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Winning Now, Winning Later: How Companies Can Succeed in the Short Term While Investing for the Long Term
From local coffee shops to the largest Fortune 500 companies, everyone is struggling to make the impossible choice between chasing short-term objectives and creating a secure future for their company.
David Cote understood this dilemma and rejected it. And in these pages, he shows you how taking the same revolutionary approach might be the smartest business decision you’ll ever make.
Upon taking his place as CEO of Honeywell International in 2002, he encountered an organization on the verge of failure thanks to years of short-termism.
Winning Now, Winning Later reveals the bold the operational reforms and counterintuitive leadership practices you can put into practice that will allow you to do two conflicting things at the same time—pursue strong short- and long-term results. This tested and proven approach can strengthen your business like never before, and even rescue it from the brink of disaster no matter how dire the current circumstances may seem.
Offering 10 essential principles for winning both today and tomorrow, this book will help you:
Spot practices that seem attractive in the short term but will cost the company in the future
Determine where and how to invest in growth for maximum impact
Sustain both short-term performance and long-term investments even in challenging times, such as during recessions and leadership transitions
Feel inspired to stand up to investors and other managers who are solely focused on either short- or long-term objectives
Step back, think independently, and foster independent thinking among others around you
Presenting a comprehensive solution to a perennial problem, Winning Now, Winning Later is a go-to guide for you and leaders everywhere to finally transcend short-termism’s daily grind and leave an enduring legacy of success.
David Cote understood this dilemma and rejected it. And in these pages, he shows you how taking the same revolutionary approach might be the smartest business decision you’ll ever make.
Upon taking his place as CEO of Honeywell International in 2002, he encountered an organization on the verge of failure thanks to years of short-termism.
Winning Now, Winning Later reveals the bold the operational reforms and counterintuitive leadership practices you can put into practice that will allow you to do two conflicting things at the same time—pursue strong short- and long-term results. This tested and proven approach can strengthen your business like never before, and even rescue it from the brink of disaster no matter how dire the current circumstances may seem.
Offering 10 essential principles for winning both today and tomorrow, this book will help you:
Spot practices that seem attractive in the short term but will cost the company in the future
Determine where and how to invest in growth for maximum impact
Sustain both short-term performance and long-term investments even in challenging times, such as during recessions and leadership transitions
Feel inspired to stand up to investors and other managers who are solely focused on either short- or long-term objectives
Step back, think independently, and foster independent thinking among others around you
Presenting a comprehensive solution to a perennial problem, Winning Now, Winning Later is a go-to guide for you and leaders everywhere to finally transcend short-termism’s daily grind and leave an enduring legacy of success.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published June 30, 2020
294 people are currently reading
2168 people want to read
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June 10, 2021As a CEO who managed for the long term with a keen eye to the short term, I found that I had to create my own playbook as I went along. How I wish David Cote’s excellent book had been available to me then. Life would have been so much easier! Many leaders will benefit from this ‘how to.’
January 28, 2021
Some decent methods about managing a business or corporation. I liked the ideas about solving inherited legacy problems and focusing on improving the processes that make up a system in order to improve the company as a whole. However I couldn't help but feel that this was a little too much self-advertising which dragged the rating down for me as it marks insecurity and self-centeredness in a book designed to help others.
August 23, 2020
A Business owner's Operating Manual. Written by David M. Cote ex CEO of Honewell, this book provides a 1st hand, no holds barred, insider view of how to run (& not run) a Co.
I was thrilled to read it. Why?
- The sheer honesty & transparency of a Fortune 500 CEO. Unlike many books written by CEOs, this one is nakedly truthful.
- At many places, I find David back-patting himself, but the insights, courage and plain determination he executes are worthy of the accolades (even if self-given).
- The content is 'finger dirty', nitty-gritty, getting S*** done stuff. It's not a helicopter ride with gyaan patti thrown in (thank god).
- The experiences shared are amazing. How to set processes, keep your eyes on the customer, and most IMPORTANTLY of all - not to fall for Q on Q Stock market expectations.
- Some great quotes!
"The idea that as a leader you can focus on strategy and delegate its implementation to great people is a fallacy."
"In one meeting you might need to come across as angry, in another pensive, in another friendly. It depends on what you’re trying to accomplish."
- INSTILL AN INTELLECTUAL MIND-SET. This was MY GOLDEN mantra.
A MUST buy.
I was thrilled to read it. Why?
- The sheer honesty & transparency of a Fortune 500 CEO. Unlike many books written by CEOs, this one is nakedly truthful.
- At many places, I find David back-patting himself, but the insights, courage and plain determination he executes are worthy of the accolades (even if self-given).
- The content is 'finger dirty', nitty-gritty, getting S*** done stuff. It's not a helicopter ride with gyaan patti thrown in (thank god).
- The experiences shared are amazing. How to set processes, keep your eyes on the customer, and most IMPORTANTLY of all - not to fall for Q on Q Stock market expectations.
- Some great quotes!
"The idea that as a leader you can focus on strategy and delegate its implementation to great people is a fallacy."
"In one meeting you might need to come across as angry, in another pensive, in another friendly. It depends on what you’re trying to accomplish."
- INSTILL AN INTELLECTUAL MIND-SET. This was MY GOLDEN mantra.
A MUST buy.
February 11, 2023
This is a leadership and management book that I strongly recommend to anyone that has to take decisions on behalf of the company.
I have really appreciated this book, for the vision it sets, the recommended principles and methodologies and, above everything else, the leadership style.
Unfortunately, being a leader doesn’t always mean you can or should take the most popular or the most friendly decisions towards your employees. You can even become the guy everyone hates, given the decisions you take have a negative impact on people… or require them to be focused on continuous improvement, on applying their minds to serve the customer and to think over the best solution the client needs. However, many “visionary CEO biography” are focused on “trust your people and they will return with the best results”, “empower your employee and he will commit to delivering the best results, no matter what it costs to him”. If you have never been there, you buy this and know you will apply it when you get there. If you have been there and are a leader that requires the best solutions are delivered to your customers… you know this is BS, you need to put in place the right tools and controls to ensure people are measured by their results, the best performers are rewarded and recognized, the others…
This is why I have really appreciated this book, forget the BS and the politically correct statements, these are real advices for the real world. Cote’s results speak for itself, although I have worked for several years with Honeywell’s people and technologies and have witnessed the improvements, from the client perspective.
On the main subject of the book… of course, OBVIOUSLY, any GOOD leader will invest for the future while nurturing the short-term results. Naturally, why would you need to buy and read this book on something so obvious? Because!
Because it is easier said than done. Because if you have limited resources (who doesn’t ?), you usually need to tackle the operational disasters (on a day to day basis) with the same limited resources that you will also need to develop the tools and methods and training required to ensure the same mistakes don’t happen again and again. This is why it is important to know how to balance both the present and the future and this is what is perfectly explained by David and his experience driving Honeywell into the high performing organization it’s become.
Kudos to this book, I highly recommend it, in fact bought 20 copies that I am offering to my directors and high potential managers. 9.8 out of 10!
I have really appreciated this book, for the vision it sets, the recommended principles and methodologies and, above everything else, the leadership style.
Unfortunately, being a leader doesn’t always mean you can or should take the most popular or the most friendly decisions towards your employees. You can even become the guy everyone hates, given the decisions you take have a negative impact on people… or require them to be focused on continuous improvement, on applying their minds to serve the customer and to think over the best solution the client needs. However, many “visionary CEO biography” are focused on “trust your people and they will return with the best results”, “empower your employee and he will commit to delivering the best results, no matter what it costs to him”. If you have never been there, you buy this and know you will apply it when you get there. If you have been there and are a leader that requires the best solutions are delivered to your customers… you know this is BS, you need to put in place the right tools and controls to ensure people are measured by their results, the best performers are rewarded and recognized, the others…
This is why I have really appreciated this book, forget the BS and the politically correct statements, these are real advices for the real world. Cote’s results speak for itself, although I have worked for several years with Honeywell’s people and technologies and have witnessed the improvements, from the client perspective.
On the main subject of the book… of course, OBVIOUSLY, any GOOD leader will invest for the future while nurturing the short-term results. Naturally, why would you need to buy and read this book on something so obvious? Because!
Because it is easier said than done. Because if you have limited resources (who doesn’t ?), you usually need to tackle the operational disasters (on a day to day basis) with the same limited resources that you will also need to develop the tools and methods and training required to ensure the same mistakes don’t happen again and again. This is why it is important to know how to balance both the present and the future and this is what is perfectly explained by David and his experience driving Honeywell into the high performing organization it’s become.
Kudos to this book, I highly recommend it, in fact bought 20 copies that I am offering to my directors and high potential managers. 9.8 out of 10!
May 8, 2025
David M. Cote's "Winning Now, Winning Later" is framed as a guide to balancing short-term results with long-term investment, but frankly, it reads more like the compelling memoirs of the man who achieved remarkable things at Honeywell over 16 years.
While not a typical self-help or finance book, it's filled with insights drawn from navigating complex corporate situations and implementing operational improvements like Six Sigma and their Honeywell Operating System (HOS). My key takeaway is that Cote's successful approach, permeating every decision from R&D investment to M&A strategy, can fundamentally be understood as a form of Kaizen – a relentless, gradual pursuit of improvement everywhere, every day. He directly confronts the pervasive "thundercloud" of intellectual laziness and short-sightedness that prioritizes immediate gains at the expense of future health, offering practical rules and demonstrating the immense cost of delaying necessary actions.
The book details Honeywell's journey with HOS, revealing the crucial lesson learned from Six Sigma that true change requires depth in thinking, not just wide application of tools, hence the deliberate, phased rollout. Cote also provides candid perspectives on building a high-performance culture, the intense, multi-year process of developing leaders and planning succession, and even managing through economic crises by preparing early and making unconventional calls.
While some chapters might leave you wishing for more granular technical detail or feel like a natural progression of prior points (looking at you, final chapter), the book is consistently rich with hard-won principles, illustrative anecdotes, and eye-opening numbers from the front lines of corporate transformation. Ultimately, "Winning Now, Winning Later" is a powerful account demonstrating that achieving both present performance and future growth is possible, demanding persistent effort, strategic discipline, and a deep commitment to continuous improvement across the entire organization.
While not a typical self-help or finance book, it's filled with insights drawn from navigating complex corporate situations and implementing operational improvements like Six Sigma and their Honeywell Operating System (HOS). My key takeaway is that Cote's successful approach, permeating every decision from R&D investment to M&A strategy, can fundamentally be understood as a form of Kaizen – a relentless, gradual pursuit of improvement everywhere, every day. He directly confronts the pervasive "thundercloud" of intellectual laziness and short-sightedness that prioritizes immediate gains at the expense of future health, offering practical rules and demonstrating the immense cost of delaying necessary actions.
The book details Honeywell's journey with HOS, revealing the crucial lesson learned from Six Sigma that true change requires depth in thinking, not just wide application of tools, hence the deliberate, phased rollout. Cote also provides candid perspectives on building a high-performance culture, the intense, multi-year process of developing leaders and planning succession, and even managing through economic crises by preparing early and making unconventional calls.
While some chapters might leave you wishing for more granular technical detail or feel like a natural progression of prior points (looking at you, final chapter), the book is consistently rich with hard-won principles, illustrative anecdotes, and eye-opening numbers from the front lines of corporate transformation. Ultimately, "Winning Now, Winning Later" is a powerful account demonstrating that achieving both present performance and future growth is possible, demanding persistent effort, strategic discipline, and a deep commitment to continuous improvement across the entire organization.
November 30, 2020
The bullet-point summaries in the end of each chapter were handy. Nothing new here. After a few chapters I just skipped through and read the final pages of each chapter. It’s an ok’ish summary of how to run an orange type organisation with plenty of boring stories about how the author did it.
September 10, 2023
The Skinny: A near-unbearably pompous account of the turnaround of the struggling conglomerate Honeywell. A few good nuggets are not nearly enough to overcome the book's platitudes and puffery.
The Good: There are some decent nuggets in here but not many. One that did jump out and one that I have adopted in my own life is the recommended "blue book" sessions, where you just clear your mind and sit down with a notebook to brainstorm and reflect on a regular basis.
The Bad: What I cannot stand about this book is that it is 250 pages and the first 100 are spent just trashing where Honeywell was when the author arrived. It sounded like a garbage heap of a company and the author does not seem to understand that by trashing it so hard, he set the bar extremely low for any subsequent leader to turn it around. It literally sounds like any half-decent CEO would make a massive impact, after all it does not sound like it could sink any lower. Yet despite this, the tone is so patronizing and paternalistic as if the author thinks he was some prophet (yay alliteration). He lost me almost for the remainder of the book when he said how much of a sacrifice it was to spend so many hours traveling on his Gulfstream 550 (page 120ish). Like really? Why even write that. The rest of the book is filled with basic foundational business ideas like clean up your financials, team, and operations while seeking growth opportunities and cutting loose helpless divisions. It literally spends 100 pages covering these basic things. This is table stakes for major companies, not some groundbreaking advice. I have read many business books and none have been so remedial. Oh and if you read the epilogue, you find out its ghostwritten. Which means two brains had to agree and say "yeah, this book is awesome, print it". Brutal.
The Good: There are some decent nuggets in here but not many. One that did jump out and one that I have adopted in my own life is the recommended "blue book" sessions, where you just clear your mind and sit down with a notebook to brainstorm and reflect on a regular basis.
The Bad: What I cannot stand about this book is that it is 250 pages and the first 100 are spent just trashing where Honeywell was when the author arrived. It sounded like a garbage heap of a company and the author does not seem to understand that by trashing it so hard, he set the bar extremely low for any subsequent leader to turn it around. It literally sounds like any half-decent CEO would make a massive impact, after all it does not sound like it could sink any lower. Yet despite this, the tone is so patronizing and paternalistic as if the author thinks he was some prophet (yay alliteration). He lost me almost for the remainder of the book when he said how much of a sacrifice it was to spend so many hours traveling on his Gulfstream 550 (page 120ish). Like really? Why even write that. The rest of the book is filled with basic foundational business ideas like clean up your financials, team, and operations while seeking growth opportunities and cutting loose helpless divisions. It literally spends 100 pages covering these basic things. This is table stakes for major companies, not some groundbreaking advice. I have read many business books and none have been so remedial. Oh and if you read the epilogue, you find out its ghostwritten. Which means two brains had to agree and say "yeah, this book is awesome, print it". Brutal.
September 28, 2022
The book is easy to read with clear ideas of what this book can offer. This is one of the few business books I could read well into the night.
What the book title indicates is exactly what you get, and so much more. The author didn’t just only have one specific answer but provided the whole process from the beginning to the end. It is like a guidebook on how to lead a company and get effective result from everyone. The big, clear main idea throughout the book reminds you what all the processes are for.
Although the author was a CEO in a multi-billion company, he also provided guides for small businesses and lower-level managers as well. He dissected every aspect of business. When you read on, you will find that most problems are simple enough if you have common sense. What surprise me was that some topic I found would be irrelevant to me even offered insights and advice I could use in my business.
However, sometimes it felt like the author had made all his decisions correctly, though he did share stories that weren’t the best. Like whatever he had done was always right. But I think, in the end, it all comes down to leader’s mindset. If he/she possesses right attitude and mindset from the start, it’s all in good hands. If it’s not, well… this book wouldn’t happen. (Also, good marketing for Honeywell, though.) Highly recommend!
What the book title indicates is exactly what you get, and so much more. The author didn’t just only have one specific answer but provided the whole process from the beginning to the end. It is like a guidebook on how to lead a company and get effective result from everyone. The big, clear main idea throughout the book reminds you what all the processes are for.
Although the author was a CEO in a multi-billion company, he also provided guides for small businesses and lower-level managers as well. He dissected every aspect of business. When you read on, you will find that most problems are simple enough if you have common sense. What surprise me was that some topic I found would be irrelevant to me even offered insights and advice I could use in my business.
However, sometimes it felt like the author had made all his decisions correctly, though he did share stories that weren’t the best. Like whatever he had done was always right. But I think, in the end, it all comes down to leader’s mindset. If he/she possesses right attitude and mindset from the start, it’s all in good hands. If it’s not, well… this book wouldn’t happen. (Also, good marketing for Honeywell, though.) Highly recommend!
January 29, 2021
Winning Now, Winning Later (2020) shows the path to lasting business success.
Drawing from David Cote’s experience turning around a Fortune 500 multinational, it explains that choosing between short-term and long-term success is a false choice – a successful business can and must operate with both in mind.
Drawing from David Cote’s experience turning around a Fortune 500 multinational, it explains that choosing between short-term and long-term success is a false choice – a successful business can and must operate with both in mind.
March 15, 2025
I have enjoyed reading this book, I think overall there are very good ideas on how to think strategically while providing day to day results. The level at which Honeywell was during his tenure was impressive. I gave it 4 starts because sometimes I think some points and opinions were too strong without a room to debate.
March 22, 2023
“One of the leader’s most valuable but least valued contributions is avoiding trouble, not addressing it once it’s occurred.”
A timely book against short-termism. It did felt a bit patronizing at times, but he can probably afford it considering that Honeywell share price has increased about 10x since 2008 financial crisis and company market cap today is over 120 billion USD today. I did know quite little about Honeywell in general before reading the book. Many of the things in the book feel a bit common sense, but as the saying goes that usually this does not mean common practice. One does have to take a very high level view when managing a company with a market cap in tens of billions, yet at times he was quite hands on with specific topics. It was remarkable how much effort went into ongoing business reviews and constantly challenging the information that was received. He also focused a lot on company culture, as an extreme example I found it amusing when Honeywell bought two Gulfstream private jets just to fly their leadership teams around the globe with less hassle to ensure better organizational alignment.
"If our experience proves anything, it's that you don't have to be a genius to achieve remarkable short- and long-term performance (we certainly weren't). You also don't need to have some magic formula. What you do have to do is believe you can achieve two seemingly conflicting things at the same time — short-term performance and investment in the future. And then, on a daily operational level, you have to dedicate yourself to actually doing it, pushing yourself and others on your team and organization to go beyond what they think is possible, every small step of the way. Leadership matters — it really does. And the trick, as I like to say, is in the doing."
“Three Principles of Short- and Long-Term Performance 1.Scrub accounting and business practices down to what is real. 2.Invest in the future, but not excessively. 3.Grow while keeping fixed costs constant.”
Developing a process improvement culture:
“It’s the habit of process change – the undertaking of numerous, sustained changes over time – that counts.”
“It’s a change in mindset and operational norms that takes months or even years to establish, and that yields incremental, accumulated gains years into the future.”
“Revolutionary change sounds good, but it’s not the optimal route to strong short- and long-term performance.”
“Process improvement is also about yielding some of your authority as a leader and empowering others closest to the action to improve the real work, incrementally, day after day.”
“If you want to perform well over both the short and long term, pay close attention to executive leadership in general. As much as you might invest in areas like culture, process transformation, and M&A, you’ll only make progress if you have talented senior leaders who are both committed to the company’s strategies and capable of executing on them. Having the right number of those leaders matters too.”
*Acquisitions can be a competitive advantage when done right.
“To Bring Acquisitions into the Fold . . . •Put integration plans in place before the deal closes, covering management, metrics, and other relevant topics. •Personally review and approve the plan. •Tighten up the executional details. •Put dedicated, full-time integration teams in place, and assemble these teams early. •Make changes and communicate them immediately to shape the mind-set. •Stay alert for processes in acquired companies that you like, and introduce them as innovations into your own company. •Personally perform regular follow-up to ensure that the acquisition really is performing even better than predicted by the valuation model.”
“The idea that as a leader you can focus on strategy and delegate its implementation to great people is a fallacy. You don’t want to micromanage, and you do need to tailor the amount of oversight you give to the leader in question.2 But time is limited, and faced with urgent priorities, even the most talented people will let difficult, longer-term projects slide. Leaders must get out in the field to confirm that these projects are actually happening. They also must make sure the “machinery” works everyday—that employees have the tools and processes they need to execute their decisions, and further, that they’re working hard to improve these tools and processes.”
“designate two or three days each month as “X” days, during which they wouldn’t schedule any meetings. I’d spend some of those days alone thinking about our businesses.”
“One of my favorite techniques is to require that teams provide me with a summary page at the beginning of the meeting or beforehand so that I could get the gist of the issue up front as well as the team’s recommendations rather than waiting for the story to unfold.”
“A fourth way to take control of the downturn is to maximize the cash available to you. Cash is always a good friend to have, especially during the tough times.”
“As the decision-maker in your organization, you must become intimately engaged with leadership development, hiring, and firing.”
“metrics often foster compliance with words rather than with intent.”
“Traditionally, companies restructure their businesses periodically to cut costs, primarily through mass layoffs and closures. Perpetual restructuring is a more gradual, moderate, and humbler approach. Instead of slashing costs dramatically all at once, keep your fixed costs steady while growing sales year over year. Operate more efficiently, doing just a bit more each year with roughly the same resources you used the previous year. To achieve those efficiency gains, deploy a variety of smaller restructuring programs that support ongoing process-improvement initiatives. Push to get a bit better—more efficient, more effective, more innovative—each year. Over time, as your business grows, deliver part of the added profits to investors, but set aside a portion to fund additional investments in R&D, geographic expansion, process improvement, sales coverage, and strategic portfolio management (acquisitions, mergers, and divestitures).”
“The Five Initiatives 1.Growth (via customer service, globalization, and technology) 2.Productivity (went hand-in-hand with growth) 3.Cash (improve working capital and have high-quality earnings) 4.People (keep the best talent, organized the right way and motivated) 5.Organizational enablers (including Six Sigma, Honeywell Operating System, and Functional Transformation)”
“The Twelve Behaviors 1.Focus on customers and growth (serve customers well and aggressively pursue growth). 2.Lead impactfully (think like a leader and serve as a role model). 3.Get results (consistently meet any commitments that you make). 4.Make people better (encourage excellence in peers, subordinates, and/or managers). 5.Champion change (drive continuous improvement in our operations). 6.Foster teamwork and diversity (define success in terms of the entire team). 7.Adopt a global mind-set (view the business from all relevant perspectives, and see the world in terms of integrated value chains). 8.Take risks intelligently (recognize that we must take greater but smarter risks to generate better returns). 9.Be self-aware (recognize your behavior and how it affects those around you). 10.Communicate effectively (provide information to others in a timely, concise, and thoughtful way). 11.Think in an integrative fashion (make more holistic decisions beyond your own bailiwick by applying intuition, experience, and judgment to the available data). 12.Develop technical or functional excellence (be capable and effective in your particular area of expertise).”
“We decided to boil our list down to just a few key criteria around which we could easily evaluate candidates. We settled on six: •An intense desire to win: We didn’t want a new CEO who was adept at explaining why something didn’t happen, but rather someone who could figure out how to win even if unanticipated problems cropped up. •Intelligence: We wanted someone smart and analytical who could avoid problems before they arose. •The ability to think independently: Fad surfers need not apply. •Courage: My successor had to be capable of making bold decisions, while also checking afterward to verify that these decisions were correct. •Curiosity: We needed a CEO who could stay fresh over time by exposing him or herself to novel ideas—someone who was self-aware and dedicated to learning. •An ability to motivate and build a strong culture: Our next CEO had to be able to mobilize the company behind the strategy, hiring great people and motivating them.”
A timely book against short-termism. It did felt a bit patronizing at times, but he can probably afford it considering that Honeywell share price has increased about 10x since 2008 financial crisis and company market cap today is over 120 billion USD today. I did know quite little about Honeywell in general before reading the book. Many of the things in the book feel a bit common sense, but as the saying goes that usually this does not mean common practice. One does have to take a very high level view when managing a company with a market cap in tens of billions, yet at times he was quite hands on with specific topics. It was remarkable how much effort went into ongoing business reviews and constantly challenging the information that was received. He also focused a lot on company culture, as an extreme example I found it amusing when Honeywell bought two Gulfstream private jets just to fly their leadership teams around the globe with less hassle to ensure better organizational alignment.
"If our experience proves anything, it's that you don't have to be a genius to achieve remarkable short- and long-term performance (we certainly weren't). You also don't need to have some magic formula. What you do have to do is believe you can achieve two seemingly conflicting things at the same time — short-term performance and investment in the future. And then, on a daily operational level, you have to dedicate yourself to actually doing it, pushing yourself and others on your team and organization to go beyond what they think is possible, every small step of the way. Leadership matters — it really does. And the trick, as I like to say, is in the doing."
“Three Principles of Short- and Long-Term Performance 1.Scrub accounting and business practices down to what is real. 2.Invest in the future, but not excessively. 3.Grow while keeping fixed costs constant.”
Developing a process improvement culture:
“It’s the habit of process change – the undertaking of numerous, sustained changes over time – that counts.”
“It’s a change in mindset and operational norms that takes months or even years to establish, and that yields incremental, accumulated gains years into the future.”
“Revolutionary change sounds good, but it’s not the optimal route to strong short- and long-term performance.”
“Process improvement is also about yielding some of your authority as a leader and empowering others closest to the action to improve the real work, incrementally, day after day.”
“If you want to perform well over both the short and long term, pay close attention to executive leadership in general. As much as you might invest in areas like culture, process transformation, and M&A, you’ll only make progress if you have talented senior leaders who are both committed to the company’s strategies and capable of executing on them. Having the right number of those leaders matters too.”
*Acquisitions can be a competitive advantage when done right.
“To Bring Acquisitions into the Fold . . . •Put integration plans in place before the deal closes, covering management, metrics, and other relevant topics. •Personally review and approve the plan. •Tighten up the executional details. •Put dedicated, full-time integration teams in place, and assemble these teams early. •Make changes and communicate them immediately to shape the mind-set. •Stay alert for processes in acquired companies that you like, and introduce them as innovations into your own company. •Personally perform regular follow-up to ensure that the acquisition really is performing even better than predicted by the valuation model.”
“The idea that as a leader you can focus on strategy and delegate its implementation to great people is a fallacy. You don’t want to micromanage, and you do need to tailor the amount of oversight you give to the leader in question.2 But time is limited, and faced with urgent priorities, even the most talented people will let difficult, longer-term projects slide. Leaders must get out in the field to confirm that these projects are actually happening. They also must make sure the “machinery” works everyday—that employees have the tools and processes they need to execute their decisions, and further, that they’re working hard to improve these tools and processes.”
“designate two or three days each month as “X” days, during which they wouldn’t schedule any meetings. I’d spend some of those days alone thinking about our businesses.”
“One of my favorite techniques is to require that teams provide me with a summary page at the beginning of the meeting or beforehand so that I could get the gist of the issue up front as well as the team’s recommendations rather than waiting for the story to unfold.”
“A fourth way to take control of the downturn is to maximize the cash available to you. Cash is always a good friend to have, especially during the tough times.”
“As the decision-maker in your organization, you must become intimately engaged with leadership development, hiring, and firing.”
“metrics often foster compliance with words rather than with intent.”
“Traditionally, companies restructure their businesses periodically to cut costs, primarily through mass layoffs and closures. Perpetual restructuring is a more gradual, moderate, and humbler approach. Instead of slashing costs dramatically all at once, keep your fixed costs steady while growing sales year over year. Operate more efficiently, doing just a bit more each year with roughly the same resources you used the previous year. To achieve those efficiency gains, deploy a variety of smaller restructuring programs that support ongoing process-improvement initiatives. Push to get a bit better—more efficient, more effective, more innovative—each year. Over time, as your business grows, deliver part of the added profits to investors, but set aside a portion to fund additional investments in R&D, geographic expansion, process improvement, sales coverage, and strategic portfolio management (acquisitions, mergers, and divestitures).”
“The Five Initiatives 1.Growth (via customer service, globalization, and technology) 2.Productivity (went hand-in-hand with growth) 3.Cash (improve working capital and have high-quality earnings) 4.People (keep the best talent, organized the right way and motivated) 5.Organizational enablers (including Six Sigma, Honeywell Operating System, and Functional Transformation)”
“The Twelve Behaviors 1.Focus on customers and growth (serve customers well and aggressively pursue growth). 2.Lead impactfully (think like a leader and serve as a role model). 3.Get results (consistently meet any commitments that you make). 4.Make people better (encourage excellence in peers, subordinates, and/or managers). 5.Champion change (drive continuous improvement in our operations). 6.Foster teamwork and diversity (define success in terms of the entire team). 7.Adopt a global mind-set (view the business from all relevant perspectives, and see the world in terms of integrated value chains). 8.Take risks intelligently (recognize that we must take greater but smarter risks to generate better returns). 9.Be self-aware (recognize your behavior and how it affects those around you). 10.Communicate effectively (provide information to others in a timely, concise, and thoughtful way). 11.Think in an integrative fashion (make more holistic decisions beyond your own bailiwick by applying intuition, experience, and judgment to the available data). 12.Develop technical or functional excellence (be capable and effective in your particular area of expertise).”
“We decided to boil our list down to just a few key criteria around which we could easily evaluate candidates. We settled on six: •An intense desire to win: We didn’t want a new CEO who was adept at explaining why something didn’t happen, but rather someone who could figure out how to win even if unanticipated problems cropped up. •Intelligence: We wanted someone smart and analytical who could avoid problems before they arose. •The ability to think independently: Fad surfers need not apply. •Courage: My successor had to be capable of making bold decisions, while also checking afterward to verify that these decisions were correct. •Curiosity: We needed a CEO who could stay fresh over time by exposing him or herself to novel ideas—someone who was self-aware and dedicated to learning. •An ability to motivate and build a strong culture: Our next CEO had to be able to mobilize the company behind the strategy, hiring great people and motivating them.”
July 6, 2024
This was a wonderful and timely read. It made me think a lot about my leadership style and how I can work to be a better leader.
July 25, 2020
Really great management book
Lot to learn from. Will become a management classic. Cote gives his specific strategies and tactics in a level of detail that is often missing in management books
Lot to learn from. Will become a management classic. Cote gives his specific strategies and tactics in a level of detail that is often missing in management books
June 10, 2021
This book is amazing catalogue of managing and leading organizations, a lot of practical insights on how to implement changes and achieve growth in medium and big organizations. The book is a journey from day 1 till day z and beyond, enjoyable experience from a great CEO for one of the biggest corporations on the earth
July 20, 2020
On the need to balance between short-run goals and long-run goals. Some people focus on quarterly earnings at the expense of long-run business viability. Others focus on the long-run so much that they ignore short-run survival. To me, the latter is better than the former because short run will force you to deal with it, you won’t be able to ignore it. The former case, however, you can keep focusing on the short run and never even be able to pay attention to the long run.
Anyways, a useful and fresh book!
Anyways, a useful and fresh book!
March 14, 2021
There are moments where the author seems to think the cost of environmental clean-up is too great, where he manages and motivates with fear, and where the author’s moral compass seems atrophied or underdeveloped. I kept wondering if this was written by yet another sociopath CEO.
Outside of those moments, the case studies and details in this book are excellent. It has won business book awards and the lessons inside are valuable.
Outside of those moments, the case studies and details in this book are excellent. It has won business book awards and the lessons inside are valuable.
September 13, 2020
Winning Now, Winning Later is a decent book written by the former CEO of Honeywell, David Cote, which describes his process for turning around Honeywell. At the core of the author's message is the necessity of a company to not only confront the realities of short term performance but also thoughtfully invest for the long term. This is the framework David Cote used at Honeywell for over two decades, and ultimately he turned around the company's culture, processes, and financial success. Here are a few key takeaways I took from Winning Now, Winning Later:
1. Decision making: One of my favorite quotes of the book sums up the topic perfectly, "The best leaders dedicate almost all their time to the latter two elements: making great decisions and executing consistently with those decisions." David Cote fanatically sought out disconfirming evidence and made it a point to be right at the end of the meeting, NOT the beginning. Meaning, he always tried to get all information out on the table for making a decision. My two favorite chapters in the book centered on this - namely, banishing intellectual laziness and creating a robust M&A process.
2. X-Days and the Blue Notebook: While David Cote comes across as (appropriately) demanding in this book, there is also a side of reflection that comes through. One task that I hope to bring into my monthly flow at work is David's use of X-Days and his Blue Notebook. Essentially, he would "x" off an entire day to reflect on Honeywell's progress and future. He would then use his blue notebooks to take notes and reflect on company issues and Honeywell's direction.
3. Holding Fixed Costs Constant While Growing Sales: This is such a simple insight, but it permeates many of David Cote's decisions. A recurring line throughout the book is trying to "accomplish two seemingly conflicting things simultaneously," meaning keeping inventory costs low, while also increasing customer satisfaction. Under David's leadership, Honeywell accomplished many feats similar to this while maintaining flat expenses. Ultimately, this led the company to generate incrementally higher EBITDA margins over time (12% in 2004 to 23% in 2019).
As I mentioned before, I thought the two chapters on decision making (within Honeywell and on the M&A process) were excellent and worth reading the entire book. That said, I would only recommend this book to a select group of people who work inside of large conglomerates and are rising middle to upper management. I believe this is the audience David had in mind when he wrote this book - one chapter, in particular, Managing the Leadership Transition, just seemed odd and with minimal insights relatable to the ordinary worker. So in sum, there are some great insights in this book, assuming you are the audience the author had in mind.
1. Decision making: One of my favorite quotes of the book sums up the topic perfectly, "The best leaders dedicate almost all their time to the latter two elements: making great decisions and executing consistently with those decisions." David Cote fanatically sought out disconfirming evidence and made it a point to be right at the end of the meeting, NOT the beginning. Meaning, he always tried to get all information out on the table for making a decision. My two favorite chapters in the book centered on this - namely, banishing intellectual laziness and creating a robust M&A process.
2. X-Days and the Blue Notebook: While David Cote comes across as (appropriately) demanding in this book, there is also a side of reflection that comes through. One task that I hope to bring into my monthly flow at work is David's use of X-Days and his Blue Notebook. Essentially, he would "x" off an entire day to reflect on Honeywell's progress and future. He would then use his blue notebooks to take notes and reflect on company issues and Honeywell's direction.
3. Holding Fixed Costs Constant While Growing Sales: This is such a simple insight, but it permeates many of David Cote's decisions. A recurring line throughout the book is trying to "accomplish two seemingly conflicting things simultaneously," meaning keeping inventory costs low, while also increasing customer satisfaction. Under David's leadership, Honeywell accomplished many feats similar to this while maintaining flat expenses. Ultimately, this led the company to generate incrementally higher EBITDA margins over time (12% in 2004 to 23% in 2019).
As I mentioned before, I thought the two chapters on decision making (within Honeywell and on the M&A process) were excellent and worth reading the entire book. That said, I would only recommend this book to a select group of people who work inside of large conglomerates and are rising middle to upper management. I believe this is the audience David had in mind when he wrote this book - one chapter, in particular, Managing the Leadership Transition, just seemed odd and with minimal insights relatable to the ordinary worker. So in sum, there are some great insights in this book, assuming you are the audience the author had in mind.
April 1, 2025
Having recently completed David Cote's "Winning Now, Winning Later," I find myself reflecting on the complex interplay between the book's stated objectives and its actual narrative. While promising insights on balancing immediate and long-term success, the text predominantly chronicles a CEO's transformation of a major corporation to align with his particular leadership approach.
The narrative structure demonstrates thoughtful organization—questions that emerged in my mind were often addressed in subsequent chapters. However, this structural coherence does not fully compensate for more substantive limitations in perspective.
Particularly notable is the author's presentation of leadership interactions. The opening anecdote describes interrupting a subordinate's presentation with persistent questions and topic shifts—a subordinate who had also been considered for the CEO position. While later acknowledging his need to develop better listening skills, the narrative frames this interaction not as an overreach but as evidence of the subordinate's inadequate business understanding. This framing creates a curious tension between the author's self-reflection and his portrayal of organizational dynamics, suggesting a certain inconsistency in leadership philosophy.
The narrative also demonstrates limited contextual analysis regarding external factors that contributed to both Honeywell's and Cote's success. Achievements are presented without sufficient examination of underlying conditions, creating an incomplete framework for understanding organizational transformation.
His emphasis on Myers-Briggs assessments for selecting personnel compatible with his "sometimes defensive and assertive personality" reinforces the impression that success emerged primarily through organizational alignment with leadership's personality rather than through balanced strategic vision.
The second half offers a far more nuanced perspective, particularly regarding alternatives to layoffs during economic downturns and methodical problem analysis through "blue book sessions." These elements provide glimpses of genuine strategic thinking that balances immediate imperatives with long-term considerations.
For those seeking substantive guidance on organizational leadership that transcends personality-driven management, more comprehensive works on leadership development (High Flyers by McCall, The Goal by Goldratt) might provide greater value than this account of corporate evolution through executive determination and territorial decision-making. This book would have been better as a pure memoir but with a bit more self-reflection, in my opinion.
The narrative structure demonstrates thoughtful organization—questions that emerged in my mind were often addressed in subsequent chapters. However, this structural coherence does not fully compensate for more substantive limitations in perspective.
Particularly notable is the author's presentation of leadership interactions. The opening anecdote describes interrupting a subordinate's presentation with persistent questions and topic shifts—a subordinate who had also been considered for the CEO position. While later acknowledging his need to develop better listening skills, the narrative frames this interaction not as an overreach but as evidence of the subordinate's inadequate business understanding. This framing creates a curious tension between the author's self-reflection and his portrayal of organizational dynamics, suggesting a certain inconsistency in leadership philosophy.
The narrative also demonstrates limited contextual analysis regarding external factors that contributed to both Honeywell's and Cote's success. Achievements are presented without sufficient examination of underlying conditions, creating an incomplete framework for understanding organizational transformation.
His emphasis on Myers-Briggs assessments for selecting personnel compatible with his "sometimes defensive and assertive personality" reinforces the impression that success emerged primarily through organizational alignment with leadership's personality rather than through balanced strategic vision.
The second half offers a far more nuanced perspective, particularly regarding alternatives to layoffs during economic downturns and methodical problem analysis through "blue book sessions." These elements provide glimpses of genuine strategic thinking that balances immediate imperatives with long-term considerations.
For those seeking substantive guidance on organizational leadership that transcends personality-driven management, more comprehensive works on leadership development (High Flyers by McCall, The Goal by Goldratt) might provide greater value than this account of corporate evolution through executive determination and territorial decision-making. This book would have been better as a pure memoir but with a bit more self-reflection, in my opinion.
May 13, 2021
This book is one of the best business books I've read. It has vast amounts of advice and instructions about how you can make your business / team operate better for both short and long-term benefit.
I could write more on specific highlights in the book but I wanted to focus on the three key themes which are reinforced throughout the book:
HONESTY
Are your accounting and business metrics showing the accurate performance of the business? Is poor performance being omitted from the analysis for any reason? Are you using accounting gimmicks to bolster performance? Are you providing constructive but honest feedback to other staff members, even if this means having difficult conversations? Are you rating the quality of your team realistically?
If you are not doing the above then you're not managing properly and don't actually know how your organisation is performing.
INTELLECTUAL RIGOUR
Are you spending enough time thinking about what goes into your budget / plans and why? Do you give yourself time away from day-to-day work to properly think about the strategy of the organisation and how it can be more efficient and effective?
Do you dedicate the right amount of time to writing the performance reviews of the people reporting into you? Are you properly reviewing the performance reviews of indirect reports? Do you reject them for not being up to scratch?
Your approach to these tasks will set the standard for the rest of the organisation, make meetings more effective and efficient and enable you to arrive at better outcomes if everyone applies the right level of consideration to the topics at hand.
PATIENCE
People can get enamoured with "big" projects - mass restructurings; large scale change projects; big ticket M&A deals; significant divestments etc. In reality, is there really the need to sell that non-core business in the next 12 months? What can be done to improve the business before the sale? What difference will those improvements make to the selling price?
This concept also lends itself really well to the concept of doing smaller iterations rather than getting bogged down in large scale projects.
As mentioned at the start of the review: it's an outstanding business book and one which I am certain will improve your organisation if you apply even half of the lessons that it teaches.
I could write more on specific highlights in the book but I wanted to focus on the three key themes which are reinforced throughout the book:
HONESTY
Are your accounting and business metrics showing the accurate performance of the business? Is poor performance being omitted from the analysis for any reason? Are you using accounting gimmicks to bolster performance? Are you providing constructive but honest feedback to other staff members, even if this means having difficult conversations? Are you rating the quality of your team realistically?
If you are not doing the above then you're not managing properly and don't actually know how your organisation is performing.
INTELLECTUAL RIGOUR
Are you spending enough time thinking about what goes into your budget / plans and why? Do you give yourself time away from day-to-day work to properly think about the strategy of the organisation and how it can be more efficient and effective?
Do you dedicate the right amount of time to writing the performance reviews of the people reporting into you? Are you properly reviewing the performance reviews of indirect reports? Do you reject them for not being up to scratch?
Your approach to these tasks will set the standard for the rest of the organisation, make meetings more effective and efficient and enable you to arrive at better outcomes if everyone applies the right level of consideration to the topics at hand.
PATIENCE
People can get enamoured with "big" projects - mass restructurings; large scale change projects; big ticket M&A deals; significant divestments etc. In reality, is there really the need to sell that non-core business in the next 12 months? What can be done to improve the business before the sale? What difference will those improvements make to the selling price?
This concept also lends itself really well to the concept of doing smaller iterations rather than getting bogged down in large scale projects.
As mentioned at the start of the review: it's an outstanding business book and one which I am certain will improve your organisation if you apply even half of the lessons that it teaches.
June 6, 2024
It's a pretty good book. I appreciated it more when I considered it a memoir. Strangely enough, in the very end of the book, in the acknowledgments, the author said that when he submitted his original manuscript, his agent told him to make it less like a memoir. But I enjoyed this book when I thought of it as one dude sharing his story and experience, with lessons learned along the way.
To be clear: Perhaps to his agent's chagrin, this book is not a research-based comprehensive theory of achieving short- and long-term goals simultaneously. There's no evidence-backed theory that has been tested in the field. It's just one dude's reflections on what worked for him. Make no mistake: The author has been incredibly successful in life, and his anecdotes are worth listening to. Further, a lot of his ideas are so undeniably sound and so fantastically well-put that I do believe there's good reason to listen to most of what he says. Still, if we're exhibiting the intellectual rigor that he himself prophetizes, then we must acknowledge that this is simply one person's story. A successful person, sure. But just one person. While I don't think this is the case, it's possible that his success was a fluke, or perhaps attributed to other factors that he didn't mention, or that there's more to the story than he remembers or reveals.
But all that's to say: If you're reading this book like a scientist, there is a LOT that you can criticize. But if you you consider it a memoir, and one dude is sharing his story, than it becomes entirely enjoyable and you may even learn something along the way.
To be clear: Perhaps to his agent's chagrin, this book is not a research-based comprehensive theory of achieving short- and long-term goals simultaneously. There's no evidence-backed theory that has been tested in the field. It's just one dude's reflections on what worked for him. Make no mistake: The author has been incredibly successful in life, and his anecdotes are worth listening to. Further, a lot of his ideas are so undeniably sound and so fantastically well-put that I do believe there's good reason to listen to most of what he says. Still, if we're exhibiting the intellectual rigor that he himself prophetizes, then we must acknowledge that this is simply one person's story. A successful person, sure. But just one person. While I don't think this is the case, it's possible that his success was a fluke, or perhaps attributed to other factors that he didn't mention, or that there's more to the story than he remembers or reveals.
But all that's to say: If you're reading this book like a scientist, there is a LOT that you can criticize. But if you you consider it a memoir, and one dude is sharing his story, than it becomes entirely enjoyable and you may even learn something along the way.
August 4, 2023
A large ship, big company or a big economy / country takes time to turnaround if it has to change course .
This book is a very good example of how to turn around a large company and lessons learned can be transmitted to big economy for example Indian - new administration came in 2014 and finally after all the legacy issues and world randomness ( Covid 19) finally all the efforts of govt are bearing fruits although to a keen eye all the improvements were visible from beginning .
- culture of performance
- take pride in ppl
- take long term view of product / services
- develop competence
- be mindful of your space in industry / world
Also this book offers some very basic but invaluable lessons for small companies -
- focus on brands already working and increase their distribution / markets where demand is there
- don’t buy brands / companies mindlessly
- have a structure for m&a ; be ready vs jumping on deals of bankers
- improve your processes , be very detailed in operational excellence , check your metrics
A classic examples of all these lessons not learned or followed is Amyris . A very well balance sheet is ruined in random acquisition of brands . Wish CEO would have read this book .
A very good read for leaders to avoid pitfalls , and for would be leaders to have these mind maps to observe what should or shouldn’t be done .
This book is a very good example of how to turn around a large company and lessons learned can be transmitted to big economy for example Indian - new administration came in 2014 and finally after all the legacy issues and world randomness ( Covid 19) finally all the efforts of govt are bearing fruits although to a keen eye all the improvements were visible from beginning .
- culture of performance
- take pride in ppl
- take long term view of product / services
- develop competence
- be mindful of your space in industry / world
Also this book offers some very basic but invaluable lessons for small companies -
- focus on brands already working and increase their distribution / markets where demand is there
- don’t buy brands / companies mindlessly
- have a structure for m&a ; be ready vs jumping on deals of bankers
- improve your processes , be very detailed in operational excellence , check your metrics
A classic examples of all these lessons not learned or followed is Amyris . A very well balance sheet is ruined in random acquisition of brands . Wish CEO would have read this book .
A very good read for leaders to avoid pitfalls , and for would be leaders to have these mind maps to observe what should or shouldn’t be done .
May 11, 2024
What's the big idea and/or unique approach of this book?
David Cote was the CEO of Honeywell for 15 years and grew it from $20B to $120B. That growth would be impressive in any company--but the bigger you get the harder it is to do so it's massively impressive. And he did it by combining short term and long term goals, by not giving in to the pressure to give up on either one.
So, the book is the story of what initiatives they did and even how they did them during his tenure at Honeywell.
How am I smarter, better, or wiser because of it?
Some of this stuff is the same as what I have done and teach others to do. But there are some new methods I haven't seen before, because he did all these great things at massive scale. And I loved the way he communicated some of the ideas, too--new phrasing for me. (That's pretty valuable for me, as a big part of my work is explaining these ideas to others).
Was I entertained/did it keep my attention?
Yes. He's a fiesty character and told some great stories. :)
Would I recommend it to others?
Most big company leadership books are so vague and full of corporate speak that they're not useful. This one is not that way.
If you're a business leader of a mid-large sized business, I highly recommend it. If you're not, then you might not get much application out of it, though you might enjoy the stories for entertainment.
David Cote was the CEO of Honeywell for 15 years and grew it from $20B to $120B. That growth would be impressive in any company--but the bigger you get the harder it is to do so it's massively impressive. And he did it by combining short term and long term goals, by not giving in to the pressure to give up on either one.
So, the book is the story of what initiatives they did and even how they did them during his tenure at Honeywell.
How am I smarter, better, or wiser because of it?
Some of this stuff is the same as what I have done and teach others to do. But there are some new methods I haven't seen before, because he did all these great things at massive scale. And I loved the way he communicated some of the ideas, too--new phrasing for me. (That's pretty valuable for me, as a big part of my work is explaining these ideas to others).
Was I entertained/did it keep my attention?
Yes. He's a fiesty character and told some great stories. :)
Would I recommend it to others?
Most big company leadership books are so vague and full of corporate speak that they're not useful. This one is not that way.
If you're a business leader of a mid-large sized business, I highly recommend it. If you're not, then you might not get much application out of it, though you might enjoy the stories for entertainment.
February 21, 2021
I enjoyed the story of David Cote's 16 years as CEO of Honeywell. I admire his sage wisdom that far too few companies practice. I recommend the read.
The book talks about how business leaders often take actions that prop up earnings in the short term but compromise their companies’ long-term health. Short-termism is rampant among executives and managers today, causing many companies to under-perform and even go out of business. Cote challenges us to think harder about customers, markets, and processes than you previously have; to cultivate a mindset of analytic rigor and attention to detail; and ask challenging questions of yourself and others, and push hard until you’ve uncovered satisfying answers, even if that means acknowledging difficult truths.
Cote believes that leadership boils down to three distinct tasks. First, leaders must know how to mobilize a large group of people. Second, they must pick the right direction toward which their team or organization should move. And third, they must get the entire team or organization moving in that direction to execute against that designated goal. He says the best leaders dedicate almost all their time to the latter two elements: making great decisions and executing consistently with those decisions. Cote advocates eradicating the quick fixes at tomorrow’s expense - to plan for today and tomorrow.
In optimizing the organization, Cote emphasizes the focus on process and constant, sustained process improvements. Honeywell standardized its approach to process change across operations. In 2005, Honeywell had embarked on a company-wide quest to improve operations at facilities worldwide, rolling out a new approach to organizing how they worked, called the Honeywell Operating System (HOS). HOS is a comprehensive system for operating plants that brought managers and employees together to continuously improve processes. This started out as Six Sigma. They put resources behind it. Honeywell dedicated dozens of full-time people across the company to implementing HOS, placing a full-time HOS expert on every plant manager’s staff.
Cote says you should start your culture-building efforts by defining the culture you want. During David Cote’s second month at Honeywell, he came up with the five key strategic initiatives he wanted Honeywell to focus on: growth, productivity, cash, people, and operational enablers (like Six Sigma, and later, the Honeywell Operating System).
He also generated a list of 10 behaviors he wanted to define the culture and held a full-day meeting with his team to discuss them. These eventually developed into 12 behaviors: focus on customers and growth; lead impactfully; get results; make people better; champion change; foster teamwork and diversity; adopt a global mindset; take risks intelligently; be self-aware; communicate effectively; think in an integrative fashion; and develop technical or functional excellence. Once the team had aligned around all 12 behaviors and their precise definitions, they branded their desired culture as One Honeywell. Honeywell had been multiple companies at war with one another, but from then on they would be unified. One Honeywell would be the glue that would keep everyone working together and the company thriving. With their desired culture in hand, leadership started spreading it throughout the organization. They incorporated the behaviors into training programs and performance evaluations, and they based compensation decisions in part on whether leaders demonstrated the culture they were seeking to build. Company appraisal forms came printed with the 12 behaviors, and bosses had to specify how well each of their team members was delivering on those behaviors.
On the topic of talent management, it was said to keep fewer leaders. Too often organizations suffer from a kind of “leadership bloat.” They establish new leadership positions in order to lend significance to exciting new business initiatives, but they don’t do enough to ensure that their existing leaders are working as efficiently as possible. The result—too many leaders—drags down performance, even if the vast majority of those leaders are high performers. That’s because more leaders equals more bureaucracy.
On investing in growth, Cote discusses spending smartly and thoughtfully to improve R&D processes, gleaning more benefit from every dollar. He talks about mobilizing R&D, globalization, and a better customer experience to power your future success. Cote says to start with customer experience, which truly is the foundation for growth. If you’re not pleasing customers today, any progress you make in other growth areas won’t have much of an impact. You might be adding new customers, but you’ll also be losing many of your existing customers. Be sure you’re delivering a really good customer experience; then move on to address areas like R&D, globalization, and M&A.
In the section of the book on protecting investments, Cote advises to take control of the downturns. He says that he’s seen leaders often panic when recessions hit. They go into survival mode. As unpleasant as recessions are, you can use them to set the stage for future gains against your competition as long as you stay disciplined and maintain a balanced, short- and long-term approach. He advocates to prepare for recessions before they hit hard by cutting costs proactively while still keeping the company’s long-term growth projects—including process redesigns and culture—intact. Of the common cost-cutting responses, layoffs affect only a small percentage (10–20%) of the workforce. Yet, the financial returns aren’t great. Your organization will accrue a big expense up front, with the potential for survivor guilt among remaining employees. Layoffs also hurt your industrial base, compromising your ability to respond during the coming recovery. Furloughs are a lot less costly in financial terms but many times are more difficult to administer. Cuts in customer support have an immediate financial impact. Yet, customer impact cuts are a really bad idea, as they could cause customers to flee, hurting you over the long term. Leadership also tends to not manage investors’ expectations well.
The book talks about how business leaders often take actions that prop up earnings in the short term but compromise their companies’ long-term health. Short-termism is rampant among executives and managers today, causing many companies to under-perform and even go out of business. Cote challenges us to think harder about customers, markets, and processes than you previously have; to cultivate a mindset of analytic rigor and attention to detail; and ask challenging questions of yourself and others, and push hard until you’ve uncovered satisfying answers, even if that means acknowledging difficult truths.
Cote believes that leadership boils down to three distinct tasks. First, leaders must know how to mobilize a large group of people. Second, they must pick the right direction toward which their team or organization should move. And third, they must get the entire team or organization moving in that direction to execute against that designated goal. He says the best leaders dedicate almost all their time to the latter two elements: making great decisions and executing consistently with those decisions. Cote advocates eradicating the quick fixes at tomorrow’s expense - to plan for today and tomorrow.
In optimizing the organization, Cote emphasizes the focus on process and constant, sustained process improvements. Honeywell standardized its approach to process change across operations. In 2005, Honeywell had embarked on a company-wide quest to improve operations at facilities worldwide, rolling out a new approach to organizing how they worked, called the Honeywell Operating System (HOS). HOS is a comprehensive system for operating plants that brought managers and employees together to continuously improve processes. This started out as Six Sigma. They put resources behind it. Honeywell dedicated dozens of full-time people across the company to implementing HOS, placing a full-time HOS expert on every plant manager’s staff.
Cote says you should start your culture-building efforts by defining the culture you want. During David Cote’s second month at Honeywell, he came up with the five key strategic initiatives he wanted Honeywell to focus on: growth, productivity, cash, people, and operational enablers (like Six Sigma, and later, the Honeywell Operating System).
He also generated a list of 10 behaviors he wanted to define the culture and held a full-day meeting with his team to discuss them. These eventually developed into 12 behaviors: focus on customers and growth; lead impactfully; get results; make people better; champion change; foster teamwork and diversity; adopt a global mindset; take risks intelligently; be self-aware; communicate effectively; think in an integrative fashion; and develop technical or functional excellence. Once the team had aligned around all 12 behaviors and their precise definitions, they branded their desired culture as One Honeywell. Honeywell had been multiple companies at war with one another, but from then on they would be unified. One Honeywell would be the glue that would keep everyone working together and the company thriving. With their desired culture in hand, leadership started spreading it throughout the organization. They incorporated the behaviors into training programs and performance evaluations, and they based compensation decisions in part on whether leaders demonstrated the culture they were seeking to build. Company appraisal forms came printed with the 12 behaviors, and bosses had to specify how well each of their team members was delivering on those behaviors.
On the topic of talent management, it was said to keep fewer leaders. Too often organizations suffer from a kind of “leadership bloat.” They establish new leadership positions in order to lend significance to exciting new business initiatives, but they don’t do enough to ensure that their existing leaders are working as efficiently as possible. The result—too many leaders—drags down performance, even if the vast majority of those leaders are high performers. That’s because more leaders equals more bureaucracy.
On investing in growth, Cote discusses spending smartly and thoughtfully to improve R&D processes, gleaning more benefit from every dollar. He talks about mobilizing R&D, globalization, and a better customer experience to power your future success. Cote says to start with customer experience, which truly is the foundation for growth. If you’re not pleasing customers today, any progress you make in other growth areas won’t have much of an impact. You might be adding new customers, but you’ll also be losing many of your existing customers. Be sure you’re delivering a really good customer experience; then move on to address areas like R&D, globalization, and M&A.
In the section of the book on protecting investments, Cote advises to take control of the downturns. He says that he’s seen leaders often panic when recessions hit. They go into survival mode. As unpleasant as recessions are, you can use them to set the stage for future gains against your competition as long as you stay disciplined and maintain a balanced, short- and long-term approach. He advocates to prepare for recessions before they hit hard by cutting costs proactively while still keeping the company’s long-term growth projects—including process redesigns and culture—intact. Of the common cost-cutting responses, layoffs affect only a small percentage (10–20%) of the workforce. Yet, the financial returns aren’t great. Your organization will accrue a big expense up front, with the potential for survivor guilt among remaining employees. Layoffs also hurt your industrial base, compromising your ability to respond during the coming recovery. Furloughs are a lot less costly in financial terms but many times are more difficult to administer. Cuts in customer support have an immediate financial impact. Yet, customer impact cuts are a really bad idea, as they could cause customers to flee, hurting you over the long term. Leadership also tends to not manage investors’ expectations well.
September 17, 2020
“Remember, smart leaders abound, but leaders who can think independently are rare.”
An inspiring guide to business leadership that navigates the paradox of short vs long term wins. He thoroughly won me over at a certain point citing Blaise Pascal, who I have instinctively always thought was an OG capitalist of biblical proportions. I’ll leave you with that passage in suitable context to any email you have ever written to your boss, and more immediately, this review:
“Simplicity and concision are tough. The French philosopher Blaise Pascal famously noted that he’d written a long letter, having lacked the time required to write a shorter one. As I believe, if you can’t convey a thought clearly and in a few words, then your comprehension of it is probably lacking.”
An inspiring guide to business leadership that navigates the paradox of short vs long term wins. He thoroughly won me over at a certain point citing Blaise Pascal, who I have instinctively always thought was an OG capitalist of biblical proportions. I’ll leave you with that passage in suitable context to any email you have ever written to your boss, and more immediately, this review:
“Simplicity and concision are tough. The French philosopher Blaise Pascal famously noted that he’d written a long letter, having lacked the time required to write a shorter one. As I believe, if you can’t convey a thought clearly and in a few words, then your comprehension of it is probably lacking.”
October 21, 2020
The best business book I have ever read in recent times. Many others tells an entertaining story but doesn't provide any proper business insight or decision making tips, but in his book Mr David Cote is very generous to divulge his thinking behind many decisions.
There are a lot of detailed tangible points on various aspects of business leadership e.g., M&A, compensation, cultural changes, succession, developing rigorous metrics. Really good guiding principles on how to balance a long-term mindset with short-term pressures from wall street investors.
I started off thinking I will not need to take notes but I was so wrong about that. I will definitely re-read again this book in the future to better grasp all the practical advice he is offering.
There are a lot of detailed tangible points on various aspects of business leadership e.g., M&A, compensation, cultural changes, succession, developing rigorous metrics. Really good guiding principles on how to balance a long-term mindset with short-term pressures from wall street investors.
I started off thinking I will not need to take notes but I was so wrong about that. I will definitely re-read again this book in the future to better grasp all the practical advice he is offering.
November 7, 2020
I have really mixed feelings for this book. Let's start by saying that it is written in a real practical way, no b.s., step by step, minimal story telling, learn from my mistakes and wins, kind of book.
The problem unfortunately is that it is so specialized about how to be a ceo and more often than enough how to be a ceo in honeywell that I was trying to find how I could gain from it, being just a small business owner.
I liked that he offers questions rather than advise on how to grow but as I said, since I am not a CEO of an SP 500 company I didn't really have great use for them.
Long story short, nice practical book that any CEO of a mid sized company and above should read.
The problem unfortunately is that it is so specialized about how to be a ceo and more often than enough how to be a ceo in honeywell that I was trying to find how I could gain from it, being just a small business owner.
I liked that he offers questions rather than advise on how to grow but as I said, since I am not a CEO of an SP 500 company I didn't really have great use for them.
Long story short, nice practical book that any CEO of a mid sized company and above should read.
September 2, 2020
very interesting book full of great advice, especially for running a huge public company as a CEO. not always so relevant for people in lower positions or smaller enterprises.
I like his views except for his oldschool perspectives when it comes to things like working from home. also, while he makes a point of not chasing the numbers, he clearly praises his successor for making cost cuts to make his numbers (among the cuts several layoffs etc)
I like his views except for his oldschool perspectives when it comes to things like working from home. also, while he makes a point of not chasing the numbers, he clearly praises his successor for making cost cuts to make his numbers (among the cuts several layoffs etc)
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September 12, 2020Really good reflection on he turned Honeywell into a $120B business from $20B. A lot of detailed tangible points on various aspects of business leadership e.g., M&A, compensation, cultural changes, succession, developing rigorous metrics. Really good guiding principles on how to balance a long-term mindset with short-term pressures from wall street investors.
September 14, 2020
Magnificent book, strongly recommended to immerse yourself in reading this book. Very simple, crisp, concise,sharp n to the point read. Not overloaded with big Jargons, simple strategies (easier said than done) can be practiced or reffered as situation may be.
Just keep taking notes and keep referring time n again will add more value thsn just reading it.Donot read ..pl immerse in this book.
Just keep taking notes and keep referring time n again will add more value thsn just reading it.Donot read ..pl immerse in this book.
November 16, 2020
It is rather manual for Top management than a book itself. Plenty of specific cases, solutions applied, thinking way to gain the solution. Each chapter with questions to think about and consider in the discussed subjects.
Of course hard not to gain the impression that David Cote was the reason for all those changes applied were the results of the CEO himself, probably it is true at least in some percentage.
Of course hard not to gain the impression that David Cote was the reason for all those changes applied were the results of the CEO himself, probably it is true at least in some percentage.
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