CORPORATE TRANSFORMATION RESOURCES Robert H. Miles, BIG IDEAS TO BIG RESULTS ACT Accelerated Corporate Transformation

RESOURCES

Accelerating Corporate Transformations:
(Don't Lose Your Nerve!)

by Robert H. Miles
Harvard Business Review
January - February 2010
Six mistakes that can derail your company's attempts to change.

"Ask any CEO who has overseen a corporate transformation what should have been handled differently, and you are likely to get this answer "We should have—and could have-moved faster.

Such executives have a long list of regrets: They wish they had unified the leadership team right away. They wish they had engaged employees sooner and quickly drummed up support for the new vision. They wish they hadn't waited so long to test their assumptions and refine their key initiatives. And they wish they had generated some visible returns early on, to accelerate the commitments and reinforce the expectations of employees, customers, suppliers, and investors.

Any corporate transformation—launching the next major phase in an organization, executing a new corporate strategy to achieve breakthrough performance, enabling a new executive leader to take charge, or integrating an acquisition—is fraught with challenges. More than 25 years ago, I began chairing an innovative program that convened groups of CEOs and their executive teams for two-week sessions at Harvard Business School, where they collaborated with faculty members and noncompeting peers on solving their most serious challenges. They met again nine months later to share their experiences. Within a few years, a clear pattern emerged from the program: The biggest barrier to corporate transformation was getting organizations to execute their bold new ideas quickly. Since then, from my direct involvement as principal process architect in more than 25 corporate transformations led by new and sitting CEOs, I've concluded that many talented executives don’t fully appreciate the following subtle but powerful insights:

Transformation launches must be bold and rapid to succeed. Yet, embedded in most organizations are six kinds of "speed brakes” that can slow things down to a grinding pace.
During business-as-usual periods, these brakes may be irritating, but their effects on performance are reasonably benign. However, during a bold transformation, which requires rapid action, any one of them can derail the larger effort.
To accelerate transformations, managers need to release each of these brakes, in a particular order.

Robert H. Miles speech highlights on new Harvard Business Review Article		Even one of the speed brakes can bring an entire corporate transformation and all related breakthrough-performance aspirations to a sudden halt. Some of the methods for releasing the brakes may seem counterintuitive. For instance, it might not be obvious at first how you can accelerate change by pausing to establish safe passage or setting time aside for structured dialogue, or how you can accomplish sweeping transformation by restricting your focus to a very few important initiatives. But the tactics discussed in this article will help you plan and execute a rapid corporate reinvention that actually sticks. This is a discipline that all CEOs and general managers will have to master to be successful in the twenty-first century." Reference: Robert H. Miles, "Accelerating Corporate Transformations (Don't Lose Your Nerve)," Harvard Business Review, January-February 2010, Spotlight on Reinvention issue, pp. 67-75.

Corporate Transformation Resources is led by Robert H. Miles, a long-time thought and practice leader in the fields of business transformation, organizational effectiveness, culture change, and executive leadership. Bob Miles has pioneered an Accelerated Corporate Transformation, or ACT methodology that enables new CEOs to rapidly take charge in a high-engagement manner.


	RESOURCES Corporate Comeback The Story of Renewal and Transformation at National Semiconductor by Robert H. Miles, Ph.D. Jossey-Bass Publishers, A Division of John Wiley & Sons, 1997 *An insider's view of the remarkable transformation of National Semiconductor—and a general framework for leading corporate transformation* "A must-read for any serious business leader who intends to be competitive in the twenty-first century. Bob Miles is a world-class practitioner and academic who has distilled practical lessons from his firsthand experience in the trenches helping some of the business world's most important transformations." -from Noel M. Tichy, Professor, Michigan Business School and Director of the Global Leadership Program; Author of Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will and Judgment. Miles articulates a winning framework that has evolved since his early career in developing transformational leaders at the Harvard Business School. Over the past twenty years, Miles's model has been tested and refined in a variety of situations to help companies restore financial viability, integrate merged operations, and pursue quantum revenue growth...The powerful lessons of success detailed in this book can help leaders avoid the costly lessons of trial and error and face today's challenges aimed with crucial insight and experience. National Semiconductor's transformation is legendary in the business community, and its champion, then chairman and CEO Gil Amelio, was catapulted into prominence as a result. At his right hand was Robert Miles. Now leading an ambitious and highly public comeback bid at Apple Computer, Amelio and Miles are charged with pulling the once-invincible computer corporation back from the brink. Corporate Comeback is a riveting day-to-day story of National's incredible transformation that serves as a field-tested map for leaders who need to achieve significant change without exposing their organization to unacceptable risks. Miles articulates a winning framework that has evolved since his early career in developing transformational leaders at t he Harvard Business School. Over the past twenty years, Miles's model has been tested and refined in a variety of situations to help companies restore financial viability, integrate merged operations, and pursue quantum revenue growth. Miles has seen dramatic, successful change on numerous occasions-as a key player on Jack Welch's early corporate transformation team at General Electric, with Amelio at Rockwell, and then at National. The powerful lessons of success detailed in this book can help leaders avoid the costly lessons of trial and error and face today's challenges armed with crucial insight and experience. ROBERT H. MILES Speaker, Author, Business Advisor, Global Thought and Practice Leader A widely recognized thought and practice leader in the field of corporate transformation and strategy execution, Bob is a gifted business advisor and process architect. Based on a unique senior executive program he chaired at the Harvard Business School earlier in his career, Bob developed a simple, powerful approach for accelerating the achievement of breakthrough results across a variety of corporate transformation challenges. Called Accelerated Corporate Transformation, ACT has stood the tests of fundamental transformations at such leading companies as GE, IBM Global Services, National Semiconductor, Office Depot and Symantec. ACT has been called, “A simple, no-nonsense process that is thoroughly grounded in reality, inclusive of people and 100% results-oriented.” Once reserved only for executives in residence at Harvard Business School and a select group of global companies, the basic principles for addressing breakthrough performance are now available in his new book BIG Ideas to BIG Results with Dissero Partners colleague Mike Kanazawa, and through his new Speaking Series. Cloth 1997 ISBN 0-7879-0322-1388 pages $27.00 Corporate Transformation Resources is led by Robert H. Miles, a long-time thought and practice leader in the fields of business transformation, organizational effectiveness, culture change, and executive leadership. Bob Miles has pioneered an Accelerated Corporate Transformation, or ACT methodology that enables new CEOs to rapidly take charge in a high-engagement manner.


	RESOURCES Leading Corporate Transformation A Blueprint for Business Renewal by Robert H. Miles, Ph.D. Jossey-Bass Publishers, A Division of John Wiley & Sons, 1997 "The framework Bob Miles illustrates in his new book has been the key tool Symantec has used to start the shift from being a technology-driven to a customer-driven company. Business leaders facing a variety of corporate transformation challenges will benefit from this important executive briefing." -Gordon E. Eubanks, Jr., Chief Executive Officer, Symantec Corporation The distillation of a stellar twenty-year career, Leading Corporate Transformation is consultant Robert Miles's reply to executives who want to be able to rise to the most pervasive challenge facing them today: how to achieve fundamental transformation without exposing the organization to unacceptable risk. Here, in the form of an executive briefing, are the expert guidance and tools you need to meet a variety of corporate transformation challenges, whether you are trying to reposition a successful company, revitalize a failing one, merge different businesses and cultures, or manage a leadership succession process. These insights are relevant not only for senior executives, but also for leaders at all levels of an organization undergoing fundamental transformation. By sharing success stories from his professional experiences-the ones in which his detailed framework for large-scale transformation was used-Miles shows how you can: Decipher the initial conditions required to launch and accelerate transformation Generate a strategic vision and business success model Align your organization and your people along the critical path Advance a process architecture for keeping everything on track If you are a leader-at any organizational level-who must effect fundamental change, you will want to keep this book close at hand. ROBERT H. MILES Speaker, Author, Business Advisor, Global Thought and Practice Leader A widely recognized thought and practice leader in the field of corporate transformation and strategy execution, Bob is a gifted business advisor and process architect. Based on a unique senior executive program he chaired at the Harvard Business School earlier in his career, Bob developed a simple, powerful approach for accelerating the achievement of breakthrough results across a variety of corporate transformation challenges. Called Accelerated Corporate Transformation, ACT has stood the tests of fundamental transformations at such leading companies as GE, IBM Global Services, National Semiconductor, Office Depot and Symantec. ACT has been called, “A simple, no-nonsense process that is thoroughly grounded in reality, inclusive of people and 100% results-oriented.” Once reserved only for executives in residence at Harvard Business School and a select group of global companies, the basic principles for addressing breakthrough performance are now available in his new book BIG Ideas to BIG Results with Dissero Partners colleague Mike Kanazawa, and through his new Speaking Series. Cloth May 1997 ISBN 0-7879-0327-2 256 pages $25.00 Corporate Transformation Resources is led by Robert H. Miles, a long-time thought and practice leader in the fields of business transformation, organizational effectiveness, culture change, and executive leadership. Bob Miles has pioneered an Accelerated Corporate Transformation, or ACT methodology that enables new CEOs to rapidly take charge in a high-engagement manner.


	RESOURCES ARTICLES: "Accelerating Corporate Transformations (Don't Lose Your Nerve)," by Robert H. Miles, Ph.D. Harvard Business Review January-February 2010, Spotlight on Reinvention issue, pp. 67-75. Excerpt: "Ask any CEO who has overseen a corporate transformation what should have been handled differently, and you are likely to get this answer "We should have—and could have-moved faster." Such executives have a long list of regrets: They wish they had unified the leadership team right away. They wish they had engaged employees sooner and quickly drummed up support for the new vision. They wish they hadn't waited so long to test their assumptions and refine their key initiatives. And they wish they had generated some visible returns early on, to accelerate the commitments and reinforce the expectations of employees, customers, suppliers, and investors." "Beyond the Age of Dilbert: Accelerating Corporate Transformation by Rapidly Engaging All Employees," by Robert H. Miles, Ph.D. Organizational Dynamics , Special Edition, Summer 2001. Excerpt: "As we cross the threshold of a new millennium, a fundamental shift is taking place in the relationship between the organization and the employee in all business sectors. The shift is so huge and the consequences so profound that it is almost as though we are witnessing a time-accelerated shift in two tectonic plates. The plate that is sliding under the new one is submerging an era in which management was the predominant focus in business enterprise. This Era of Management deified a. long line of corporate visionaries, including Lee lacocca of Chrysler Corp., Jack Welch of General Electric Co., Sam Walton of Wal-Mart Stores, and Andy Grove of Intel Corp., to name only a few of the era's highest priests." "Accelerated Organizational Transformation: Balancing Scope and Involvement," by Robert H. Miles, Ph.D.in Breaking the Code of Change. (Boston: Harvard Business School Publications) 2000, pp. 381-406. Excerpt: "The challenge sweeping over almost all industries today is the need to achieve rapid-cycle, organizational transformation. Not rapid-cycle, project-based, incremental change or slow, lumbering, organization-wide transformation...Large, complex organizations do not rapidly change by sequentially pursuing a series of short-cycle projects. The learning cycle involved in such an approach is simply too protracted and the anticipated diffusion of learnings throughout the enterprise too unpredictable to keep up with the increasing pace of change imposed on the organization by the external environment. So how do we speed up the process of corporate transformation and at the same time increase the capacity of leaders/managers at all levels?" "Leading Corporate Transformation: Are You Up to the Task?" by Robert H. Miles, Ph.D.in The Leader's Change Handbook. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, A Division of John Wiley & Company) 1999, pp. 221-267. Excerpt: "To master the new pace, transformation leaders have to get it right the first time. They can't wait for early successes to hatch before the rest of the organization catches on. They have to hit the beaches simultaneously on all fronts. They no longer have the luxury of gradually cascading new ideas and expectations down through the organization. They have to greatly enrich and accelerate the processes of learning within the organization. And they have to quickly engage all employees, obtain their commitment, and enable them to lead at their own levels." ROBERT H. MILES Speaker, Author, Business Advisor, Global Thought and Practice Leader A widely recognized thought and practice leader in the field of corporate transformation and strategy execution, Bob is a gifted business advisor and process architect. Based on a unique senior executive program he chaired at the Harvard Business School earlier in his career, Bob developed a simple, powerful approach for accelerating the achievement of breakthrough results across a variety of corporate transformation challenges. Called Accelerated Corporate Transformation, ACT has stood the tests of fundamental transformations at such leading companies as GE, IBM Global Services, National Semiconductor, Office Depot and Symantec. ACT has been called, “A simple, no-nonsense process that is thoroughly grounded in reality, inclusive of people and 100% results-oriented.” Once reserved only for executives in residence at Harvard Business School and a select group of global companies, the basic principles for addressing breakthrough performance are now available in his new book BIG Ideas to BIG Results with Dissero Partners colleague Mike Kanazawa, and through his new Speaking Series. Corporate Transformation Resources is led by Robert H. Miles, a long-time thought and practice leader in the fields of business transformation, organizational effectiveness, culture change, and executive leadership. Bob Miles has pioneered an Accelerated Corporate Transformation, or ACT methodology that enables new CEOs to rapidly take charge in a high-engagement manner.


	RESOURCES BIG Ideas to BIG Results Remake and Recharge Your Company, Fast by Michael T. Kanazawa and Robert H. Miles Financial Times (FT) Press, February 2008 Synopsis Companies today are faced with the need to constantly transform themselves, but too often are trapped in a state of gridlock and task overload that keeps them stuck in a rut. Generating a corporate transformation, a high energy shift in strategic direction, is one of the most difficult challenges a person will face in their career, and one of the most rewarding when you get it right. Put simply, transformation means opening up new possibilities for growth and moving from one state to another, but it is tough work and most efforts fall short. Quickly getting an organization from big ideas to big results is today's top management challenge. Big Ideas to Big Results demystifies what it takes to break through the gridlock and lead accelerated transformations that generate breakthrough results. Through 25 years of refining and streamlining the ACT (Accelerated Corporate Transformation) process based on real work with real leaders, this book shows you how to quickly focus, align, and engage your organization to accelerate transformation and drive breakthrough results. With the process as a guide, the authors found that the way in which leaders apply the process really makes the difference, and share how to do that with the readers. There's no silver bullet: it's a simple process and tough work to lead it correctly. Michael Lee Stallard (mstallard@epluribuspartners.com), author of Fired Up or Burned Out, 03/12/2008 Leaders of organizations would be wise to follow the advice of Michael Kanazawa and Robert Miles in their excellent new book entitled Big Ideas to Big Results. The book lays out their ACT process for organizations that want to implement three to four major initiatives each year. The authors developed the process to combat corporate ADD and employee disengagement when it comes to executing organizational initiatives. Based on my more than 25 years experience in business as well as my expertise in employee engagement, I completely agree that these are major problems in organizations today and the solution the authors propose will go a long way toward solving them. The ACT process is also entirely consistent with the employee engagement research we have conducted at E Pluribus Partners and presented in Fired Up or Burned Out: How to Reignite Your Team's Passion, Creativity, and Productivity. Kanazawa and Mile's ACT process works in part because it helps meet universal human needs for respect, recognition, belonging, autonomy, personal growth and meaning. When these needs are met, people thrive, individually and collectively. Strong leaders will recognize many of the best practice steps that are a part of ACT. What makes this book valuable is the way the authors integrate the best practices into a step-by-step process and add ideas of their own. I especially liked their descriptions of annual high employee engagement cascades with tablework and quarterly mini-cascades. It's worth buying the book just to learn more about these practices alone. Big Ideas to Big Results will be popular with corporate leaders. It's a quick and easy read with a process that is practical to implement and will help move organizations from identifying big ideas to producing big results. Congratulations to Kanazawa and Miles for developing an important new contribution to process innovation and describing it in an accessible way. ROBERT H. MILES Speaker, Author, Business Advisor, Global Thought and Practice Leader A widely recognized thought and practice leader in the field of corporate transformation and strategy execution, Bob is a gifted business advisor and process architect. Based on a unique senior executive program he chaired at the Harvard Business School earlier in his career, Bob developed a simple, powerful approach for accelerating the achievement of breakthrough results across a variety of corporate transformation challenges. Called Accelerated Corporate Transformation, ACT has stood the tests of fundamental transformations at such leading companies as GE, IBM Global Services, National Semiconductor, Office Depot and Symantec. ACT has been called, “A simple, no-nonsense process that is thoroughly grounded in reality, inclusive of people and 100% results-oriented.” Once reserved only for executives in residence at Harvard Business School and a select group of global companies, the basic principles for addressing breakthrough performance are now available in his new book BIG Ideas to BIG Results with Dissero Partners colleague Mike Kanazawa, and through his new Speaking Series. Corporate Transformation Resources is led by Robert H. Miles, a long-time thought and practice leader in the fields of business transformation, organizational effectiveness, culture change, and executive leadership. Bob Miles has pioneered an Accelerated Corporate Transformation, or ACT methodology that enables new CEOs to rapidly take charge in a high-engagement manner.

Remake and Recharge Your Company, Fast
by Michael T. Kanazawa and Robert H. Miles
Publisher: Financial Times – FT Press
Date: March 2008
ISBN: 978-0-13-234478-4
Copyright © 2008 by Michael T. Kanazawa and Robert H. Miles. All rights reserved.

Early Acclaim for the Book:

“Kanazawa and Miles join forces to provide leaders a remarkable roadmap for successfully transforming their organizations for breakthrough performance. Their very practical and straightforward playbook is a must read for leaders at all levels in the 21st century.”
—Noel M. Tichy Global leadership authority and author of Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls (with Warren Bennis)

“This book is a must read for leaders building focused and strategically driven businesses. Mike and Bob, the knowledge practice leaders in transformation leadership, here provide important insights for managers who aspire to impact the direction of their organizations.”
—John W. Spiegel, Chairman, S1 Corporation, and Former Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer, SunTrust Banks, Inc.

“BIG Ideas to BIG Results is Must Reading. Mike and Robert have honed the Accelerated Corporate Transformation Process based on innovative thinking and extensive real world corporate transformation experience.”
—Sam Araki, CEO, ST-Infonox, and Former President, Lockheed-Martin Missiles and Space

“Kanazawa and Miles provide you with a roadmap for success. They show you how to keep it simple, communicate the vision, and execute all levels of the organization.”
—Peter L. Lynch, Chairman, CEO, and President, Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc.

“I really like the frank, plain talking, honest approach. Many of the points Mike and Bob make match my experiences so I found myself smiling a lot as I read through the chapters. I would recommend this book to the CEOs I work with.”
—Kevin Compton, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

“Short, simple, and to the point. Kanazawa and Miles distill decades of corporate transformation experience down to a few, vital messages. Required reading for CEOs.”
—Peter Darbee, Chairman, CEO, and President, PG&E Corporation

“Mike and Bob have outlined an extensive and highly valuable set of actions and processes that can be implemented by corporate management to drive significant improvement in organizations. Their approach can be of great benefit not only to CEOs and their executive staffs, but also to vice presidents, general managers, and department heads.”
—Richard Beyer, President and CEO, Intersil Corporation

“This book is a must read for CEOs who are looking for time-tested principles and a proven process by which senior teams can realign their organization and its people with their strategic intent. In a fast moving world, nothing is more important.”
—Michael Beer, Cahners-Raab Professor of Business, Harvard Business School and author, Breaking the Code of Change

“BIG Ideas to BIG Results is a must read for CEOs, as well as managers empowered with bringing about meaningful change. Most executives are comfortable with functional change within their own areas of competence and responsibilities, but one of the most challenging realities of the 21st century is that competitive advantage and speed of change require complex cross-functional solutions. I am recommending reading this book to all of my C-level clients.”
—Jerry Black, President and CEO, Kurt Salmon Associates

“In the past years as a new General Manager and then as a new CEO, I have had the pleasure of working with Bob and Mike on corporate transformation challenges. They have done an outstanding job of distilling complex corporate turnaround principles into a practical book full of blueprints for CEOs, their executive staffs, and their boards to apply in corporate transformations.”
—Dr. Bami Bastani, President and CEO, Anadigics, Inc.

“ACT: an amalgamation of time-tested wisdom, frameworks, processes, and illustrative cases that provides a must read for both successful companies and those that are in transition. Everything is right here in this Little Red Book, for the CEO down to the managers of companies that need to execute.”
—Mas Sakamoto, Vice President, Corporate Planning and Marketing, NEC Corporation of America

“BIG Ideas to BIG Results is a superb handbook for leaders wanting to transform their organizations. With Bob Miles’ expert guidance, our company launched a transformation four years ago, and our Drive for Value business model is now embedded in the way we operate.”
—Shirley Gaufin, Chief Human Resources Officer, Black & Veatch

“For the past ten years, leader-led techniques have helped us transform Delta TechOps from a cost center to the largest maintenance repair and overhaul center in North America. Mike and Bob make it simple and easy to execute.”
—Anthony Charaf, Senior Vice President, TechOps, Delta Air Lines, Inc.

“ACT was employed at the Tour a decade and a half ago to help the new commissioner ‘take charge’ and most recently to relaunch the Nationwide Tour. It is simple, it gets the job done rapidly, and it can be adapted to any corporate transformation challenge.”
—Worth W. Calfee, President, Nationwide Tour of the PGA Tour

“An important reading for any executive who wants to revitalize his/her company, and do it efficiently!”
—Jay W. Lorsch, Louis E. Kirstein Professor of Human Relations, Harvard Business School

“BIG Ideas to BIG Results captures a very simple but powerful methodology for transforming ideas into action. Their recipe for leadership really moves the corporate mountain.”
—John Baker, CEO and President, Florida Rock Industries, Inc.

“BIG Ideas to BIG Results shows how to take strategies and connect them with tactics, align an entire organization around a common set of goals, and get everyone bought in. It is the one ingredient most companies miss, and this is the one that helps you win.”
—Tony Weiss, Vice President/General Manager, Software, Peripherals, Imaging, Displays, and Dell Direct Retail, Dell, Inc.

“BIG Ideas to BIG Results is chock full of practical tools to get your strategy and operations in synch and moving faster down the track —a ‘do more on less’ guidebook for every executive.”
—Marty Beard, President, Sybase 365

“Want to improve your valuation? Get your ACT in gear. This book is highly recommended reading for executives who understand that higher market values are commanded by those companies that consistently generate big ideas and convert those ideas into big results.”
—Michael Gardner, Executive Vice President, Wedbush Morgan Securities

“Having experienced guidance from Mike on his process for strategic transformation in our business unit, I must confess that I am now reconciled with strategic business consultants! This book is a must-read for any executive willing to engage into a reshaping of its organization for a more ambitious future.”
—Olivier Le Peuch, President, Schlumberger Information Solutions

“Our executive clients consistently ask for tools, rather than theory, that they can immediately implement in order to execute strategy. BIG Ideas to BIG Results offers a uniquely clear and practical format for confronting and transforming reality with proven results.”
—Whitney Hischier, Assistant Dean, Center of Executive Development, Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley

“BIG Ideas to BIG Results describes a powerful yet simple way for leaders to reposition a company in a highly efficient manner, critical in today’s fast-paced, everchanging, ‘flat’ world. It produces clear measurable results, energizes and aligns everyone in the organization, and is the only methodology I have experienced where everything you do is an integral part of your job—period!”
—Javed Patel, CEO, Sierra Monolithics


	RESOURCES BIG Ideas to BIG Results Remake and Recharge Your Company, Fast by Michael T. Kanazawa and Robert H. Miles Financial Times (FT) Press, March 2008 Why do most executive leaders fail to achieve breakthrough performance? They make things too complex. They clutter the company with jargon. They dither on the launch pad. They hire too many consultants, chase too many fads. It doesn’t have to be that complicated. A NO-NONSENSE, STEP-BY-STEP, RESULTS-DRIVEN APPROACH TO DRIVING BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION AND BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE. Drawing on the foundations laid in the highly innovative program Miles chaired at the Harvard Business School, and continuing with his experience in working with Kanazawa and with hundreds of senior executives, the authors show how to align your organization behind just a few core initiatives, bias your organization your organization toward speed, create leaders at every level, and achieve traction and accountability in all facets of execution. You’ll learn how to engage people instead of frustrating them, and harness their energy instead of wasting it. Whether you’re executing a new initiative, restoring your company’s growth, entering a new market, or attempting to transform your enterprise, this book will help you find the right path, clear the obstacles, and get to breakthrough performance – safely and quickly. Early Book Reviews: "Their Clear Hands-on Approach..." "It takes more than a vision to launch a successful corporate strategy. It takes engagement on the part of employees at all levels. Establishing such engagement is at the heart of this punchy, dynamic book by Kanazawa and Miles... Fewer than half of employees, according to a quoted poll understand their company's strategic goals and only 43% think there is ever any follow-through on planned strategy shifts. This is why the authors assert, so many corporate initiatives fail. After seeing the process break down countless times, Kanazawa and Miles developed a step-by-step guide to harnessing the energy that companies usually waste when introducing initiatives. By creating more of a "'buy-in' throughout the organization through accountability, employees become committed to company goals, they claim. Their clear and hands-on approach is useful for anyone whose livelihood is tied to the successful execution of business initiatives." - Linda Bennami Publishers Weekly "An Innovative Organizational Process that Produces Result Every Year" "Leaders of organizations would be wise to follow the advice of Michael Kanazawa and Robert Miles in their excellent new book entitled BIG Ideas to BIG Results. The book lays out their ACT process for organizations that want to implement three to four initiatives each year...Kanazawa and Miles' s ACT process works in part because it helps meet universal human needs for respect, recognition, belonging, autonomy, and personal growth and meaning. When these needs are met, people thrive, individually and collectively. Strong leaders will recognize many of the best practice steps that are part of ACT. What makes this book valuable is the way the authors integrate the best practices into a step by-by-step process and add ideas of their own. I especially liked their descriptions of annual high engagement cascades with tablework and quarterly mini-cascades. Its worth buying the book just to learn more about these practices alone. BIG Ideas to BIG Results will be popular with corporate leaders. It's a quick and easy read with a process that is practical to implement and will help move organizations from identifying big ideas to producing big results. Congratulations to Kanazawa and Miles for developing an important new contribution to process innovation and describing it in an accessible way." -Michael Lee Stallard Principal, E Pluribus Partners Amazon Book Reviews ROBERT H. MILES Speaker, Author, Business Advisor, Global Thought and Practice Leader A widely recognized thought and practice leader in the field of corporate transformation and strategy execution, Bob is a gifted business advisor and process architect. Based on a unique senior executive program he chaired at the Harvard Business School earlier in his career, Bob developed a simple, powerful approach for accelerating the achievement of breakthrough results across a variety of corporate transformation challenges. Called Accelerated Corporate Transformation, ACT has stood the tests of fundamental transformations at such leading companies as GE, IBM Global Services, National Semiconductor, Office Depot and Symantec. ACT has been called, “A simple, no-nonsense process that is thoroughly grounded in reality, inclusive of people and 100% results-oriented.” Once reserved only for executives in residence at Harvard Business School and a select group of global companies, the basic principles for addressing breakthrough performance are now available in his new book BIG Ideas to BIG Results with Dissero Partners colleague Mike Kanazawa, and through his new Speaking Series. Corporate Transformation Resources is led by Robert H. Miles, a long-time thought and practice leader in the fields of business transformation, organizational effectiveness, culture change, and executive leadership. Bob Miles has pioneered an Accelerated Corporate Transformation, or ACT methodology that enables new CEOs to rapidly take charge in a high-engagement manner.