The Executive Checklist: A Guide for Setting Direction and Managing Change

About the Book

A guide for new executives that explores how to create an overarching, enterprise-wide transformative program. The book provides a best-practice checklist for 8 core areas: Strategy Setting, Technology Alignment, Business Renovation, Project Management, Communications Renewal, Employee Engagement, Staff Transformation, and Organizational Design.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1. Establish Leadership The Foundation for Change 2. Build Trust A Vital Component of Enduring Achievement 3. Strategy Setting Translating Vision into Action 4. Engage Staff The Way to Gain Support and Accelerate Success 5. Manage Work through Projects A Means to Strategic Alignment 6. Renovate the Business A Way to Become 'of Choice' 7. Seamlessly Integrate Technology The Core to All We Do 8. Transform Staff The People Part of Enterprise-wide Change 9. Renew Communications Practices Transparency Improves Performance 10. Re-imagine the Organization The Expressway to the Future Postscript: A Bold Vision for Tomorrow's Organizations A Last Word About the Author

About the Author :
James Kerr is the founder of the Best Practices Enterprise Group within Kerr Systems International, LLC. He is a published author, international lecturer, and well-respected management consultant specializing in corporate transformation, strategy formulation, business process redesign and Internet and technology management and planning. Consulting with many Fortune 100 firms, Jim can claim such diverse organizations as The Home Depot, JP Morgan Chase, Mitsui Sumitomo, IBM and the Joint Chiefs of Staff as clients. A graduate of Bentley University, Jim earned an M.S. degree in Management Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - where he continues to teach graduate-level Strategic Planning courses in its Lally School of Management. He is the author of three previous books, The IRM Imperative (Wiley and Sons, 1989), Inside RAD (McGraw-Hill, 1991), and The Best Practices Enterprise (J. Ross Publishing, 2006).

Review :
"James Kerr's The Executive Checklist will not only help you achieve your goals, but make getting there far easier and less stressful. In operating rooms and airline cockpits checklists save lives, and this book may very well save your professional life. Put it at the top of your book buying checklist." August Turak, Forbes.com leadership contributor and Author of Business Secrets of the Trappist Monks "James Kerr's The Executive Checklist is, indeed, a great checklist for business executives a 'to do' list chock full of useful examples and wise advice. And we particularly like the fact that a number of Kerr's examples are bad examples: tales of managers or initiatives that were not successful. As business authors ourselves, we know how difficult it is to find these kinds of cases, which are usually even more instructive than the successes, and Kerr does a great job of tying the cases to his checklist of principles. The Executive Checklist is well worth the read!" Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D., authors of Extreme Trust: Honesty as a Competitive Advantage "If you really want to change an organization, you need to be very clear what outcomes you want. The Executive Checklist does this and is also a practical, accessible, and comprehensive handbook for doing business in the 21st century. Any manager who wants to thrive in 'the new normal' needs this on their bookshelf." David Bosdet, Executive Editor, Management-Issues.com "Jim Kerr's The Executive Checklist belongs on your 'must read' list. There's something for executives in all sectors. As government leaders learn to embrace unprecedented change, this book offers profound strategies laid out with common sense and anchored in proven results that will help them set a new course of action." Kevin Sullivan, Connecticut's Commissioner of Revenue Services and former Lt. Governor "James Kerr provides a simple, everyday technique for successfully managing a business. All aspiring managers should learn from his excellent insights." Neil Smith, author of New York Times bestseller How Excellent Companies Avoid Dumb Things