Why are the New Zealand All Blacks the best rugby team in the world? How does the Kirov Ballet produce generation after generation of exceptional ballerinas? How did Southwest Airlines evolve from being an idiosyncratic Texan airline to become one of the most successful businesses internationally? How does the Finnish School Education System deliver great results by breaking conventions?
Powerhouse uncovers the performance secrets of some of the most impressive organisations around the world and reveals the key principles they have in common to enable any business to raise their own bar.
To understand what makes these organizations great, MacNeice and Bowen have conducted immersive and personal research; investigating their culture, interviewing their leaders and observing their everyday practice. Despite this diverse range of seemingly contrasting industries - business, sport, technology, finance, the arts - each of these successful institutions share a common bond: they are world-class industry leaders and have repeatedly outperformed their competition.
Powerhouse explores what lessons can be learnt from these organizations to provide a unique and in-depth analysis of how enduring high performance can be developed. It identifies the core capabilities they all share and is essential reading for business executives or anyone who wants to understand what really makes these world-class institutions the very best.
About the Authors
Brian MacNeice is an expert in high performance and is a regular speaker on the topic at business conferences and seminars. Brian regularly runs High Performance workshops for organisations, leadership teams and senior executives. He has advised many blue chip companies in a career spanning almost 20 years across a diverse range of industry sectors. Brian is Managing Director of Kotinos Partners, which is a consultancy that focuses on helping CEOs and Leadership teams deliver sustained high performance.
James Bowen is an expert in strategy and organisational design and a performance consultant with over 15 years of advisory experience. Over the course of his career, James has worked with executive teams of blue-chip companies on a range of engagements with the achievement of step-change performance improvement as their common goal. James is also Managing Director of Kotinos Partners, which is a consultancy that focuses on helping CEOs and Leadership teams deliver sustained high performance.
Industry Reviews
"Powerhouse challenges our thinking about high performance by examining essential qualities in a wide range of leading institutions. The Powerhouse model - emphasizing Plan, Priorities, People, and Process - is a highly useful way to think about the alignment of key elements for any institution. Practical and sure to be of great value for managers from all fields"--Phil Rosenzweig, Professor of Strategy and International Business, IMD Switzerland
"Powerhouse is a compelling and provocative compendium of how some of the world's leading organizations have reached the pinnacle in their respective fields. This book is well researched and clearly written; a must read for leaders who aspire to transform their organization into a world-class, high performing institution that is built to last"--Tom Massey, author of 'The ABC's of Effective Leadership' and 'Ten Commitments for Building High Performance Teams'
"The best analysis of successful organizations since Good to Great and Built to Last. Powerhouse offers amazing insights into the world's best organizations and the 12 principles that drive organizational performance. This is a must read for any executive who wants to create lasting success"--Kevin Kruse, New York Times bestselling author of 'Employee Engagement 2.0'
"Thomas Edison once said, 'If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves.' This could be the credo of Powerhouse written by Brian MacNeice and James Bowen. Using twelve remarkable case studies of world-renowned organizations, they make quite clear that 'high performance is by definition a collective endeavour.' In illustrating what differentiates these captivating organizations from the more humdrum ones, they make the reader familiar with the "powerhouse approach to performance transformation." Anybody interested in the DNA of what makes for sustainable high performance would do well to carefully study this book"--Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries, Distinguished Clinical Professor of Leadership Development and Organizational Change, INSEAD
