About the Author - Ram Charan has a D.B.A. and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and has taught at Harvard and Northwestern. Being one of the foremost consultants to corporate leaders in the world today, he is a highly sought adviser to CEOs and senior executives in companies. Dr. Charan has written numerous articles for Harvard Business Review and is the author of Boards That Work and the coauthor of Every Business Is a Grwoth Business and E-board Strategies.

About the Book -

If you're feeling trapped in an executive suite and wanna really get down to buiding blocks of money along with developing the right business acumen; this book is for you. How different is it to run a big company than to sell fruit from a cart or run a small shop in a village? In essence, according to Ram Charan money making in business has three basic parts - cash generation, return on assets (combination of margin and velocity) and growth.The author, who makes a daily living advising many of the world's best CEOs, opines that there are a few fundamentals which are common to every business.

What the CEO Wants You To Know very lucidly draws a few differentiating lines between a street vendor and a CEO of a million dollar company. Getting down to the basics, Dr. Charan cites the examples of some of the best managers like Michael Dell, the CEO of Dell Computers, Dick Brown, CEO of EDS and Norbuyuki Idei, CEO of Sony among others with a street smart purveyor. He makes one convincingly believe that every business needs the same strategy of setting sales forecast and ultimate aim being to earn profits irrespective of the size of the business. Every one has to decide on how to utilize his or her resources, cash generation, margin, velocity, return on assets, growth and customers, then what's the difference.

The moot point that comes across that most of the successfull CEOs have the acumen to cut through the complexity and offer simple solutions. Also, they have the ability to scan the business environment and identify the significant trends and patterns. So, if you're a marketing manager, your aim should ideally be to develop business acumen. If you're handling four products in a consumer goods company like laundry soaps, dish detergents, toothpaste and household cleansers - you should probaly ask yourself a few of these quesitons - which one of these products lines make money? and which makes the least Which one consume cash and which ones don't?

The moment you find answers for these, let the excitement begin ! And the cash will come rolling in......

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