Book Review of What the CEO Wants You to Know: How Your Company Really Works by Ram Charan

This book addresses the common core of how business people think and act.

Summary – The chapters of the book include:

1. Business Acumen: The Universal Language of Business
   1. What Jack Welch and Street Vendors Share: The Essence of Business Thinking
   2. Every Business is the Same Inside: Cutting Through to Cash, Margin, Velocity, Growth, and Customers
   3. Understanding Your Company’s Total Business: How the Pieces Come Together
2. Business Acumen in the Real World
3. The World Has Complexity, Leaders Provide Clarity: Figuring Out Business Priorities
4. Wealth is More Than Making Money: Seeing the Business Like an Investor

• Getting Things Done

6. Growing People Takes Courage: Making Matches, Fixing Mismatches
7. Making Groups Decisive: Designing Social Operating Mechanisms^SM
8. What to Do and How to Do It: A CEO with an Edge in Execution
9. Your Personal Agenda
10. Your Part in the Big Picture: ReKindling the Spirit of the Lemonade Stand

The Good: Plain English explanations make the information understandable for all while also teaching business language. As an Executive Coach this book provides an awareness of considerations plus insight on how business people think.

The Bad: Because this book was copyrighted in 2001 there are people who will think it is outdated and instead of finding the timeless / ageless truths with forgo reading it. Because it compares street vendors with large corporations there are people who will miss the message about how people think and what that means.

Conclusion: An excellent book for learning about the thinking and doing of business people.