The 1980s were an era of strategic sounding slogans. U.S. management responded to the fear of Japanese success by adopting a number of slogans and quick fixes. "Lean and Mean," "Total Quality Control," "Just in Time," "Management by Wandering Around" became synonymous with strategic management. Unfortunately, the results were temporal and ineffective. Bill Rothschild's new book, Risktaker, Caretaker, Surgeon, Undertaker: The Four Faces of Strategic Leadership demonstrates that these slogans are not sufficient to lead the country and its major companies into the next century. What is really required is strategic leadership and not slogan management. The basic premise is that there is no one leader for all seasons, situations and times and there is a need to select and support the right leader for the right time and the right strategy. This book shows how to do this.^
There are four types of strategic leaders: Risktakers - the revolutionaries who can develop and lead new businesses or institutions during their birth and infancy and early youth; Caretakers - the evolutionary, systematic growers who can move the company or institution from its infancy to adulthood; Surgeons - the "restructurers" who can objectively and clinically focus on the most critical and vital organs and discard those that don't make the grade. This is normally at the mature stage of the institution's life; Undertakers - those who recognize and implement the closing, merging or liquidation of an institution, with the skill for caring for those impacted. The selecting of the right leader takes more than matching the life cycle of an organization or business. It requires matching the right leader with the right customer, the right competitor, the right investor, government, community and the right technology. Rothschild provides insight into how to make this match.^
In addition, Bill Rothschild demonstrates that leaders must have unique talents, regardless of whether they are risktakers or surgeons. He describes leaders with the talents to innovate, solve complex problems, create long-range infrastructures and even those that are just good at making things. For each type of leader, this groundbreaking book describes the most appropriate strategy, strategic team and situation. This integration of strategy, leadership, people and timing makes this book unique. This book is a must for CEOs, boards of directors, human resource professionals and others responsible for selecting leaders, the strategic team and assuring that they are appropriate for the time and situation.
