Scott Keller

Carolyn Dewar

Vikram Malhotra

From the world’s most influential management consulting firm, McKinsey & Company, an insight-packed, revelatory look at how the best CEOs do their jobs based on extensive interviews with today’s most successful corporate leaders—including chiefs at Netflix, JPMorgan Chase, General Motors, and Sony. Being a CEO at any of the world’s largest companies is among the most challenging roles in business. Billions, and even trillions, are at stake—and the fates of tens of thousands of employees often hang in the balance. Yet, even when “can’t miss” high-achievers win the top job, very few excel. Thirty percent of Fortune 500 CEOs last fewer than three years, and two out of five new CEOs are perceived to be failing within eighteen months. For those who shoulder the burden of being the one on whom everyone counts, a manual for excellence is sorely needed. To identify the 21st century’s best CEOs, the authors of CEO Excellence started with a pool of over 2400 public company CEOs. Extensive screening distilled that group into an elite corps, sixty-seven of whom agreed to in-depth, multi-hour interviews. Among those sharing their views: Jamie Dimon (JPMorgan Chase), Satya Nadella (Microsoft), Reed Hastings (Netflix), Kazuo Hirai (Sony), Ken Chenault (American Express), Mary Barra (GM), and Peter Brabeck-Letmathe (Nestlé). What came out of those frank, no-holds-barred conversations is a rich array of mindsets and actions that deliver outsized performance. Compelling, practical, and unprecedented in scope, CEO Excellence is a treasure trove of wisdom from today’s most elite business leaders.

The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest

CEO Excellence

In the bestselling tradition of Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Jim Collins’s Good to Great, and Ray Dalio’s Principles, the world’s most influential consulting firm McKinsey & Company presents a deep dive into how the best CEOs do their jobs based on extensive interviews with today’s most successful corporate leaders from iconic companies such as Netflix, JPMorgan Chase, General Motors, and Sony. Being a CEO at any of the world’s largest companies is one of the most challenging, mysterious, misunderstood, and important roles in the world today. The CEOs of the two thousand largest global companies account for more than $40 trillion in annual revenues (more than twice the size of the world’s largest economy) and employ 68 million people. Yet even when they reach the position of CEO, very few excel in the role. Thirty percent of Fortune 500 CEOs last fewer than three years, and two out of five new CEOs are perceived to be failing within eighteen months of taking the job. A select few, however, rise to become the best of the best—creating superior value for their stakeholders and becoming role models in leadership. Now, in CEO Excellence, the experienced consultants at world-famous McKinsey & Company have used a rigorous method to identify the 21st century’s best CEOs. Starting with a pool of over 2,400 public company CEOs, the top 200 were eventually selected, and a statistically valid sampling of those—sixty-five—agreed to in-depth, multi-hour interviews. Some of the names include: Jamie Dimon (JPMorgan Chase), Satya Nadella (Microsoft), Reed Hastings (Netflix), Kaz Hirai (Sony), Ken Chenault (American Express), Mary Barra (GM), and Peter Brabeck-Letmathe (Nestlé). The authors both demystify the CEO role and provide deep insight into the mindsets and actions that deliver outsized performance. For example, the best leaders focus less on beating the competition and more on reframing what’s possible. While working with others, they’re far quicker to ask questions than provide answers. And in decision making, they emphasize dialog as much as data. Compelling, practical, and unprecedented in scope, this is a treasure trove of wisdom from today’s most elite business leaders.

Colin Price

The secret of achieving and sustaining organizational excellencerevealed In an ever-changing world where only a third of excellentorganizations stay that way over the long term, and where evenfewer are able to implement successful change programs, leaders arein need of big ideas and new tools to thrive. In BeyondPerformance, McKinsey & Company's Scott Keller and ColinPrice give you everything you need to build an organization thatcan execute in the short run and has the vitality to prosperover the long term. Drawing on the most exhaustive research effort of its kind onorganizational effectiveness and change management, Keller andPrice put hard science behind their big idea: that the health of anorganization is equally as important as its performance. In thebook's foreword, management guru Gary Hamel refers to this notionas "a new manifesto for thinking about organizations." The authors illustrate why copying management best practicesfrom other companies is more dangerous than helpful Clearly explains how to determine the mutually reinforcingcombination of management practices that best fits yourorganization's context Provides practical tools to achieve superior levels ofperformance and health through a staged change process: aspire,assess, architect, act, and advance. Among these are new techniquesfor dealing with those aspects of human behavior that are seeminglyirrational (and therefore confound even the smartest leaders), yetentirely predictable Ultimately, building a healthy organization is an intangibleasset that competitors copy at their peril and that enables you toskillfully adapt to and shape your environment faster thanothers—giving you the ultimate competitive advantage.

How Great Organizations Build Ultimate Competitive Advantage

Beyond Performance

Bill Schaninger

Double your odds of leading successful, sustainable change Leaders aren’t short on access to change management advice, but the jury has long been out as to which approach is the best one to follow. With the publication of Beyond Performance 2.0, the verdict is well and truly in. By applying the approach detailed by authors, Scott Keller and Bill Schaninger, the evidence shows that leaders can more than double their odds of success—from thirty percent to almost eighty. Whereas the first edition of Beyond Performance introduced the authors’ “Five Frames of Performance and Health” approach to change management, the fully revised and updated Beyond Performance 2.0 has been transformed into a truly practical “how to” guide for leaders. Every aspect of how to lead change at scale is covered in a step-by-step manner, always accompanied by practical tools and real-life examples. Keller and Schaninger’s work is distinguished in many ways, one of which is the rigor behind the recommendations. The underpinning research is the most comprehensive of its kind—based on over 5 million data points drawn from 2,000 companies globally over a 15-year period. This data is overlaid with the authors’ combined more than 40 years of experience in helping companies successfully achieve large-scale change. As senior partners in McKinsey & Company, consistently named the world’s most prestigious management consulting firm, Keller and Schaninger also draw on the shared experience of their colleagues from offices in over 60 countries with unrivaled access to CEOs and senior teams. Beyond Performance 2.0 also dares to go against the grain—eschewing the notion of copying best practices and instead guiding leaders to make choices specific to their unique context and organization. It does this with meticulously balance of focus on short- and long-term considerations, and on fully addressing the hard technical and oft cultural elements of making change happen. Further, the approach doesn’t just focus on delivering change; it builds an organization’s muscle to continuously change, making it healthier so that it can act with increased speed and agility to stay perpetually ahead of its competition. Leaders looking for a proven approach to leading large-scale change from a trusted source have found what they are looking for in Beyond Performance 2.0.

A Proven Approach to Leading Large-Scale Change

Beyond Performance 2.0

CEO EXCELLENCE, by McKinsey senior partners Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller and Vikram Malhotra is a unique and timely business book which will draw on 25 years of research and interviews with top leaders of some of the world's most respected companies. The resulting book will demonstrate that while the role of CEO is unique within every organisation, it is surprisingly similar across companies even in disparate industries. Furthermore, the best CEOs approach their role with distinct mindsets and practices. This book is about truly world class leadership, showing how the best CEOs think, adapt and approach challenges (never more relevant than in this extraordinary time). It will show why a brilliant CEO can have such an immense impact, and demonstrate how to model yourself and your performance on the very best - so that your turn to lead comes sooner, and is more successful.

Mary Meaney

Every year, over 10,000 business books are published-and that's before you add in the hundreds of thousands of articles, blogs, and video lectures that are produced. Leaders can't possibly hope to digest it all, and writers increasingly sensationalize and spin their ideas in order to be noticed. The result? Put quite simply, the field of management thinking is in danger of losing the plot. In this new book, Scott Keller and Mary Meaney-Senior Partners at McKinsey & Company, the world's preeminent management consultancy-cut to the chase by answering the 10 most important and timeless questions that every leader needs to answer in order to maximize the performance and health of their organization. What's more, the authors recognize that great leaders may not have time for long-winded business books. In Leading Organizations, answers are kept to the essentials-hard facts, counter-intuitive insights, and practical steps-all presented in an accessible and highly visual format. If there's one essential business book you should read-ever-it's this one.

Ten Timeless Truths

Leading Organizations

Offering leaders and senior managers the answers to critical questions on organizational design and management.

Scott Keller

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