Binding: Digital
Format: Download: PDF
Label: execubook.com
Manufacturer: execubook.com
Publication Date: 2001-08-30
Publisher: execubook.com
Release Date: 2001-08-30
Studio: execubook.com

Execubooks are eSummaries of books for mobile professionals, available in single-copy or by subscription, and optimally formatted for onscreen reading on laptops or handhelds - so you can stay abreast of leading business wisdom, wherever you have a moment! As a new leader, it’s very important to make a great first impression. Right From the Start shows readers how to take charge in a leadership role. It contains a step-by-step framework to follow during the first six months of a new job. This useful guide is perfect for anyone who wants lessons for leadership, success and transition.
According to Dan Ciampa and Michael Watkins, 64 percent of executives hired form the outside won't make it in their new jobs. While executives from within the ranks know the challenges, culture, and politics of a company, newcomers face a corporate minefield. Right from the Start is Ciampa and Watkins's survival manual for leaders taking starting work at a new company. "Leadership is never easy," they write. "This is never truer than when a new leader enters an organization from the outside and must change its culture in fundamental ways." Through interviews with dozens of corporate leaders who have succeeded or failed in such transitions, the authors provide a strategy for getting it right from the outset.

Ciampa, an independent consultant, and Watkins, a Harvard Business School associate professor, advise three key missions for new leaders: Create momentum; master the ability to learn, convey a vision, and build coalitions; and know and manage yourself well. A fast start is especially crucial. In fact, they say, the most important period starts with the recruitment or interview process and runs through the first six months in a new role. Right from the Start provides plenty of real-life examples of successes and failures, in everything from building coalitions to changing corporate culture. The stories tend to suffer sometimes because the executives remain anonymous. Nonetheless, the book is instructive for business people assuming new management roles. --Dan Ring

Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Guide for New Leader
Comment: I utilized the concepts in Right from the Start to support my success as I transitioned to a new career opportunity as National Training Director. I had led smaller teams in the past, but this team consisted of 40 professionals geographically dispersed throughout the USA. I also was interfacing with C suite executives on a daily basis. The concepts described within this book helped me navigate the corporate maze, garner cooperation and drive results. Thank you!
Kathy Kanzer-Johnson

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Customer Rating:
Summary: I was scamed
Comment: This download is a trick. All of the reviews and product descriptions depict the hardcover book which is hundreds of pages long. Do not be fooled like I was thinking you would get the entire book in digital form. I payed my money and recieved a 12 page version of the full book I expected to get.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Thanks for saving me money
Comment: I read the ebook experiences others had and decided not to purchase the ebook and for that matter the book period today through Amazon.

Amazon needs to take seriously the buyers that come to its online stores and remove such eBooks if they are only a 9 page summary.

Disgusted and will buy from another online provider.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Be careful downloading e-books!!
Comment: I was disapointed when I downloaded it and got 8 pages.
As a customer, I expected to have the digital version of the full book and not a summary.
I thought that the price difference was due to the absence of paper, printing, handling, shipping, etc.
The hardcover version is more than 300 pages; if you take the price per page of the digital version, the hardcover version should cost then ten times more!!!
All the examples are referred to that version and nowhere I was said that I was paying 5 dollars for a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PRODUCT.
I honestly believed that I was buying the full book.
I will think better before ebuying again....

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Content of the Digital Version
Comment: Thanks to the other reviews I knew I would be buying a summarized version of the book. I was hoping it would still provide the essence and condensed insights supposedly in the full version; however, I was quite disappointed.

I was a CEO of a tech company and have recently been asked by the venture capitalists to CEO a growing company in the same industry (as opposed to a turnaround effort). I was hoping to find nuggets of advice on how to effectively and sensitively assume the leadership position from the current co-founder & CEO who has done well up to this stage and is respected by his loyal staff.

Either the full version lacks the insightful information I am looking for, or the summarized version by Execubook is simply too high level. In fact, the cover page advertises: "Buy the Full Book". I guess it's purpose is pretty clear. Nevertheless, the summary makes you wonder if the full book also suffers from 'common sense' type of advice.

For example: the Table of Contents:
Introduction p.2
Four Pieces of Advice p.2
The 5 Primary Challenges p.3
Traps to Avoid p.5
Taking Action p.6

Briefly, the content of the book:
Four Pieces of Advice
1. Take advantage of the transition period into the new job
2. Don't underestimate the importance of advice and counsel
3. Show some empathy for the person you're succeeding

5 Primary Challenges
1. Acquire needed knowledge quickly
2. Establish new relationships
3. Juggle organizational and personal transition
4. Manage expectations
5. Manage personal equilibrium

Traps to Avoid
1. Falling behind the learning curve
2. Becoming isolated
. . .

Taking Action
1. Plan on taking 2-3 years to make measurable progress
2. On arrival, you should understand the organization's existing strategy, goals and challenges and shoul have formed hypotheses about operating priorities.
. . .

Each numbered item was followed by a paragraph or few lines of description, but those explanations left me saying, 'no duh.'

In fairness, it is hard to summarize without sounding too general, but there was very little in terms of new or provoking frameworks & mindsets, assumption challenges, or interesting insights.

Buy the original or look for something else altogether.

One last comment. I've now seen several unfavorable reviews on Amazon about the digital versions of what are supposed to be good books. I believe the concept of eBooks is great, but it looks like it's still in an immature, buyer-beware stage.

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