Amazon.com info for 'Six Disciplines for Excellence: Building Small Businesses That Learn, Lead and Last'

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Back to reviews and details of Six Disciplines for Excellence: Building Small Businesses That Learn, Lead and Last

Amazon.com reviews:

Rating: 5 Summary: Excellent Book, Buy it!
Comment If you are a small business or work with small businesses, buy this book. The author brings a wealth of real life experience to the table, distilling concepts from several leading business gurus into a format that works for a small business.

Rating: 5 Summary: Straight to the point, well-organized, and extremely practical.
Comment Before I comment on the book, I should say that I've been consulting on management and leadership issues for more than 18 years, working with the entire spectrum of business--from small regional concerns to companies in the Fortune 500. Much of my work during this time has been with leadership and management teams, enhancing and refining their thinking processes and tools to move them from surviving to thriving. Over the years I kept honing my programs to provide the best and most essential components. After working with hundreds of businesses, I've seen, heard, and read a lot.

So with that background, I have to give Six Disciplines for Excellence a full and complete endorsement. Too many books on management and leadership talk about theory and principles. I agree with one of the other reviewers that this book is 20% principles and 80% "how-to." This book just screams practical.

In my opinion, anyone in business would do well to make Six Disciplines mandatory reading throughout their leadership team--and then add the "how-to" sections as action items on their meeting agendas. Even better: locate a top-notch consultant/facilitator to help stay on track re: following through on the action-items.

Reason: Like other reviewers have mentioned, reading this book and then following through on the action steps are two different things.

Perhaps it's best to consider Six Disciplines a workbook--and it's probably the best business-building workbook I've seen. In my opinion, many larger organizations would benefit from reading it, too. It's easy to read and it outlines of the key steps for success. No fluff. Just straight to the point, well-organized, and extremely practical.

Read it and you'll be enlightened.
Do what it says and you'll be moving your business from "surviving" to "thriving."

- Dan Bobinski
CEO / Director - The Center for Workplace Excellence

PS. Despite the similarities between the name of my business and the title of Gary Harpst's book, I've not met the man (as of this writing) and we have no affiliation. --But after reading his book it seems like he's certainly someone one would want to meet!

Rating: 4 Summary: Good Insight, Quick/Easy Read
Comment I primarily purchased this book to gain insight into the corporate planning of my employer and in the interest of possibly starting my own business some day. This book provide a quick, easy read and a great companion to "Fire Someone Today (And Other Surprising Tactics for Making Your Business A Success)".

While "Fire Someone Today" provided some examples of harsh lessons and the values of good planning, this book provided the "how to" side of that approach. 6D4E did not provide many powerful, real-world examples/stories, but took the time to explain how to avoid the bad side. I recommend both of these books as a pair.

I would not recommend reading this book on its own (unlike "Fire Someone Today"). Without an understanding of "lessons learned" and what others are thinking (such as looking at the "Inside the Minds" series from Aspatore Books), this book merely provides you with a "hey, you should do this" without showing the negative side or how your particular role fits into the plan.

Without an understanding of your position (Inside the Minds) and how things have failed (Fire Someone Today), this book will be ineffective and merely tossed to the side until you learn those harsh lessons yourself.

Rating: 4 Summary: Excellent
Comment The book describes excellent facts that most if not all other books do not describe. Therefore the information is fairly unique and valuable and will definetely add to your repatoire of knowledge and skills.

If you can afford the book then purchase it., the cover design is terrible and they could have done a much better job marketing the book, but this is one of those books with excellent insight and information and crappy marketing. The book has more potential that what it appears from the cover. I give it 8/10, or probably in the top 10% of business books.

Rating: 4 Summary: weLEAD Book Review by the Editor of leadingtoday.org
Comment
Most new jobs created in the United States today are the result of small businesses forming or expanding. Gone are the days when large manufacturers rapidly created hundreds or thousands of jobs to support their growing requirements. However, small businesses have special needs, not only to survive the early years but to sustain their foundational growth. Author Gary Harpst actively taps into these critical needs in Six Disciplines For Excellence.

As Harpst mentions in the Introduction, "figuring out the right things to do isn't nearly as difficult as continuing to do them over the long term". He continues by commenting why this book was written, "That passion is directed toward helping small businesses not only achieve excellence, but sustain it". Throughout the remainder of the book, Six Disciplines For Excellence integrates the best practices to grow a small business and unifies them into a interconnected plan. Furthermore, unlike most business books, Harpst cleverly focuses on implementation (how to) rather than simply principles. He states that this "book's content is focused 20% on principles and 80% on implementation".

Six Disciplines For Excellence is composed of 10 chapters and an Epilogue. The first three chapters introduce the book and discuss the challenges of being a small business. The next six chapters each discuss one of the six disciplines. For example, chapter eight analyzes the fifth discipline entitled Innovate Purposely. In this invigorating chapter Harpst demonstrates how innovation works in concert with the other disciplines and how it should permeate the daily culture of a small business.

This is a book that should be read by everyone who leads a small business. Six Disciplines For Excellence has the clever ability to connect solid principles together with proven strategies to create a workable plan. It makes sense of the seemingly complex and fragmented problems facing any organization in a book that is colorful, easy to comprehend and well written. If you own, manage or lead a small business, this book will make you and your organization better!