BookReview: Hardball by George Stalk & Rob Lachenauer

I picked this book up as part of a package for attending a speech by Mr. Stalk who is VP at the influential Boston Consulting Group. More so than his book, his speech was jaw dropping, hard-line, 80’s corporate raider stuff... all based on a core principle that makes sense, businesses have a primary objective of meeting the needs of their customers and shareholders. Beyond this simple concept, everything else is good will to the community.

This ongoing principle was easy for me to accept and I have to say I reflected on some of my opinions of different businesses (WalMart, Starbucks). That being said, the majority of this book is written to CEOs and their advisors with influence over an organization’s objectives. This was where I was confused on being invited to this speaking engagement, this is subject matter that is higher up the chain than I can influence right now. However, I did take away some understanding of why corporate leadership makes the decisions they do and am tossing around how these concepts can be scaled down to the departmental level.