Rational Leadership

Book excerpt: Rational leadership inspires confidence by capably using appropriate rational means, as described in the first edition of Rational Leadership. Now a second, updated edition has added eight new chapters and has looked at redevelopment as well as development. The book highlights these two important versions of rational leadership, where a rational leader is either developing or redeveloping a business corporation. Part One presents eight cases of rational leaders who have developed iconic corporations. These best-practice leaders include Sam Walton of Walmart, Meg Whitman of eBay, and Jeff Bezos of Amazon. In all eight cases, the leaders used appropriate adaptive, calculative, and deliberative methods to develop their corporations. In Part Two the authors shift the focus from development to redevelopment. Part Two presents five classic cases of rational leaders redeveloping - remedially renewing - problematic corporations. The leaders include Lou Gerstner of IBM and Steve Jobs of Apple. In all five cases the leaders used appropriate organizational tools, which transformed, reoriented, or hybridized the corporation. Both Part Two and Part One also present supplementary cases of other rational leaders developing or redeveloping a corporation. These leaders include Sheryl Sandberg, Marcel Dassault, Giorgio Armani, Anita Roddick, Satya Nadella, Carly Fiorina, Marissa Mayer, and Jack Welch. In total the authors present more than twenty supplementary or main cases of rational leadership. Most of these case studies are based on a leader's memoir and leader's-eye view, validated by additional biographical and historical sources.