
Win from Within
Build Organizational Culture for Competitive Advantage
James Heskett(Author)
Columbia University Press
Will be published approx. on 4. January 2022
Book
Hardback
264 pages
978-0-231-20300-5 (ISBN)
Description
There is significant evidence that an effective organizational culture provides a major competitive edge-higher levels of employee and customer engagement and loyalty translate into higher growth and profits. Many business leaders know this, yet few are doing much to improve their organizations' cultures. They are discouraged by misguided beliefs that an executive's tenure and an organization's attention span are too short for meaningful transformation.
James Heskett provides a roadmap for achievable and fast-paced culture change. He demonstrates that an effective culture supplies the trust that makes managing change of all kinds easier. It provides a foundation on which changes in strategy can be based, and it's a competitive edge that can't easily be hacked or copied. Examining leading companies around the world, Heskett details how organizational culture makes employees more loyal, more productive, and more creative. He discusses how to quantify its effects in order to sell the notion of culture change to the organization and considers how to preserve an organization's culture in the face of the trend toward remote work hastened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Showing how leadership can bring about significant changes in a surprisingly short time span, Win from Within offers a playbook for developing and deploying culture that enables outsized results. It is a groundbreaking demonstration of organizational culture's role as a foundation for strategic success-and its measurable impact on the bottom line.
James Heskett provides a roadmap for achievable and fast-paced culture change. He demonstrates that an effective culture supplies the trust that makes managing change of all kinds easier. It provides a foundation on which changes in strategy can be based, and it's a competitive edge that can't easily be hacked or copied. Examining leading companies around the world, Heskett details how organizational culture makes employees more loyal, more productive, and more creative. He discusses how to quantify its effects in order to sell the notion of culture change to the organization and considers how to preserve an organization's culture in the face of the trend toward remote work hastened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Showing how leadership can bring about significant changes in a surprisingly short time span, Win from Within offers a playbook for developing and deploying culture that enables outsized results. It is a groundbreaking demonstration of organizational culture's role as a foundation for strategic success-and its measurable impact on the bottom line.
Reviews / Votes
In Win from Within, James Heskett guides readers through the ways and means of effective, lasting change to organizational culture. By examining leading companies, he illustrates not just the qualitative but also the quantitative effects of excellent culture on business strategy. A fantastic read. -- Steve Odland, president and CEO, The Conference Board Culture is an essential component of success, and for decades Heskett has done not only the research but also the quantification and codification of cultures that win. In this book, he provides a roadmap to "win from within." He relays evidence that culture provides the foundation of success in rapidly changing markets and industries, taking a long view of winning with a clear awareness of the short and long game of sustainable cultures. -- Patricia Asp, founder and principal, ASPire Heskett's academic approach and writing style will provide academics, thinkers, and leaders with new insights into the art and science of how culture makes a difference in business, good or bad. He is the right author for this timely topic. -- Arkadi Kuhlmann, founder of ING DIRECT and coauthor of <i>The Orange Code</i> [James L. Heskett's] new book, Win from Within, is a master class in building culture. * strategy + business * Successfully ties together the issue of employee engagement and the role of culture in driving performance and leading to competitive advantage. * Choice *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
Trade binding
Illustrations
18 figures and tables
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-231-20300-5 (9780231203005)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
01/2022
1st Edition
Columbia University Press
€27.49
Available for download
Person
James Heskett is UPS Foundation Professor Emeritus at Harvard Business School, where he was previously faculty chair of the MBA program. His many books include Corporate Culture and Performance (1992), with John Kotter, and The Culture Cycle: How to Shape the Unseen Force That Transforms Performance (2012). Heskett has served as a board member for many for-profit and nonprofit organizations and has been a consultant for a range of prominent companies.
John Kotter is Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership Emeritus at the Harvard Business School and executive chairman of Kotter International.
John Kotter is Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership Emeritus at the Harvard Business School and executive chairman of Kotter International.
Content
Foreword, by John Kotter
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Culture: The Nearly Perfect Competitive Weapon
2. Culture Engages Employees
3. How Culture Drives Performance: Follow the Money
4. Why Some Organizations Engage Employees (and Customers) Better Than Others
5. How Effective Cultures Are Sustained
6. Culture, Engagement, and Work from Anywhere
7. Change the Culture
8. Lead for Competitive Advantage Through Culture
Appendix A. Robust, Culture-Based Balanced
Scorecard Audit
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Culture: The Nearly Perfect Competitive Weapon
2. Culture Engages Employees
3. How Culture Drives Performance: Follow the Money
4. Why Some Organizations Engage Employees (and Customers) Better Than Others
5. How Effective Cultures Are Sustained
6. Culture, Engagement, and Work from Anywhere
7. Change the Culture
8. Lead for Competitive Advantage Through Culture
Appendix A. Robust, Culture-Based Balanced
Scorecard Audit
Notes
Index