Break All the Rules
Has there ever been a success story in which plain dumb luck didn’t play a part? If so, it’s news to us. CEO Jim Clifton is the first to admit that in 1999, when the Gallup Organization began its first serious push into bigtime management consulting, plenty of potential clients were ready for something new. “What you have to understand about consultants and their clients is that these guys are like a school of 1,000 tuna,” he says. “They swim together, and they all go after the same thing at the same time.” Total Quality Management, reengineering, Six Sigma, the dot-com (ahem) revolution–as one management fad has followed another, many businesses are still stumbling along hoping to find the one that will finally unlock the secrets of profit growth. Mergers and acquisitions by and large don’t do it. Neither does fancy accounting, or not for long (just ask Enron). And relentless waves of cost cutting, that perennial staple, often lead nowhere but to, well, stripped-down companies (seen AT&T lately?).
(Marcus Buckingham) has devoted his life to helping other people decide what to devote their lives to.
Arguably the business world's most in-demand management guru.