Stephen Bungay

Many managers have great ideas but lack the strategizing skills to implement them. Using the battle tactics of the 19th-century Prussian army, author Stephen Bungay combines his unique background as a historian and leading business strategist to teach managers how to strategize in the workplace to succeed in their careers and close the gap between plans, action and results. Through engaging narrative and tried-and-true battlefield practices, The Art of Action brings a fresh, entertaining perspective to management, equipping leaders with the tools they need to achieve their goals.

How Leaders Close the Gaps Between Plans, Actions and Results

The Art of Action

Bungay's magisterial history was quickly accepted as the book about this central event in Britain's history and mythology - as the review quotes testify. Unrivalled for its synthesis of all previous historical accounts, for the acuity and intelligence of its strategical analysis and its sheer narrative drive, it is a book ultimately distinguished by the trenchancy of its conclusions - that it was the British in the Battle who displayed all the virtues of efficiency, organisation and even ruthlessness we habitually attribute to the Germans, and they who fell short in their amateurism, ill-preparedness, engineering substandards and even in their old-fashioned notions of gallantry.

A History of the Battle of Britain

The Most Dangerous Enemy

For Great Britain, there were two pivotal battles in the Second World War. One was the Battle of Britain. The other was El Alamein. There, in October 1942, in a remote part of the desert between Libya and Egypt, the British army won an epic battle of attrition with Rommel’s Afrika Korps. It was a defeat from which Rommel would never recover and a turning point in the war, famously celebrated by Churchill as “the end of the beginning”—the line in the sand that Hitler’s forces were never able to cross. This is a trenchant reexamination of an event that has been cloaked in myth.

Alamein

The 10th Anniversary Edition of the Leadership Classic The surprisingly common sense approach to leading a global company, based on a theoretical framework first used by the nineteenth-century Prussian Army. For over a decade the approach known as 'mission command' has been taught at the leading HULT Ashridge International Business School and has been applied in transforming businesses as diverse as pharmaceuticals and F1 racing. What do you want me to do? This question is the enduring management issue, a perennial problem that Stephen Bungay shows has an old solution that is counter-intuitive and yet highly practical. The Art of Action is a thought-provoking and fresh look at how managers can turn planning into execution, and execution into results. Drawing on his experience as a consultant, senior manager and a highly respected military historian, Stephen Bungay takes a close look at the army which built its agility on the initiative of its highly empowered junior officers, to show business leaders how they can build more effective, productive organizations.

10th Anniversary Edition

What do you want me to do? This question is the enduring management issue, a perennial problem that Stephen Bungay shows has an old solution that is counter-intuitive and yet common sense. The Art of Action is a thought-provoking and fresh look at how managers can turn planning into execution, and execution into results. Drawing on his experience as a consultant, senior manager and a highly respected military historian, Stephen Bungay takes a close look at the nineteenth-century Prussian Army, which built its agility on the initiative of its highly empowered junior officers, to show business leaders how they can build more effective, productive organizations. Based on a theoretical framework which has been tested in practice over 150 years, Bungay shows how the approach known as 'mission command' has been applied in businesses as diverse as pharmaceuticals and F1 racing today. The Art of Action is scholarly but engaging, rigorous but pragmatic, and shows how common sense can sometimes be surprising.

How Leaders Close the Gaps between Plans, Actions and Results

The 10th Anniversary Edition of the Leadership Classic The surprisingly common sense approach to leading a global company, based on a theoretical framework first used by the nineteenth-century Prussian Army. For over a decade the approach known as 'mission command' has been taught at the leading HULT Ashridge International Business School and has been applied in transforming businesses as diverse as pharmaceuticals and F1 racing. What do you want me to do? This question is the enduring management issue, a perennial problem that Stephen Bungay shows has an old solution that is counter-intuitive and yet highly practical. The Art of Action is a thought-provoking and fresh look at how managers can turn planning into execution, and execution into results. Drawing on his experience as a consultant,senior manager and a highly respected military historian,Stephen Bungay takes a close look at the army which built its agility on the initiative of its highly empowered junior officers,to show business leaders how they can build more effective,productive organizations.

"The magnitude and vital importance of the Battle of Britain has found a superb chronicler in Stephen Bungay, whose book is the best single-volume history to be published in over a decade." - Andrew Roberts Stephen Bungay's magisterial history is acclaimed as the account of the Battle of Britain. Unrivalled for its synthesis of all previous historical accounts, for the quality of its strategic analysis and its truly compulsive narrative, this is a book ultimately distinguished by its conclusions - that it was the British in the Battle who displayed all the virtues of efficiency, organisation and even ruthlessness we habitually attribute to the Germans, and they who fell short in their amateurism, ill-preparedness, poor engineering and even in their old-fashioned notions of gallantry. An engrossing read for the military scholar and the general reader alike, this is a classic of military history that looks beyond the mythology, to explore all the tragedy and comedy; the brutality and compassion of war.

"Hvad vil du have, jeg skal gøre?“ De fleste ledere mener, at problemet med at eksekvere strategi består i at få folk til at gøre, som der står i planerne. Medarbejdere bliver handlekraftige og motiverede, hvis lederen skaber tydelig retning og fokus og samtidig giver medarbejderne udstrakt frihed til at nå i mål. Hvordan kan ledere lykkes med at lukke videnkløften (hvad vi ideelt set burde vide vs. hvad vi faktisk ved), retningskløften (hvad lederne ønsker medarbejderne skal gøre vs. det medarbejderne gør) og resultatkløften (hvad vi forventer at vores handlinger afstedkommer vs. resultatet)? Når vi ikke opnår de ønskede resultater, er vi tilbøjelige til at reagere ved at gå endnu mere i detaljer og udøve strammere kontrol. Det gør bare tingene værre. Det, vi har brug for, er ikke flere detaljer, men større klarhed, ikke strammere kontrol, men en klarere retning. For at kunne eksekvere effektivt er vi nødt til at gå væk fra vores praksis med mange målsætninger og beslutte os for, hvad vi virkelig vil have; formidle budskabet ved at fortælle folk, hvad de skal opnå og hvorfor, og spørge dem, hvad de har tænkt sig at gøre som følge af det; samt give dem handlefrihed inden for nærmere definerede grænser.

Stephen Bungay

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