I bought Doing What Matters based on title alone.
I thought it was a time management book.
If I could just get everything done—all email answered, all phone calls returned, all tasks completed—then I could do the really important stuff. {wry grin}
Turns out I was wrong in my favor.
Kilts is the guy Warren Buffet approved to lead the turnaround at Gillette. This is the story of
- why he accepted the assignment (in his own words, his financial situation did not require him to continue working)
- what he did to prepare for the assignment (assembling a research team, preparing communications to employees, and deciding what, in fact he would do to stop and reverse the hemmoraging.)
- what he did on day one (a three-hour strategy session with top executives) to let people know he was there to work, and expected them to work too.
- what he did for the first 100 days (action, action, action)
- how the weekly meetings were structured (mandatory Monday meetings with both a 15 minute and a 3 minute report. Execs say they started prepping on Wednesday. Everyone's briefs were distributed Friday. It took at least a hour to read, more to process, over the weekend. Meeting Monday, which gave part of Monday and all of Tuesday before the process began again on Wednesday.)
- how he went toe-to-toe with Wall Street for Gillette's benefit. (and went head-to-head to combat internal sacred cows.)
I am perhaps most amazed at the correlation between Gillette (acquired by P&G for $55b in Q4 2005) and the small businesses and Teams I work with. (Often under $1m. Sometimes well under.) This may be due to the skill of the writers Kilts selected, or his own business acumen, or simply the fact that principles are universal.
Would I have selected this book, in the genre with Good to Great, Built to Last, The Myth of Excellence, Execution, and The Rule of Three, if I'd know what it was about?
Probably.
Would I have selected it this week.
No.
So glad I made this mistake.