What the CEO Wants You to Know : How Your Company Really Works by Ram Charan

BATB score: 4/10 🫥

Best for: the book explicitly said, written for Millennials, the world’s next leaders #aww

Best as: started out very well as an Introduction to Business refresher, then tragically deteriorates in content quality and crushed all of the Millennials’ souls along with it

Best to: a true example of generation gap in an organization in the format of a book; Gen X teaching Gen Y how to be leaders, cue Gen Y eye rolls

BATB lingering thought: there are bits and pieces of good stuff in there, but yeah, bits and pieces

Best quotes: “If the company is not growing profitably or your business unit lags behind competitors, your personal progress will suffer. You will not have the opportunity to be promoted and move forward. Top managers will begin to cut costs and reduce the number of employees. They’ll start reining in R&D and advertising. Good people will leave, and eventually the company will go into a death spiral and employees - including you - will suffer.”

“Moneymaking in business has four parts: satisfying customer needs better than the competition, generating cash, producing a sufficient return on the money invested in the business (your capital), and growing profitably.”

“Today, no growth means lagging behind in a world that grows every day.”

“Good growth is profitable, organic, differentiated, and sustainable.”