You'll learn when and how to strategically recalibrate and balance performance and growth; new ways to promote accountability; how to use performance metrics without burying your people in trivia; and how to promote real discipline without creating bureaucracy. You'll also discover which critical capabilities are keys to performance breakthroughs.

Along the way, the author presents case studies of leading companies that have used these strategies to overcome stalled performance. Baxter, Novartis, Honeywell, IBM, Cisco, and more--all different, yet all unified by one common element: ruthless execution.

• What to do when you ""hit the wall""--Beyond ""rude awakenings"" to effective action--and new success
• Seeing the realities for what they are--Accurate, objective assessments of your enterprise and your marketplace
• Breaking through to new growth: three core strategies--Strategies based on productivity, talent management, and M & As
• Ruthless execution at work--Leadership, strategy, cost control, governance, and more
• Cisco: Surviving catastrophe and trying to come back stronger--Retaining market dominance through the dot.com/telecom collapse
• Mass layoffs and other sure-to-fail strategies--What doesn't work--and what to do instead

Using adversity to lay the groundwork for breakthrough success