Jose Cardenas Jeff Lerner Review

Fast read, great examples

Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2022

Really enjoyed this book, I was able to read it on a short flight on my Kindle. The book flows well and I had a tough time putting it down. Really great business examples.

Helpful

Bogdan C

Outstanding, tactically drive CEO manual

Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2022

I read a lot of business books and this has hands down become my favorite. It is a no-fluff, direct injection of tangible action items condensed by topic - this is how you fix these aspects and challenges in your org. In a lot of ways I saw it as a better Hard Things by Horowitz - couldn’t recommend this book enough!

Helpful

TelecomGuy

Great book for Leaders to Amp Up productivity

Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2022

I really enjoyed this book. Great insights into how leaders can focus an organization and achieve maximum productivity, and fun along the way. Highly recommended.

Helpful

Velisarios Kattoulas

A valuable addition to the literature

Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2022

It's hard to think of a better book about how to drive a startup, scaleup or turnaround. I can't remember making more notes and highlighting more passages. One of only two books I've read and then re-read immediately. A classic for sure.

Helpful

Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2022

Stop reading my review, go buy the book!

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Neel Sinha

Easily digestible and actionable

Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2022

This book has some very easy to understand, concise take aways. It has lead to some very directed and productive brain storming.

Helpful

Mark P. McDonald

Clear, concise and actionable, but requires looking beyond the personal story

Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2022

When I read the descriptions of this book I was expecting the standard "CEO imparts wisdom" approach. You know the book where the CEO recounts their unbroken chain of successes and how you the reader should learn from their experience and do what they did. There is some of that in AMP it UP, but not as much as one would expect. More importantly, there is a lot of clear, concise and actionable takeaways that you can put into practice right now.

Overall the book is contains Frank Slootman's views and maxims for success, the things that he found helped him and his organizations be successful. Read the book to find those nuggets and you will get the most value out of it. Those nuggets include:

Having a clear mission that is oriented around the company's true purpose and the good it brings to the world. Focus on that mission, incorporate it directly into how you see the world, make decisions, evaluate options. Keep the mission front and center and urgent -- every day should see some progress toward the mission. Execute against it, you know what you call a mission statement hanging on the wall? Corporate Art, ok its a bad joke but it makes the point -- a mission that is not executed is not a mission at all.

Work to win, ok Slootman says declare war, against competitors, incrementalism and general complacency in the organization and in your teams. Don't accept good enough from yourself or your people. Keep a sense of competition and the hunger for the rewards of winning in the teams.

Execution is more important than strategy, kind of like the mission points, but keep the connections between your work and the customer value always at the forefront, regardless of you or your teams position in the organization. Strategies are good, but too often they are disconnected from the people executing them. In this case build strategies from the bottom up. If you are interested in that then read "Open Strategy" by Christian Standler, et. al.

Hire drivers and get the wrong people off the bus. Slootman brings a fresh perspective to this well worn organization and leadership point. Drivers own situations and own the solution. Passengers more often admire the situation or problem and talk about what others must to do address it. People who are not committed to the company, their team and their own success are those that should consider leaving the bus. That can mean getting good people into the right roles. But if they are the wrong person now, then they are the wrong person.

Build a strong culture -- this chapter is a similar to other discussions about culture.

Teach people to go direct and build trust, a great point that if you have people who own the mission and their situation then let them work with similar minded people to get results. Slootman points out that competition etc is too complex and moves too fast to support bureaucracy and CYA. Let good people go to work.

These are just some of the insights gleaned from the book. insights that are illustrated by Slootman's own experiences -- some good others not so good. This makes the book very approachable by any professional who is looking to raise and sustain their and their team's game.

You will have to wade through Slootman retelling his past tales of success at Data Domain, ServiceNow and other places. Fortunately at 182 pages, the discussions are focused and bearable. Overall recommended.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Layla