Lessons from the Top

In the bestselling tradition of In Search of Excellence, fascinating and revealing profiles of the most successful business leaders in America and the strategies, methods, and motivational techniques they use to help make their companies great.

What makes a great business leader? What qualities do the men and women at the top of the world's best-run companies have in common? What lessons can they teach other managers and CEOs?

Thomas J. Neff and James M. Citrin provide the answers to these vital questions in Lessons from the Top. Using the most exacting standards imaginable, and employing the research expertise of the Gallup Organization and the analytical tools of investment advisers Lazard Freres, they selected the fifty best executives in business today and interviewed them about their long-term strategies, career milestones, key accomplishments, and guiding beliefs. The result is an unparalleled course in what it takes to create a successful, well-organized company in any industry.

Lessons from the Top profiles such well-known people as Jack Welch, Bill Gates, Lou Gerstner, and Andy Grove, as well as less familiar figures like Bill Steere of Pfizer, Shelly Lazarus of Ogilvy & Mather, Dennis Kozlowski of Tyco International, and Frank Raines of Fannie Mae. In the final section of the book, the authors distill the qualities these accomplished individuals share, as well as delineate six essential principles of business leadership.

A winning combination of entertaining stories about life at the top (and how to get there) and rigorous business insights, Lessons from the Top received high praise when it was published in hardcover and went back to press six times. With a new Introduction, the paperback edition will bring its important lessons to an even wider audience

Thomas J. Neff is Chairman of Spencer Stuart U.S., hailed by The Wall Street Journal as "The No. 1 Brand Name in CEO Searches." He has been profiled on the cover of Business Week and in the business section of the New York Times. James M. Citrin, Managing Director of Spencer Stuart's Global Communication and Media Practice, has written articles for the New York Times and has appeared on CNBC and CNN. Both authors live in Connecticut.