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Six Disciplines for Excellence: Building Small Businesses That Learn, Lead and Last | |||||||
 
| 80% Recommended by our customers. Publisher: Synergy Books Catalog: Book Release date: 2007-04-01 Media: Paperback Number of pages: 296 Ean: 9781933538815 Book Isbn: 1933538813  Tip: compare prices with similar booksAuthor:
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| Six Disciplines Corporation is dedicated to helping small businesses achieve and sustain success. Six Disciplines for Excellence provides six fundamental business principles that are specifically designed to help small businesses move beyond momentary success to attain enduring excellence. This book is not for those who are looking for a quick fix. Six Disciplines for Excellence is a long-term fitness program, not a fad diet. |
| User Reviews: |
 Written on November 5, 2005 Summary: A must for the serious business entrepreneur. I recently read "Six Disciplines for Excellence: Building Small Businesses That Learn, Lead and Last" by Gary Harpst. Within the book, Harpst has created a business-building methodology utilizing six fundamental business disciplines that are specifically designed to help small businesses move beyond today's successes into enduring satisfaction and greatness. The problem, for most of us, isn't knowing what to do - but doing it. Gary Harpst says "When it comes to achieving excellence, figuring out the right things to do isn't nearly as difficult as continuing to do them over the long term." This book sticks to this concept as it pushed though on the execution and implementation of the principles it covers. Harpst's principles are simple: 1. Decide what's important 2. Set goals that lead 3. Align systems 4. Work the plan 5. Innovate purposefully 6. Step back The complexity comes when we investigate each discipline more thoroughly. Within each, Harpst uses diagrams, questionnaires, steps, tips and templates to bring each one into focus. It contains an impressive quantity of practical information and real world examples, which can be a bit daunting for the reader, yet highly beneficial. This hands-on book goes beyond the fluff that many other business books serve up, and offers a real world business plan. It is well tailored to small businesses and is great for those who want a strong framework to build or begin their business. It is a long-term business plan, not a quick route to success, but for those who take the time to read it, the payoffs can be astounding. I recommend this book for anyone who is serious about a better business.  Written on November 3, 2005 Summary: Small companies with fuzzy futures should read this book! When I moved into Executive Management about five years ago, I knew that I had a lot of things to learn. One of those areas was around strategy and long term planning. Over the next few years, I started reading whatever books I could on the subject, some I didn't like and many that I enjoyed. However, I also found myself frustrated after reading those books. Most of them focused on theories but didn't really give you the tools, templates, processes etc that you needed to implement their theories. Others did take you further, but it seemed that their implementation required expensive solutions with more staff than our company could take on. We are a small organization that has been around for 15+ years with a staff of just under 100 people. We needed something that would work for our organization as we struggled with the areas of strategy and long term planning. I have also learned over the years that one size doesn't fit all and that there are no silver bullets -- so I am a little skeptical on methodologies that claim to solve all of your problems and require little work from you. So I contacted Skip and asked him to send me a book, some for personal reasons as well as something to share with my readers through a book review. When I received the book, I glanced over it but put it aside not sure that I wanted to read it further. Given what I had experienced before, I thought this was just somebody else's "snake oil". Then given some struggles that I was having in my organization around strategy, I decided to start reading the book. Boy, was I in for a surprise! First of all, the author of the book is Gary Harpst. I didn't know Gary personally but I was very familiar with his background given my IT experience. Gary used to own a company called Solomon, who provided accounting systems to small to medium size businesses. I had watched as Solomon had merged with Great Plains, then was sold to Microsoft. I had assumed that Solomon was just another success story that had the right amount of luck and the right people. What I didn't realize was that Solomon was a struggling small company who's future didn't look too bright. As the CEO, Gary realized that the organization needed an "Extreme Makeover" at all levels to turn things around. Thus, he planted the first seeds to this book, "Six Disciplines for Excellence". This book is geared towards a small company who is struggling with their growth and the "startup" mentality of everybody jumping in and having more informal communication and processes with 10 or fewer people. We are talking companies that are around 10 to 100 people, who have limited resources of people and money but want to be able to plan and execute more effectively. Gary makes it a point in the book that this still requires discipline and lots of it to make things work, but if you have the right organization the things discussed in the book can work for you. There are six major steps of discipline: Decide What's Important, Set Goals That Lead, Align Systems, Work the Plan, Innovate Purposefully, and Step Back. Many areas of management are covered including Strategic Planning, Quality Management, Integrated Learning, Business Process Automation, People Performance Management and Measure Driven Improvement. The book also provides you the manual tools, processes, checklists etc that any "do-it-yourselfer" could take and try to implement in their business. What I found also fascinating is that the book was influenced by many people (the same people that I had read and liked the theories but didn't know how to act) including: Michael Porter (Competitive Strategy ), Stephen Covey (7 Habits of Highly Effective People), Michael Gerber (The E Myth Revisited), Robert Kaplan and David Norton (Balanced Scorecard), Peter Senge (The Fifth Discipline), and Jim Collins (Good to Great) to name a few. But the book doesn't stop there! To really benefit and to transform a company in using the six disciplines really need more help than a "do-it-yourselfer" can accomplish. Therefore, there is also a Six Disciplines company that was established to help companies long term get established and maintain using this methodology. If you happen to live in one of the fortunate areas where a Six Disciplines Leadership Center is located, you have access to additional training, coaches, automated tools and other resources. There are plans to have Leadership Centers throughout the country, because Gary has a passion to reach as many small organizations and help them as it helped Solomon. Throughout the book, the Be Excellent! blog and the Six Disciplines website, you can feel the passion that comes from people like Skip and Gary. These people mean business and have a desire to truly help other companies. Their ideas are sound and proven. Their business model for Six Disciplines is fascinating. If you work especially in a small organization that is struggling with growth and lack of direction, get the book and just give it a try. You have then taken the first step towards an answer. I believe that Gary and his company can provide the help that you need to transform your business and make it excellent! Written on October 27, 2005 Summary: Essential Disciplines for Excellence This book is an absolutely essential primer for anyone currently in - or considering getting into - a small business. Read this book with a highlighter and/or a legal pad and pen nearby. You'll need them. Think of this more as a field guide or a handbook. You'll want to keep this book nearby with your other critical business reference materials. This is the type of book that each time you read it, you'll find new pearls of wisdom and - better yet - practical advice. In addition to many years working in and around small businesses, I also teach college business courses. In my experience, it is very rare to find a book that is both geared to small business and offers pragmatic and actionable advice. Written on September 27, 2005 Summary: Finally, a Book that Bridges to Execution! Here's what differentiates this book: it bridges concept and principles to execution. The point Gary makes, as noted in the introduction, is that when it comes to achieving excellence, figuring out the right thing to do isn't nearly as difficult as continuing to do them over the long term. Most books focus 80% on principles and 20% on implementation. This book is 80% implementation. Like most revolutionary concepts, the principles are pretty simple: * Discipline I: Decide What's Important * Discipline II: Set Goals That Lead * Discipline III: Align Systems * Discipline IV: Work the Plan * Discipline V: Innovate Purposefully * Discipline VI: Step Back Within the disciplines, Gary shares hundreds of frameworks, steps, processes, questionnaires, roles, responsibilities, and to dos to make them come to life. He shares the what, but more importantly, expands on the how with utilitarian advice. A useful concept, under Working the Plan, is a framework to put strategic rigor in prioritizing daily activity. Prioritization comes down to choosing what action to take - what you're doing today, at this instant and asking "Is this work aligned with what's important to the company, or not?" As simple as it sounds, the connection day to day work and tasks list to the overall strategy and impact is overlooked by most employees. He gives an example of a task list, which could be implemented such that you can score task impact against short and long term goals of the company. Imagine the impact if everyone in your company did that! This is one example of many principles Gary shares that (if executed) would make big impact in a company or organization. For pragmatists and those who love execution, I give this book a strong recommend. Buy Six Disciplines of Excellence. Written on September 15, 2005 Summary: Will be used for Generations A few weeks ago I cam across one of the best business books on "Excellence" that I had read in years. Having been a management consultant to organizations both big and small, I have prided myself on being able to take all the complexity of latest business thought and practice and boil it down into its simplest components. Well - I have met someone who has mastered that skill. Meet Gary Harpst. Gary wrote the book - The Six Disciplines for Excellence - back in 2004. Gary was the former CEO of Solomon Software and has put all of his insights from his success at Solomon into a very well done book. Whether you are a small business owner or a senior executive at a major corporation - this book has captured the essence of what defines a "World Class Enterprise". More importantly - Gary has built a robust web site that not only outlines the method of the book, but includes many of the templates and exercises he profiles in each chapter. One step further - Gary and his team now offer a complete software system and consulting service that follow the Six Disciplines. How many book writers do you know that back up their methods with a service and product like this? Finally - Gary has a great blog that I have enjoyed following and has some very practical and useful insights. Well done Mr. Harpst. You have created what I think will be a book and method that will be used for generations. |
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| Our price | $10.17 | $9.20 | $12.89 | $18.15 | $15.64 | $16.47 |
| List price | $14.95 | $12.95 | $18.95 | $27.50 | $24.95 | $24.95 |
| Lowest used price | $4.15 | $1.50 | $2.60 | $7.77 | $12.75 | $9.45 |
| Lowest new price | $5.00 | $2.92 | $5.50 | $7.99 | $12.98 | $9.69 |
| Collectible price | - | - | - | $35.00 | - | $24.95 |
| Catalog | Book | Book | Book | Book | Book | Book |
| Release date | 2007-04-01 | 2008-07-01 | 2005-02-22 | 2008-01-15 | 2008-03-13 | 2007-01-09 |
| Media | Paperback | Hardcover | Paperback | Hardcover | Hardcover | Hardcover |
| Format | - | Illustrated | - | - | - | - |
| Number of pages | 296 | 208 | 256 | 288 | 288 | 256 |
| Ean | 9781933538815 | 9780981641102 | 9780471707608 | 9780307352187 | 9781591841999 | 9781401301309 |
| Book Isbn | 1933538813 | 0981641105 | 0471707600 | 0307352188 | 1591841992 | 1401301304 |
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