Henry Hagnäs

Know-How by Ram Charan

I’m sure there are other book-buying addicts like me that sometimes wake up with a book in their hand they don’t know why they ordered. Ram Charan’s “Know-How: The 8 Skills That Separate People Who Perform From Those Who Don’t” is exactly one of those. According to my GMail archives I first mailed myself a note to buy this book, and several others, from work in 2007. This was during a time I was interesting in management, business and leadership so it makes sense. I never got around to reading the book then and picked it up now, only to find a bunch of business drivel that really should have been an essay or two.

There really needs to be a format (I guess Harvard Business Review et al are that currently) where longer essays instead of books can be published. Unfortunately I’ve also seen examples of books that come out HBR-articles that are nothing but the same idea but with 300 pages of fluff around it.
Anyway, the eight know-hows that Ram Charan thinks that leaders have to have are: positioning and repositioning, pinpointing external change, leading the social system, judging people, molding a team, setting goals, setting laser-sharp priorities and dealing with forces beyond the market. It really is as common sense as you would imagine. Leaders apparently need to be able to envision their business landscape and make corrections to products etc, they need to be good team-builder and judges of character and good at steering that group etc. The last point, “Dealing with forces beyond the market” is marginally useful for people that aren’t from the Internet generation but really, does it come as a surprise that there might be people objecting to your business-ideas if you act like Monsanto?

I ended up making some kind of record on reading through the book, didn’t want to write about it unless I actually thumbed through it, it took me a couple of hours and I’m not getting that time back. I’m a fast reader so even fluffy books that give me a few new ideas of ways of thinking are worth thumbing through but this one really has no redeeming factors. Every chapter begins with a short description about the idea or know-how and then goes into cuddly business-stories, half of them about Jeff Immelt at General Electric, about how he and his team made good decisions. He backs the story up with more anecdotes from other companies, basically name-dropping.

The problem with business anecdotes is that there are so many business that do well despite doing lots wrong (and companies that do everything right but fail), that a business writer will always find one that supports his position for at least a few years. Studies have shown that many companies management books show off as exemplary really haven’t beat the market or held up in the long run. Try reading a few 10 year old management books and you’ll see. There’s no real research or statistics in this book, only stories and anecdotes that don’t really help anyone trying to become a better leader. The next CEO of GE won’t need this book to make the right decision.

Keep away. I should’ve.