Fit to Compete

Advance Praise for Fit to Compete: Fit to Compete is a survival manual for every leader who has struggled to create real change in an organization. Michael Beer offers a powerful tool--the strategic fitness process--that enables leaders to successfully implement their strategies and, in the process, transform their organization's culture and their own ability to lead. -- Teresa Amabile, Baker Foundation Professor, Harvard Business School; coauthor, The Progress Principle Michael Beer has crafted a brilliantly simple process to help organizations honestly cut through the challenges of the day and advance their strategies in enlightened and impactful ways. -- Douglas R. Conant, founder, ConantLeadership; former President and CEO, Campbell Soup Company; and former Chairman, Avon Products Many firms are stuck--strategically and organizationally--because no one will speak truth to power. In this hugely important book, Professor Michael Beer lays out how to structure a process to make these conversations happen and details the often-astounding results that flow from putting them in place. -- Rebecca Henderson, John and Natty McArthur University Professor, Harvard University Before becoming CEO, I spent four months asking questions and listening to workers, middle-level managers, customers, and suppliers to try to learn the truth about the company. Few CEOs have this luxury. But Michael Beer's strategic fitness process shows you how to find truth in a way that not only works but also builds trust and institutional knowledge. It would have been hugely valuable if I had the method and wisdom in this book at the time I took over as CEO. -- Richard Gochnauer, former President and CEO, United Stationers