BUSINESS BUILDERS

Adams, the founder of the AIM Institute, describes the principal characteristics of business leadership.

According to the author, there are different kinds of business leaders, but only what he calls a builder will steer a company to growth that’s profitable and sustainable. The builder, he says, adopts a long-term perspective, is immune to the allure of ephemeral fads, and is unimpressed by “financial gymnastics.” Instead of cutting costs and obsessing over the company’s “curb appeal,” or constantly hunting for mergers and acquisitions, the builder, he says, is devoted to “market-facing innovation,” which means product development. Also, Adams asserts, the builder consistently puts considerations of revenue over cost—the measure of which is a return on assets. In addition, rather than paring down the company’s workforce through layoffs, a builder looks to enhance its capabilities like its talent management and R&D commitments. The author makes a lucid and convincing argument that a narrow focus on shareholder wealth is misguided, since stock price is a “distorted” measure of any company’s overall value. He’s equally persuasive in exposing the limits of cost-cutting strategies that discount the absolute necessity of growth. Moreover, the book has a helpful practical orientation; Adams provides a survey that one may take to determine what kind of leader one is. However, it too often dispenses counsel that’s as familiar as it is vague. Even a person just starting his corporate career doesn’t need to be reminded that a company needs clarity of purpose and an insistence on competence. Too often, the book reads like an advertisement for the author’s business, “a training firm that helps large B2B companies grow larger.” Overall, this guide is simply too general to be very useful either to the seasoned corporate veteran or the newcomer.

A lack of analytical specificity undermines this manual for aspiring executives.