“What the CEO Wants You to Know” Book Report

“What the CEO Wants You to Know” is written by Ram Charan, a Harvard Business School graduate, who was born in the slums of India, but worked his way to the top of the corporate ladder. Charan spent the past 35 years working as an author, motivational speaker, and a renowned business advisor to many of the world’s top chief executive officers. Ram Charan has worked with numerous companies including GE, Bank of America, Ford, Intel, DuPont and Verizon. The experience and knowledge Ram Charan has gained through his life’s work were used to write the book “What the CEO Want You to Know,” with the intention of helping individuals succeed in the business environment. The last chapter of the book begins with the statement “I hope you are convinced that professional excellence alone is not sufficient.” The book is organized into four parts. In part one, you learn the universal language of business though concepts like inventory, cash generation, pricing, return on assets, customer focus, product quality, product mix, and growth.

The first chapter of Charan’ s book is titled “What Jack Welch and Street Vendors Share.” Charan says that CEOs and street vendors both completely understand the “universal law of business” therefore, when it comes to running a business, CEOs like Jack Welch and fruit vendors in developing third–world countries think and talk in a similar manner. Charan says these people all have a business acumen that allows them to work with the idea that every business is the same, no matter what product or service they create and to see through the complexities of their businesses, whether internal or external and focus on moneymaking. The responsibilities and decisions of a chief executive officer may seem daunting, how...

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...elf” guide that can be read in hours. The book could easily be used as summer reading material for a management class because of how Charan parallels the content to planning, organizing, directing, and controlling – the four functions of management.

The greatest insight I found from the book surrounds the customers’ both direct and indirect influence on a company’s success. Obviously, for a company to be successful and last for generations there must be customers to buy the company’s products or service. However, I did not realize that the faster things move through a business to a customer, the better off the business is. By paying for a product, customers free up working capital, which equals a higher return for the outputting company. This book would be a great addition to anyone’s library, but especially those who have just begun working in the corporate world.