have about this book could occur because so many people in business do not understand the fundamentals of business. Rather, they understand specifics about their specialty. The job of a CEO is difficult principally because of the need to weave together all aspects of a business into each decision.The problem that most career executives have is that they rise through functional ranks, or even with general management experience, lack the fully rounded business experience of someone who is completely responsible for a business from shareholder's through to customers. This is the point of the book - to help readers understand the overall business.

Having just completed my MBA program, I found the book very elementary — which was a good feeling in a way (I had actually learned something after spending tens of thousands of dollars! Ha) Kidding aside: this was a book recommended to me before I embarked on my MBA journey. It’s a good book for those who don’t have a formal business (finance) education and I can understand why it was recommended to me at the time. Great for people who are early in their career to help shift their focus to a more strategic level.

This book starts out great: explaining the essential need for business acumen, the skill to reduce business to basic concepts, rules applicable to any scale and any area. The metaphor of fruit street vendor is used to explain cash generation, return on assets (margin and velocity) and growth. So far so good.Then the author attempts to scale this up. Figuring out business priorities and managing the P/E multiple is next. I have to disagree with too much emphasis on keeping investors happy. All too often the interests of the investors are opposite to the business interest. (Try to accumulate cash and "advocates" are crying out for dividend increase or share buyback.) A CEO may need to keep investors happy, but a business owner should not. A share price should not be the sole measure of management success.Managing personnel problems, "mismatches", hand holding and coaching, social operating mechanisms are discussed next. While Jacques Nasser is mentioned as somewhat of a business hero, his tenure as CEO of Ford was not exactly a shining example of an effective or charismatic leader. Then comes Dick Brown as CEO of DES. His attempt to transform the ailing company is described as a the ability to list clear and simple business priorities. Among them "Reducing cost by $ 1 billion and thus improving margin." How this was attempted is not described. His career at the company could not be described as glorious, either.The problem is that once the skeleton metaphor of business is discussed, the book attempts to build an oversize body around it. A corporation around the fruit stand, in essence. For once, here we could have started to read about relevant differences: say, the real estate where the stand stands on (rent or own, interest rates, etc). A corporation is not there to keep its employees happy, but to hold them accountable and productive assisting the overall success of the business. Here we could have read about performance evaluation, dashboards, whatever. (A family business operates differently than a real business.) Here everything seems wobbly: the sample CEOs are not great examples, there are no descriptions of good business histories, true turnarounds or even failures due to basic principles violated.

We give this as gift to young people going into the business world all the time.

I have learned so much from Dr. Ram Charan. The wealth of experience and the clarity he brings to complex business conditions is incredible. I became aware of his writings through linked-in and the Harvard user groups. After reading this book, I purchased all his other books, I set aside 1 hour every morning before work to "study" his thoughts and views. I have applied what I have learned and my career has changed. I am now running our Asia business operations.Thank you Dr. Charan for your wisdom and your magnificent mind.-Shawn

This book uses a simple metaphor to clearly explain all the important elements of any business.

Muy interesante libro que describe de forma sencilla, pero con ejemplos reales de empresas como Ford, Walmart y General Electric los conceptos que un ejecutivo debe manejar para enfocarse, dar resultados y crecer en la organización

The essence on business acumen laid out very clearly. It is essential for everyone obtain a clear understanding of the same to make effective decisions in a competitive complex environment

C'est un livre qui a été écrit il y a 16 ans mais qui n'a en rien perdu de sa pertinence.Pour moi c'est un must !

I usually offer a free copy of this book to the students performing best in the Business plan/business model and in the Entrerpeneurship classes which I teach at Grenoble Business School.I recommend the other production of Ram Charan, especially those targeted to upstream marketing such as Every Business is a growth Business (or close to)