High Commitment High Performance: How to Build A Resilient Organization for Sustained Advantage

"In these economic times this book is more important than ever. A must-read for the leaders of today and tomorrow."

Douglas R. Conant, president and chief executive officer, Campbell Soup Company

Praise for High Commitment, High Performance

"It is seldom that I read a book about leadership and get excited; this one did that to me. The author has found values and aspects of leadership that have worked well for long term execution of strategies. For Boards and CEOs, this is a great book."
—Leif Johansson, president and chief executive officer, Volvo Group

"Resilience promises to be the distinguishing characteristic of companies that will prosper from the current economic crisis. Mike Beer's new book is a compelling manual for success in this new economy."
—Ravi Venkatesan, chairman, Microsoft India

"A must read for leaders who want to develop an edge by building a resilient organization for competitive advantage. Beer's views and recommendations are based on extensive research."
—Ram Charan, Ram Charan Associates and co-author of the bestselling book, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

"With decades of teaching and research and close engagement with companies, Michael Beer has written a book that not only makes the case for building a high commitment organization, but also provides practical advice for doing it."
—Jeffrey Pfeffer, professor, Stanford Business School and author, The Human Equation: Building Profits by Putting People First

"Beer brings a multi-disciplinary perspective from his extensive experience in industry and academia to reveal how leaders of HCHP organizations break through internal barriers and manage multiple tensions in their quest for sustainable value-creation."
—Robert Kaplan, professor, Harvard Business School and co-author, The Execution Premium and The Balanced Score Card

"Mike Beer brings his wealth of research and experience to provide fresh insights to the enduring question of what makes companies succeed over the long run. I have utilized many of the principles successfully and recommend them to any corporate leader committed to building an outstanding organization."
—Ed Ludwig, chairman and chief executive officer, Becton Dickinson

In his time-tested approach to organizational success, Harvard Business School's Michael Beer integrates knowledge from the fields of leadership, strategic management, human resource management, organization design and organization development and change to show how a company can be transformed to achieve sustained high commitment and high performance. Drawing on numerous management studies and his work with senior managers who succeeded in building a high commitment, high performance organization, Beer provides leaders with the information they need to make the transformation process a reality.

Anchoring his approach on leaders who have the right values, Michael Beer shows how to weave together a complete system that will ultimately spell business success—no matter how challenging the economic climate. To build such a system, leaders will have to make courageous and principled choices about how to organize, manage, and lead the firm.

High Commitment, High Performance stresses the importance of focusing on both economic and organizational health. To achieve a fully functioning HCHP company, six silent barriers to commitment and performance must be overcome. Beer explains that successful senior executives build a resilient organization through an honest and collective action learning process that enables them to partner with key people in identifying barriers and redesigning and realigning the organization with values, strategy and economic realities. This learning and governance process enables rapid realignment and high commitment. Beer not only illustrates the process of corporate leadership and transformation, but outlines principles for designing the strategic management process, organizing the firm and managing its human resources found in the most successful HCHP companies.

High Commitment, High Performance provides a much-needed map for leaders who aspire to develop sustained high performance and commitment.

Michael Beer is Cahners-Rabb Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus at Harvard Business School and chairman of TruePoint, a research-based consultancy. Beer is the author or coauthor of nine books including Managing Human Assets and the award-winning The Critical Path to Corporate Renewal.