4.0 out of 5 stars
A Good Read!, May 19 2004
This review is from: Why the Bottom Line Isn't!: How to Build Value Through People and Organization (Hardcover)
Authors Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood use a bottom-line approach to assess various business intangibles that build actual value, such as a vision of future growth and improved capabilities. They present the keys to creating value by mustering intangible assets in a well-organized, highly structured way. Unfortunately, the intangible factors and the growth steps they discuss are well-traveled territory. But while other books may describe how to develop these "soft" qualities in a more intriguing or more original way, this volume handily dissects, quantifies and explains them step by step. Here, the vague is made concrete. Even a bean counter could understand the bottom line value of innovation, improved internal systems and enhanced organizational culture with this explanation. We recommend it to those who want to invest in intangible assets in a tangible setting, for very tangible reasons.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Intangibles in Organizational Effectiveness, Mar 11 2004
This review is from: Why the Bottom Line Isn't!: How to Build Value Through People and Organization (Hardcover)
This book argues that competitively successful organizations seek to constantly build long-term value by strategically managing some of their intangibles. As we know, intangibles are not accounted for in an organization's financial statements. By exploring the world of intangibles, the authors explore a new idea or a new bottom-line, which has the building of long-term market value as its central theme. The authors have identified 7 key intangibles that have to be nurtured. They include the following: shared mindset, talent, speed, learning, accountability, collaboration, and quality of leadership. They have built their formulations on the basis of their own real experiences or a survey of the practices followed by globally successful organizations. The book is based on an Architecture which is the central model on which its contents revolve (p.13).
Some of the prominent features of the book are as follows: Firstly, the book explores a new bottom line suggesting that the intangibles are as or even more important as the hard strategies, systems and processes; for it is the focus on the intangibles that helps build customer, investor, and employee confidence about the future.
Secondly, the book should be seen as outlining an agenda to focus on for HR managers; this is to charge them to increase the shareholders' value through helping develop each of the intangibles. The present crisis of HR department globally emanates from the allegation against it that it indulges in wasteful expenditure in non-measurable activities. Thus the book suggests that HR managers have to become coaches, architects, designers and facilitators of organizational capabilities.
Thirdly, the observations and formulations of the authors are based on inter-disciplinary perspectives within management segments, and are not just reflections of organization theory or effectiveness or just better HR management. They have drawn from researches from disciplines such as human resources management, financial management, IT, and leadership.
Fourthly, the book succeeds well as a solid guide that makes a complex subject simple to the reader by putting before her the essence of various functional perspectives related to management of intangibles. The discussion helps in gauging what works and what does not, and why.
Fifthly, the book contains some remarkably interesting and effective tips of leadership building at the top as well as leadership-building as a way of organizational life. The authors point out that when leaders identify and implement the seven intangibles identified in the Architecture, they "create intangible value" (p. 251).
The book is an essential reading for any executive who wants to better handle the complexities of managerial life in the era of chaotic competition. It surely helps the reader see a larger picture. Though the book has been written in extremely user-friendly way, I feel if it had a simpler title it would have carried a much higher attention value of potential lay readers. Still, there is no doubt that it will be especially liked by those managers and leaders who want to build confidence about shaping their future in the chaotic business world.
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1.0 out of 5 stars
Clever title or false premise?, Nov 26 2003
This review is from: Why the Bottom Line Isn't!: How to Build Value Through People and Organization (Hardcover)
This book appears to be based on two false premises. One, the bottom line is the bottom line, if organisations manage to get more value out of their people the bottom line changes. Two, there's no such thing as an intangible - market value of a business is tangible value. The big omission is any definition of value even though the authors constantly refer to this concept.
An ideal read for HR people who want to talk a good job but of little use for those who genuinely want to find practical ways to add value through people.
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