Brian MacNeice - Powerhouse : Insiders Account into the Worlds top high-performance organizations

A fascinating study into some of the worlds most awe-inspiring organizations. From insightful interviews and research, MacNeice and Bowen have distilled the essential qualities that lead to high performance down into an actionable and enjoyable read for all business leaders.

Sir Clive Woodward, England 2003 World Cup Winning Head Coach and Team GB Director of Sport, London 2012

The stories of a dozen great organizations from around the world and what we can learn from their decency and vision, as well as their success. Recommended reading for any business leader.

Hamish McRae, Chief Economics Commentator, The Independent

Powerhouse challenges our thinking about high performance by examining essential qualities in a wide range of leading institutions. The Powerhouse model emphasizing Plan, Priorities, People, and Process is a highly useful way to think about the alignment of key elements for any institution. Practical and sure to be of great value for managers from all fields.

Phil Rosenzweig, Professor of Strategy and International Business, IMD, Switzerland and author of The Halo Effect

Its hard to read a book when you are constantly stopping to take notes. The introduction and first chapter alone provoked my thinking about the ambitions of my own company and the strategies needed for success. I love this book. Each chapter is a true story about an organization and the practices and differentiators that led to its success. The organizations are highly diverse and while each is unique most of us dont instruct our customers to build and use pit latrines there are commonalities that can be practised by all of us. Read this book. You will be inspired and compelled to take action.

Susan Scott, Founder of Fierce Inc and author of Fierce Conversations

Thomas Edison once said, If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves. This could be the credo of Powerhouse , written by Brian MacNeice and James Bowen. Using 12 remarkable case studies of world-renowned organizations, they make quite clear that high performance is by definition a collective endeavour. In illustrating what differentiates these captivating organizations from the more humdrum ones, they make the reader familiar with the powerhouse approach to performance transformation. Anybody interested in the DNA of what makes for sustainable high performance would do well to carefully study this book.

Manfred F R Kets de Vries, Distinguished Clinical Professor of Leadership Development and Organizational Change, INSEAD and bestselling author of The Hedgehog Effect: The secrets of building high performance teams

The best analysis of successful organizations since Good to Great and Built to Last. Powerhouse offers amazing insights into the worlds best organizations and the 12 principles that drive organizational performance. This is a must-read for any executive who wants to create lasting success.

Kevin Kruse, New York Times bestselling author of Employee Engagement 2.0

Twelve very diverse institutions and yet a common thread on what it takes to succeed, brilliantly captured by the authors. A must-read for those who are passionate about succeeding.

Ajit Shriram, Joint Managing Director, DCM Shriram, India

Powerhouse is a compelling and provocative compendium of how some of the worlds leading organizations have reached the pinnacle in their respective fields. This book is well researched and clearly written; a must-read for leaders who aspire to transform their organization into a world-class, high-performing institution that is built to last.

Tom Massey, author of The ABCs of Effective Leadership and Ten Commitments for Building High Performance Teams

Every now and again a new book comes along which really does add something new to our understanding of high-performance organizations. This is one of those books. A highly readable book offering real insight into how organizations become leaders in their respective fields.

Jeff Grout, business consultant, coach, speaker and author

Powerhouse

Insider accounts into the worlds top high-performance organizations

Brian MacNeice and James Bowen

Brian MacNeice is an expert in high performance and is a regular speaker on the topic at business conferences and seminars. Brian regularly runs high-performance workshops for organizations, leadership teams and senior executives. He has advised many blue-chip companies in a career spanning almost 20 years across a diverse range of industry sectors. Brian is Managing Director and co-founder of Kotinos Partners, which is a consultancy that focuses on helping CEOs and leadership teams to deliver sustained high performance.

James Bowen is an expert in strategy and organizational design and a performance consultant with 20 years of advisory experience. Over the course of his career James has worked with executive teams of blue-chip companies on a range of engagements with the achievement of step-change performance improvement as their common goal. James is also Managing Director and co-founder of Kotinos Partners.

Our journey in writing this book has been long and rewarding. Over the last five years we have received support and encouragement from many people too many for us to namecheck every individual involved. We have met inspirational people and organizations, and been overwhelmed by the positivity and goodwill we have encountered. We have also been boosted by the total faith shown in our project by clients, colleagues, advisors, friends and family at every turn. To every one of you, we are eternally grateful. We simply could not have done this without your help. In spite of the risk of leaving some special people out, we do wish to explicitly acknowledge some of those most involved.

First, we owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the case study organizations we studied through this research both those included in the book and those contributing to additional content available through our website. Each institution opened its doors to us and generously made available its people, facilities and resources. We have spoken to people from top to bottom within these institutions and have been granted unique access and insight into their worlds. They are the real stars of this book and we hope we have done justice to their stories.

Second, we would like to thank our clients both past and present, and individually and collectively as they inspired us to take on this project in the first place. Many of our perspectives on high performance have been formulated and tested through our work with their teams, addressing their ambitions and challenges. These engagements have shaped our thinking, and several you know who you are! can with complete legitimacy describe themselves as co-creators. We hope they are proud of what we have produced, and look forward to working with them to further push the boundaries of their powerhouse performance in the future.

Third, as first-time authors we have received huge support and patience from our publishers Kogan Page in London. Geraldine Collard, Anna Moss, Amanda Dackombe, Philippa Fiszzon, Jonathon Price, Anita Clark and all of their colleagues have been outstanding in guiding us through the writing process, sharpening our focus and putting shape on our novice ramblings. We hope the long hours they have invested have been rewarded with the final product. Paul Feldstein, our literary agent, has been invaluable in helping us to turn our idea into reality. From our first meeting in his office in Bangor, he has never doubted us and his persistence has ultimately paid off. John Carvill at Eyecue supported us with design, and the Powerhouse Performance model and other illustrations within the book are the fruits of his work. He has been, as always, a pleasure to work with. Grant LeBoff has also helped more than he knows in getting us to the point where we can join him in calling ourselves published authors. Life is so much easier when you collaborate with good people who are great at their jobs.