Richard Teerlink

In the age of radical change, the usual fads, fix-its, and magic bullets no longer guarantee the success of any business regardless of size or industry. Entire industries, not just companies, are failing as the pace and radical nature of change outstrip the abilities of most companies to anticipate and adjust to rapidly changing competitive conditions. Companies with a track record of sustained success have learned that adapting to change and, even better, creating change, are the most effective tools for ensuring the long term success of a business enterprise. That ability is built on the platform of a high performing, ethical, business organization—culture.

Few terms in the American business lexicon are more ignored or misunderstood than corporate culture. Nevertheless, we see each day in business headlines the announcement of one failed or failing company after another, almost always due to a failed business culture. The inability to build and maintain high performing business organizations and leadership teams, as a strategy for dealing with radical change, has ruined the careers of many senior business leaders, forced countless lost jobs and careers, as well as the loss of market share and shareholder value. 

Unlike any other book, Saving the Company demonstrates how a business enterprise’s culture can become its strongest resource for managing and creating change. The book is written around the author’s proprietary Business Change Cycle and Hierarchy of Organization Performance as critical roadmaps for better understanding business culture as the critical tool for managing and creating change in an increasingly unpredictable and turbulent business world. By presenting case studies and examples from today’s business world, the book also provides unique insights into the different kinds of business cultures that exist with specific strategies for improving performance. 

The book gives special attention to what leadership needs to do to support the change process for building high performing business organizations.