Bøker av Robert S. Kaplan

WHAT MAKES A LEADER? CAN YOU REALLY LEARN TO LEAD?You might believe that leaders are born, not made. Perhaps you think that you need to hold an important job to be a leader-that you need permission to lead. Leadership is one of the most important aspects of our society. Yet there is enormous disagreement and confusion about what leadership means and whether it can really be learned.As leadership expert Robert Steven Kaplan explains in this powerful new book, leadership qualities are not something you either have or you don't. Leadership is not a destination or a state of being. Leadership is about what you do, rather than who you are, and it starts with an ownership mind-set. For Kaplan, learning to lead involves three key elements:Thinking like an ownerA willingness to act on your beliefsA relentless focus on adding value to othersKaplan compellingly argues that great organizations are built around a nucleus of people who think and act with an ownership mind-set. He believes that leadership is not a role reserved only for those blessed with the right attributes or situated in the right positions of power. Leadership is accessible to each of us-today. It requires a process of hard work, willingness to ask questions, and openness to learning.This book aims to demystify leadership and outlines a specific regimen that will empower you to build your leadership skills. Kaplan tells real-life stories from his own experience of working with various types of leaders seeking to improve their effectiveness and make their organizations more successful. He asks probing questions, provides exercises, and suggests concrete follow-up steps that will help you develop your skills, create new habits, and move you toward reaching your unique leadership potential.What You Really Need to Lead will help you develop your capacity to lead by unlocking your power to think and act like an owner.

A road map for redefining "success" and reaching your unique potential through a tough discipline of specific steps and exercises that will help you take control of your career, understand yourself far more deeply, and build your capabilities in a way that fits your passions and aspirations.

Successful leaders know that leadership is less often about having all the answers-and more often about asking the right questions. The challenge lies in being able to step back, reflect, and ask the key questions that are critical to your performance and your organization's effectiveness.In What to Ask the Person in the Mirror, leadership expert Robert Kaplan presents a process for asking the big questions that will enable you to diagnose problems, change course if necessary, and advance your career. He lays out areas of inquiry, including questions such as:Do I clearly articulate my vision and top priorities to my employees and key constituencies?Does the way I spend my time enable me to achieve my top priorities?Do I give subordinates timely and direct feedback they can act on? Do I actively seek feedback myself?Have I developed a succession roadmap?Is my organization's design aligned with the achievement of its objectives?Is my leadership style still effective, and does it reflect who I truly am?Packed with real-life situations, this highly readable and practical guide helps you learn to ask the right questions-and work through the answers in ways that are right for you. By asking these questions, you can tackle the inevitable challenges of leadership as you craft new strategies for staying on top of your game.

In a world of stiffening competition, business strategy is more crucial than ever. Yet most organizations struggle in this area--not with formulating strategy but with executing it, or putting their strategy into action. Owing to execution failures, companies realize just a fraction of the financial performance promised in their strategic plans.It doesn't have to be that way, maintain Robert Kaplan and David Norton in The Execution Premium. Building on their breakthrough works on strategy-focused organizations, the authors describe a multistage system that enables you to gain measurable benefits from your carefully formulated business strategy. This book shows you how to:Develop an effective strategy--with tools such as SWOT analysis, vision formulation, and strategic change agendasPlan execution of the strategy--through portfolios of strategic initiatives linked to strategy maps and Balanced ScorecardsPut your strategy into action--by integrating operational tools such as process dashboards, rolling forecasts, and activity-based costingTest and update your strategy--using carefully designed management meetings to review operational and strategic dataDrawing on extensive research and detailed case studies from a broad array of industries, The Execution Premium presents a systematic and proven framework for achieving the financial results promised by your strategy.

More than a decade ago, Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton introduced the Balanced Scorecard, a revolutionary performance measurement system that allowed organizations to quantify intangible assets such as people, information, and customer relationships. Then, in The Strategy-Focused Organization, Kaplan and Norton showed how organizations achieved breakthrough performance with a management system that put the Balanced Scorecard into action.Now, using their ongoing research with hundreds of Balanced Scorecard adopters across the globe, the authors have created a powerful new tool--the "e;strategy map"e;--that enables companies to describe the links between intangible assets and value creation with a clarity and precision never before possible. Kaplan and Norton argue that the most critical aspect of strategy--implementing it in a way that ensures sustained value creation--depends on managing four key internal processes: operations, customer relationships, innovation, and regulatory and social processes. The authors show how companies can use strategy maps to link those processes to desired outcomes; evaluate, measure, and improve the processes most critical to success; and target investments in human, informational, and organizational capital. Providing a visual "e;aha!"e; for executives everywhere who can't figure out why their strategy isn't working, Strategy Maps is a blueprint any organization can follow to align processes, people, and information technology for superior performance.