Loy Machedo's Reviews > Know-How: The 8 Skills That Separate People Who Perform from Those Who Don't

Loy Machedo’s Book Review - Know-How by Ram Charan

When I saw the title of the book crowned by an Indian Author, I had a strange reaction.
My prejudices dismissed the book. Not because I have any problem with Indian names, rather the fact that there have not been many successful Indian authors out there who make to the best sellers list. Or at least come out with a non-fictional material that would make you sit down and think. The rare occurrences of a Black Swan have been in the form of Stay Hungry Stay Foolish & Connect The Dots by Samir Bansal, which were if anything, good books but with only Indian examples. I have Samir’s ‘I have a Dream’ and A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s ‘Ignited Minds’ & ‘Wings of Fire’ sitting among the tons of books in my library – but I have yet to read them and be convinced otherwise.

So with this skeptical mind, I approached Ram Charan’s ‘How’. And I will be the first one to eat humble pie and say, I was wrong. To my pleasant surprise, Ram Charan not only delivered a great symphony of value based business practices, he topped it with real life example – that too ones you do not hear everyday. If you have any doubts, look at the personalities who have showered praise on this book -
–Ron Meyer, president and COO, Universal Studios
–A.G. Lafley, chairman and CEO, Proctor & Gamble
–James McNerney, Jr., chairman, president and CEO, The Boeing Company
–Bill Conaty, senior vice president, human resources, General Electric
–Larry Bossidy, retired chairman and CEO of Honeywell International and co-author of Execution and Confronting Reality
–Geoffrey Colvin, editor-at-large, Fortune magazine
–Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and The 8th Habit
–Michael J. Critelli, chairman and CEO, Pitney Bowes
–James M. Kilts, Centerview Partners, former chairman and CEO of Gillette
–Ivan G. Seidenberg, chairman and CEO of Verizon

Author Ram Charan has developed a holistic approach to what executives and managers must do and be to become successful leaders. According to Charan, leadership is a messy phenomenon because there are a number of things that influence it.

Ram Charan, a consultant with a Harvard Business School MBA and doctorate, has identified, eight skills - he calls them "know-hows" - essential for leadership success:

1) Will the Dogs Eat the Dog Food? Positioning and Repositioning the Business to Make Money. The ability to find an idea for the organization that meets customers' demands and makes money.
2) Before the Point Tips: Connecting the Dots by Pinpointing and Taking Action on Patterns of External Change. The need to look at the big picture and then work through the messy details. Detecting patterns in a complex world to put the business on the offensive.
3) Herding Cats: Getting People to Work Together by Managing the Social System of Your Business. Getting people to align their efforts is a lot like herding cats. The ability to get the right people with the right behaviors and the right information to make better decisions and business results.
4) Leaders Are Made, Not Born: Judging, Selecting, and Developing Leaders. Discovering and developing a person's natural talent. The ability to calibrate people based on their actions, decisions and behaviors and matches them to the job's non-negotiables.
5) Unity Without Uniformity: Molding a Team of Leaders. Making a team more than the sum of its parts. The ability to coordinate competent, high-ego leaders seamlessly.
6) The Buck Starts With You: Determining and Setting the Right Goals. The ability to balance goals that give equal weighting to what the business can become and what it can realistically achieve.
7) It's Monday Morning, Now What’s Setting Laser-Sharp Dominant Priorities. Defining the path and aligning resources, actions and energy to accomplish the goals.
8) Driving on Brokeback Mountain: Dealing With Forces Beyond the Market. Anticipating and responding to societal pressures you don't control but that can affect your business.



Citing case studies from his consulting practice, Charan identifies personal traits of leaders that help or interfere with the know-hows.
1. Ambition. The drive to accomplish something but not win at all costs.
2. Tenacity. The drive to search, persist and follow through, but not too long.
3. Self-confidence. The drive to overcome the fear of failure and response, or the need to be liked and use power judiciously but not become arrogant and narcissistic.
4. Psychological Openness. The ability to be receptive to new and different ideas but not shut other people down.
5. Realism. The ability to see what can be accomplished and not gloss over problems or assume the worst.
6. Appetite for Learning. The ability to grown and improve know-hows and not repeat the same mistakes.

Charan ends the book with a letter to a future leader, Michael, in which he advises that "given the transparency of today's world, any shortcoming in his know-hows, personality traits, or character will be revealed very quickly." He encourages Michael to be self-reflective; speed his progress through learning by experience, through others; be open to new ideas, people, situations, and problems; embrace fear and disappointment: and to focus on the know-hows of business.

Overall Rating
For someone who began his life as a son of a humble shoe maker in India, who today is one of the most respected minds in the Business World - that too in one of the most competitive nations, I have to but salute this genius. Over all his book is an amazing, profound and well written masterpiece that clearly makes you think and deeply reflect. Given the amount of content, the wisdom in its pages and the timeless principles mentioned in its pages – I rate this book a 10 out of 10.

Loy Machedo
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