Q&A: Larry Bossidy On Execution

Bossidy, the veteran chairman of Honeywell, was struck that among the shelves of business books published each year on strategy and leadership, none focused on the subject that obsesses successful executives: the essential grunt work of delivering results. So with consultant Ram Charan, Bossidy wrote Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done (Crown Business). Bossidy discussed the book with TIME's Andrea Sachs:

Q: How important was execution to your career?

A: I'm an impatient person, and I get more satisfaction from seeing things get done than I do about philosophizing or building sand castles. Many people regard execution as detail work that's beneath the dignity of a business leader. That's wrong. It's a leader's most important job.

Q: Who stand out as your execution heroes?

A: Jack Welch had an enormously successful career at GE, built basically on execution. We mention Dick Brown of EDS. The Colgate-Palmolive people have done a wonderful job over the last number of years. Johnson & Johnson under Ralph Larsen has had a long history of being able to execute.

Q: You also name failures at execution. Is it hard to single out business associates?

A: I didn't try to be critical of the men. I did use three examples. Rick Thoman of Xerox is one. Richard McGinn of Lucent is another. And Mike Armstrong of AT&T. I pointed out in all three cases that I didn't think the way they were operating the company was consistent with being able to execute. These are decent men, and I like them. I hope when all is said and done, they take it for the teaching value of it, rather than as a personal criticism.