Plain Talk: Lessons from a Business Maverick Hardcover - 1998
by Iverson, Ken; Varian, Tom
- Used
- near fine
- Hardcover
A genuine American business hero, Ken Iverson, CEO and Chairman of Nucor Steel, is credited with single-handedly rejuvenating the rapidly declining American steel industry to the status of world-class producer. In this long-awaited book, Iverson shares his ideas, observations, and the lessons he's learned about what it takes to grow a super-competitive, world-class organization. .
Description
Standard delivery: 7 to 14 days
About Lake Country Books and More Minnesota, United States
Lake Country Books offers a wide variety of out of print, current, and antiquarian books. We continuously add new inventory, and welcome special orders and search requests for titles we may not currently have in stock. Customers have consistently complimented us on our prompt shipping and quality packaging. All books ship in a museum-quality, acid-free plastic sleeve as an inner wrap. Books over $7 ship bubble wrapped and boxed; books under $7 ship in a bubble mailer. All our items ship with delivery confirmation.
All orders ship from our location within 2 business days, and most within 24 hours. Returns will be accepted on any item returned to us within 7 days of buyer's receipt of their order. Items returned due to an error on our part, including, but not limited to, errors and/or omissions in the listing description, or shipment of the incorrect item, will be refunded for the full amount of the item, including shipping. Items returned due to an error on the buyer's part, buyer's remorse, or a cancellation request after the item has shipped, will be refunded for the purchase amount of the item less a 10% restocking fee. There will be no refund for shipping in these cases. Refunds will be issued within 2 business days of receipt of the item when it is received back in the same condition it was in when originally shipped. Adjustments to refunds, up to 100% of the cost of the item, will be made for returns damaged in shipment due to improper packaging, removal of shrink wrap from new items if it was present when shipped, and/or damage or wear to the item while it was in the possession of the buyer.
Details
- Title Plain Talk: Lessons from a Business Maverick
- Author Iverson, Ken; Varian, Tom
- Binding Hardcover
- Edition [ Edition: first
- Condition Used - Near Fine
- Pages 208
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher Wiley, New York
- Date 1998
- Features Bibliography, Dust Cover, Index, Table of Contents
- Bookseller's Inventory # HE22404220014
- ISBN 9780471155140 / 0471155144
- Weight 0.9 lbs (0.41 kg)
- Dimensions 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.9 in (21.84 x 14.73 x 2.29 cm)
- Library of Congress subjects Industrial management - United States - Case, Nucor Corporation - History
- Library of Congress Catalog Number 97-30126
- Dewey Decimal Code 338.766
From the jacket flap
"We have little tolerance for the politics, the pettiness, the fixation on rank and status, or the insensitivity to employees' needs that people in most big companies endure as a matter of course."
Ken Iverson, the Chairman of Nucor Corporation, says many things you wouldn't expect to hear from a Fortune 500 executive. But then, few top executives are such fervent champions of the frontline worker.
Now, in his long-awaited book, this visionary maverick shares valuable lessons about what it takes to build a super-competitive, world-class business. Nucor--a $3.8 billion dynamo of profitable growth--disdains committees, job descriptions, performance appraisals, and everything else bearing the taint of bureaucracy. Iverson believes people should earn according to what they produce. And he relentlessly "destroys hierarchy" to eliminate the trappings that distance managers from employees.
"When is laying people off the practical and sensible thing to do? Can we expect employees to be loyal and motivated if we lay them off at every dip of the economy, while we go on padding our own pockets?"
Nucor has never laid off an employee or shut down a facility for lack of work. Instead, the company has followed Iverson's controversial "painsharing" approach. When times get tight, everyone takes paycuts--starting with the executives at the top.
"When a friend showed me an article that listed me as the lowest paid Fortune 500 CEO that year, I wasn't ashamed. The company was not performing. I'd have been ashamed to earn more."
Ken Iverson led Nucor Corporation from near oblivion to its current place as America's third-largest steel company. In the process, he showed a once-faltering U.S. steel industry the road back to global competitiveness. Plain Talk unveils the refreshingly sensible rationale that:
- Makes Nucor production employees the best paid workers in the steel business, while giving Nucor the industry's lowest labor costs
- Lets Nucor operate a $3.8 billion corporation with a headquarters staff of just twenty-two people (including clerical help) and just four layers of management, from the CEO to the frontline worker
- Makes Nucor a runaway leader in innovation with no R&D department and no corporate engineering group
"During the demonstration, a ten-foot pinwheel of molten metal shot through the garage wall like a buzz saw going through butter. It cut the building in half. Fortunately, no one was hurt. I learned that day that even a board of directors can be compelled to run very, very fast."
Plain Talk is peppered with anecdotes from throughout Iverson's storied career. He recounts days of gloom and glory alike with the same wry humor and the same unshakable appreciation for adventure.
Plain Talk is unlike any business book you've ever read. No pat leadership formulas. No intricate management models. Just a legendary business maverick, speaking straight to you.
Categories
Media reviews
Citations
- LJ Best Business Books, 01/01/1998, Page 39
- Publishers Weekly, 10/13/1997, Page 66