Leadership Strategies and Secrets of Seven Extraordinarily Successful CEOs

What the Best CEOs Know looks at the careers of this generation’s top CEOs, examining the beliefs and actions that propelled each to the top of the corporate world. By exploring what they did, why they did it, and what might have happened had they done it differently, this remarkable book turns the wisdom, strategies, and tactics of these business-world icons into a step-by-step handbook for the pursuit and achievement of breakthrough corporate leadership—at any level, in any industry.

Praise for What the Best CEOs Know:

“For those without the time to keep up with the flood of CEO biographies, this is the thinking man’s encapsulated summary. Krames distills the core insights from the elite of business leadership in our time. He captures the powerful insights rather than the conventional wisdom, and he simplifies without dumbing down. But most of all, he presents a provocative, engaging read that will stretch the thinking of any practicing manager.”—Christopher Bartlett, Thomas D. Casserly, Jr. Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Graduate School of Business

“By capturing the unique traits and strategies of these seven leaders, Krames gives aspiring CEOs a valuable blueprint for success in an increasingly tough global market.”—Klaus Kleinfeld, President & CEO, Siemens Corporation

Michael Dell ... Bill Gates ... Lou Gerstner ... Andy Grove ... Herb Kelleher ... Sam Walton ... Jack Welch ...

What the Best CEOs Know goes beyond theory and guesswork to look at how seven contemporary business icons carved their own paths to the pinnacles of corporate achievement. This no-nonsense guide isolates and examines the specific skills and styles that contributed to each CEO’s well-documented achievements. Its straightforward, sometimes startling, but always battle-tested guidelines for achievement include:

• How Bill Gates trusted the instincts of his employees and successfully transformed Microsoft into a leading Web driver and innovator
• How Andy Grove fostered awareness in his troops—what he calls paranoia—to sense threats and turn them to Intel’s competitive advantage
• How Michael Dell created a computer juggernaut by placing customers at the epicenter of his enterprise
• How Jack Welch created a learning infrastructure, aligning rewards with results to make GE an organization that harnessed the ideas and intellect of every employee
• Herb Kelleher’s rules for creating an exceptional small company culture, even as Southwest grew to more than 30,000 employees
• Along with subject interviews and expert analyses, What the Best CEOs Know features interactive What Would (the CEO) Do? case studies, Assessing Your CEO Quotient self-tests, and other innovative features to help you apply these traits and strategies to your own career. Contributions from CEOs and leading business theorists, including Philip Kotler, examine the CEOs from different viewpoints and add insights to particular concepts. Each chapter concludes with additional suggestions for adapting and implementing industry-specific ideas to improve your own organization.