Zoom: How 12 Exceptional Companies are Navigating the Road to the Next Economy

A groundbreaking new book that examines the companies leading the charge in merging the practices of traditional and e-commerce business -- and the lessons we can learn from them.

In Lessons from the Top, James M. Citrin, of the world-renowned executive search firm Spencer Stuart, identified and interviewed (with coauthor Thomas Neff) the fifty top CEOs in America, and distilled the essential principles of leadership they all share.

In Citrin's compelling new management book, Zoom, he offers in-depth analyses of twelve market leaders -- including General Motors' e-GM, BEA Systems, eBay, Sun Microsystems, and General Electric -- and reveals how they are bridging the complex demands of yesterday's and today's economies. From the hard-won lessons these pioneering market leaders have learned along the way, Citrin identifies the principles that characterize success today and will help chart success in the future -- principles that other companies can use to redirect their thinking, resources, and energies. Among them:

Encourage flexibility. Relationships are much more fluid and multidimensional today. Rather than using a strategic planning process, the best leaders use a strategic framework, with a lot of room for improvisation.

Share the vision. It's not enough to just talk about the company's vision -- you need to evangelize about it, and repeat its mantra so often that it becomes second nature to everyone in the company.

Create a genuine learning organization by shortening feedback cycles, effectively transferring knowledge, and expanding a company's "listening circles."

Reward Failure. It is important to find ways to mitigate personal and organizational risk, and identify and encourage risk takers. They are the ones who can transform a company.

What makes this book invaluable are the strategies top managers and executives reveal on how to implement their principles of success: how to flatten the organization, be first to market, measure the right things, and manage customer information. The result is an indespensable road map of the twenty-first century economy that corporate leaders can use to guide and shape their own efforts.

In the bestselling fashion of First, Break All the Rules and Built to Last, Zoom is essential reading for those determined to triumph in the years ahead.