Back to basics

There is certainly no shortage of consulting gurus who seek to enlighten your company and set you on the path to business nirvana. For, success at the workplace is a global obsession.

Thousands of books "" many of them best-sellers "" have dissected all kinds of success formulas and suggested the latest management trend that's making the rounds of corporate dos.

So it's refreshing to read a book that is just a reminder of the small things that you may have forgotten while searching for the "next big thing".

In The Six Fundamentals of Success, Stuart R Levine gives tips that do not represent new scholarship but serve as good reminders to executives and entrepreneurs.

Short and almost pocket-sized, the book omits the case studies and anecdotes common to most management advice guides, and gives around a hundred short, specific rules that have proven successful, time and again. In short, the kinds of qualities and habits that never go out of style.

"Forget the fads," Levine says, as management fads, manufacturing fads, or any of the "quick fixes" companies seek out will not lead to long term success. The only way to make it in the lean and mean future we are facing is to get back to the basics.

There is no substitute for careful communication, an emphasis on results, a commitment to ethics, and all the other fundamentals that have traditionally made for strong companies. Levine urges leaders to drill every member of their team in these time-tested rules until they permeate the company culture.

Some of these rules are worth remembering. For example, Levine's advice to business executives is that they should act like an owner. Example: one day, a team at a $750- million unit of a Fortune 100 company was doing a routine review of checks going out. Someone noticed they had overpaid a vendor $20.

Most of the team thought it was not worth their time to chase down the mistake. But one person went back and checked the vendor files. He found that they had overpaid that vendor by $1,00,000 over the previous six months.

Or, take this chapter: Always go for the buy-in. Levine gives a delightful example of the CEO of a global corporation who developed a slick, appealing mission statement that he thought would energise his organisation. Then he travelled the world giving out crisp $100 bills to any employee who could recite it. After a year, everyone knew the mission statement, but no one was using it.

The next year, the CEO had key people from within the organisation work with him to create another new mission. While developing it, he reached out to people throughout the company to get their input.

A year later, the entire organisation not only knew the mission, but they were living it "" it had become an energising focal point. And it showed: employee satisfaction went way up, employee turnover went way down, and new business increased substantially. Buy-in matters.

The six fundamentals that Levine wants businesses, leaders and individual workers to embrace right now are the following:

• Make sure you add value: In today's organisations, people have too much to do and cannot decide what to do. If you make sure that your daily work includes something strategic, you will be increasing your organisation's value.
• Communicate up & down, inside & out: Because of economic, security and other serious issues, people are more anxious and do not listen well, so communication errors happen more often. People mistake spreading information with communication. As the pace of change creates the need for stronger communication efforts, many organisations are experiencing communication breakdowns.
• Know how to deliver results: People are being scrutinised more than ever on their ability to deliver results. Getting results is about knowing what you need to achieve and doing it in the most effective way possible.
• Conduct yourself and your business with integrity: Distrust is at an all-time high. Your name is your brand in the marketplace. A trusted brand gives you the credibility to get things done for your organisation.
• Invest in relationships: Deep cost cutting means that key people, both inside and outside of work, are more important to your career than ever.
• Gain perspective: The crisis in corporate governance means an increase in CEO turnover, leading to more stress, chaos, and confusion for managers and employees in 2004 and beyond. Look for experiences that stretch your worldview.

These are all sound advice, no doubt. But the only problem with the book is while trying to stick to the "simple things", Levine sometimes gets carried away and gives the impression of someone talking from a pedestal to a group of distressed souls (American CEOs) who are eager to listen to management lullabies just as eagerly as babies would listen to nursery rhymes.

Consider, for example, the following pearls of wisdom:

• When colleagues or team members ask your opinion, give it with sincere respect and in private.
• Respect yourself first. You cannot serve others unless you take care of yourself.

But this one perhaps takes the cake: "If you are not satisfied with your salary and you think you can get a better package somewhere else, leave your job." Readers would do well to treat such "lessons" as nothing but a comic relief in an otherwise enjoyable read.

The Six Fundamentals of Success

Stuart R Levine
Currency Doubleday
Price: $19.95,
Pages: 213