I just finished David Novak’s book Taking People With You. I am currently in the process of helping coordinate a large organizational change both in structure, culture, and in leadership roles and placement. I was intrigued by the title of the book. Then I found out it was written by the CEO of YUM, the company than includes Pizza Hut, KFC, and Taco Bell and I got excited – probably disproportionately so.
For one thing, when it comes to American Fast Food or “Quick Serve” Restaurants, KFC and Pizza Hut are right up there at the top of the list in the Philippines along with McDonalds. So KFC and Pizza Hut are in my face. I have to work a little harder to find a Taco Bell – but the products and tastes are so substantially different in Manila that I steer clear of that option.
Anyway – this company spun off from Pepsi Co. in a unique set of circumstances into its own company. That made for a lot of interesting leadership stories and nuggets. Besides some of the larger principles, I probably just enjoyed hearing the stories behind crystal Pepsi, the new KFC Colonel Sanders logo/brand, failed breakfast menus at Taco Bell, and popular Pizza Hut promotions. A lot of them were fascinating to me.
This book is not a research book, it’s an individual leader’s leadership philosophy and it reads that way. So you get a lot of values, nuggets, and principles throughout. There’s a lot of things borrowed from big names like Jim Collins or Jack Welch, but there’s a lot of wisdom with stories and anecdotes that back them up.
Maybe what I liked most besides the stories was that this book included several “tools” where the author shares a concrete and practical management tool to accomplish some particular task or goal – both developmental and strategic. Some reinforce vision development. Some get after self-awareness. But some really provide helpful approaches to aligning employees, building trust, building unity on teams, getting honest dialogue, and a host of other things.
Many people teach all these leadership things. Finding appropriate and practical tools or exercises to reinforce them in action is more challenging. But Novak has some good ones here. Last month I designed one such tool on vision and alignment for a class I’m teaching. In this book, Novak has a very similar tool that I think was better and easier to use and I plan to use it next year. But there’s an easy 4-5 tools I plan to file away and use in my leadership efforts working with teams or individuals. In actuality, many of these “leadership tools” are great small group activities so there are broader applications than even he hints at in the book.
If you’re new or unfamiliar to the leadership theory or business world, this book actually could serve as a good intro or survey for you because he covers so much ground and references so many of the top names in the field. If you have been around the block and are well read on leadership dynamics, then the practical tools and applications may be intriguing to you as you continue to explore effective ways of mobilizing people for effectiveness on a mission.
But if you just want to read or listen for stories about Pepsi, Pizza, KFC, and Taco Bell – then I think you’ll enjoy the read 🙂
