LEAD LIKE IKE

   Ten Business Strategies from the CEO of D-Day

"Novel, intriguing — and more importantly — highly instructive approach to enabling us to truly grasp fundamental management principles. In the person of Dwight Eisenhower planning and executing the D-Day landings and the subsequent liberation of Europe, these basic concepts are vividly brought to life. As Loftus rightly observes, no CEO ever faced a more daunting, pressure-filled, obstacle-laden mission than did Ike. Perfect reading for these turbulent times."

Steve Forbes
Chairman & CEO, Forbes Media

Dwight Eisenhower's leadership methods during the most daunting project in history, the D-Day Invasion, provide invaluable strategies for today's business person.

No modern CEO has ever led such a large organization-the immense Allied military forces of the U.S., Great Britain, and Canada-in the face of such crushing pressure to succeed. Lead Like Ike begins with Eisenhower reporting for work as the CEO of D-Day Inc., facing a ridiculously tight timeline, having to create an executive staff and company, and then managing D-Day Inc.'s early projects, the invasions of North Africa and Sicily.

By analyzing military operations as business operations, and the commanding general as CEO, Lead Like Ike finds management lessons for modern corporate executives, such as:

Determining the mission

Risk management

Handling the board of directors: FDR, Churchill and the Combined Chiefs of Staff

Building and leading an executive staff

Creating the company: Making the Allied military into a single force that could fulfill its mission

Understanding the competition and the market: Hitler and Occupied Europe

Preserving his stakeholders: Eisenhower was loathe to waste his soldiers' lives on anything less than complete success.

"Geoff Loftus has written an intriguing, and highly useful book on Dwight Eisenhower's extraordinary ability as a leader. If you liked Ike before, you'll like him even more now. And you'll be grateful to Geoff Loftus."

Christopher Buckley
author of Losing Mum and Pup, Boomsday, and Thank You for Smoking

"In Lead Like Ike, Geoff Loftus provides keen insights on management lessons that can be drawn from one of the greatest battlefields in military history. The lessons may appear simple, but it’s the simplest management principles that we often forget. Listen to your people. Set your vision. Be consistent about your message. Let your managers manage."

Salvatore J. Vitale
Senior Vice President, The Conference Board

Click here for: LEAD LIKE IKE press release from Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Published by Thomas Nelson, Inc. — June 1, 2010.

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