| GUTS! is an inside look at fifteen gutsy and extraordinarily successful businesses and introduces the chief executives who are creating a new corporate ethos that blows the doors off business-as-usual.
Drawing on five years of research, the Freibergs provide a behind-the-scenes look at these intensely focused, passionate, and unconventional leaders and their companies. Among them:
- James Blanchard, CEO of Synovus Financial, a financial services giant with more than 16 billion dollars in assets
- Roy Spence, Jr., President of GSDM Advertising, which AdWeek magazine named “Agency of the Year” seven times
- Jim Goodnight of SAS Institute, a world leader in intelligence software
- Tim Ciasulli of Planet Honda, who is “de-commoditizing” the new car sales business
- Ricado Semler of Brazilian-based Semco is the epitome of insanity that works. Over the last decade Semler’s $160 million dollar company racked up an annual growth rate of 24 percent. Imagine a company where there are no job titles, no organizational charts, and no policies—where workers set their own production targets and salaries. Impossible you say? Check out GUTS!
Although the leaders in the book represent a wide-range of industries, they share a common vision: They see business as a heroic cause and understand that good leadership isn’t a matter of position, but of influence. They reject hierarchical rules, rituals, and expectations, and have replaced in-the-box management with a culture based on passion and innovation. They regard their employees not as “human resources,” but as individuals with unique gifts and talents. And make everyone in the company responsible for the company’s brand and culture.
An exciting follow-up to Nuts!, which has sold over 500,000 copies in hardcover and paperback, GUTS! proves that it is possible to have fun, live your values, and still make money.
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