What the CEO Wants You to Know

February 15, 2001
Charan is a busy consultant and "leadership coach" who writes for such publications as "Fortune" and "Harvard Business Review." He is also the author of "Boards That Work" (1998) and a coauthor of "Every Business Is a "Growth Business (1998) and the just-released "Leadership Pipeline" (2001). Now, with this short, basic primer on how companies work, he targets younger people who may want to know more about the world of business and employees who seek a better understanding of how their company is organized and how and why decisions are made. Charan suggests that certain business principles are invariable and that both the successful fruit-cart vendor and the successful seven-figure CEO who understand these principles possess what he calls "business acumen." He explains the concept of profit and demonstrates how companies are organized around that concept. Charan's goals are to help employees figure out their company's three most important priorities, understand how their company creates wealth, and understand "how to become a total businessperson by linking [their] job[s] with the big picture of [the] company." (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)