Audiobooks by Chris Zook

The Founder's Mentality: How to Overcome the Predictable Crises of Growth

Why is profitable growth so hard to achieve and sustain? Most executives manage their companies as if the solution to that problem lies in the external environment: find an attractive market, formulate the right strategy, win new customers. But when Bain & Company's Chris Zook and James Allen researched this question, they found that when companies fail to achieve their growth targets, 90 percent of the time the root causes are internal, not external-increasing distance from the front lines, loss of accountability, proliferating processes and bureaucracy, to name only a few. What's more, companies experience a set of predictable internal crises, at predictable stages, as they grow. The key insight from Zook and Allen's research is that managing these choke points requires a 'founder's mentality'-behaviors typically embodied by a bold, ambitious founder: - An insurgent's clear mission and purpose - An unambiguous owner mindset - A relentless obsession with the front line Through rich analysis and inspiring examples, this book shows how any leader can instill and leverage a founder's mentality throughout their organization and find lasting, profitable growth.

Chris Zook, James Allen (Author), Robert Feifar (Narrator)

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Repeatability: Build Enduring Businesses for a World of Constant Change

An argument for simplicity from the bestselling authors of Profit from the Core Is radical reinvention the key to winning in today's fast-paced world? Not judging by the results of some of the world's best-performing companies. In Repeatability, Chris Zook and James Allen-leaders of Bain & Company's influential Strategy practice-warn that complexity is a silent killer of profitable growth. Successful companies endure by maintaining simplicity at their core. They don't stray from, or regularly discard, their business model in pursuit of radical renovation. Instead, they build a "repeatable business model" that produces continuous improvement and allows them to rapidly adapt to change without succumbing to complexity. Based on a multiyear study of more than two hundred companies, the book stresses the value of repeatability in business, showing how the "big idea" today is really made up of a series of successful smaller ideas driven by a simple and repeatable business model. Zook and Allen show how some of the world's best-known firms combine a core differentiation model with speed, adaptability, and simplicity to land them at the top for long periods of time. These firms include: Apple, Danaher, DaVita, IKEA, Nike, Olam, Tetra Pak, Vanguard, and others. CEOs, senior executives, managers, and investors all need to read this book. It's the new blueprint for reaching the top-and staying there.

Chris Zook, James Allen (Author), Erik Synnestvedt (Narrator)

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