Plain Talk - Hardcover

by Ken Iverson (Author), Tom Varian (With), Warren Bennis (Foreword by)

Dem Autor Ken Iverson schreibt man die Rettung der US-amerikanischen Stahlindustrie zu: Nucor, sein vor 30 Jahren gegründetes Unternehmen, hat niemals ein Quartal mit Verlust abgeschlossen, niemals einen Angestellten entlassen und wird als eine der bestgeführten Firmen Amerikas betrachtet. Dieses Buch ist ein offener, einnehmender Überblick über Iversons Management-Stil, Denkweise und Erfahrungsschatz, von dem jedes Unternehmen profitieren kann. (11/97)

Front Jacket

"We have little tolerance for the politics, the pettiness, the fixation on rank and status, or the insensitivity to employees' needs that people in most big companies endure as a matter of course."

Ken Iverson, the Chairman of Nucor Corporation, says many things you wouldn't expect to hear from a Fortune 500 executive. But then, few top executives are such fervent champions of the frontline worker.

Now, in his long-awaited book, this visionary maverick shares valuable lessons about what it takes to build a super-competitive, world-class business. Nucor--a $3.8 billion dynamo of profitable growth--disdains committees, job descriptions, performance appraisals, and everything else bearing the taint of bureaucracy. Iverson believes people should earn according to what they produce. And he relentlessly "destroys hierarchy" to eliminate the trappings that distance managers from employees.

"When is laying people off the practical and sensible thing to do? Can we expect employees to be loyal and motivated if we lay them off at every dip of the economy, while we go on padding our own pockets?"

Nucor has never laid off an employee or shut down a facility for lack of work. Instead, the company has followed Iverson's controversial "painsharing" approach. When times get tight, everyone takes paycuts--starting with the executives at the top.

"When a friend showed me an article that listed me as the lowest paid Fortune 500 CEO that year, I wasn't ashamed. The company was not performing. I'd have been ashamed to earn more."

Ken Iverson led Nucor Corporation from near oblivion to its current place as America's third-largest steel company. In the process, he showed a once-faltering U.S. steel industry the road back to global competitiveness. Plain Talk unveils the refreshingly sensible rationale that:

• Makes Nucor production employees the best paid workers in the steel business, while giving Nucor the industry's lowest labor costs
• Lets Nucor operate a $3.8 billion corporation with a headquarters staff of just twenty-two people (including clerical help) and just four layers of management, from the CEO to the frontline worker
• Makes Nucor a runaway leader in innovation with no R&D department and no corporate engineering group

"During the demonstration, a ten-foot pinwheel of molten metal shot through the garage wall like a buzz saw going through butter. It cut the building in half. Fortunately, no one was hurt. I learned that day that even a board of directors can be compelled to run very, very fast."

Plain Talk is peppered with anecdotes from throughout Iverson's storied career. He recounts days of gloom and glory alike with the same wry humor and the same unshakable appreciation for adventure.

Plain Talk is unlike any business book you've ever read. No pat leadership formulas. No intricate management models. Just a legendary business maverick, speaking straight to you.

Back Jacket

PRAISE FOR PLAIN TALK

"Ken Iverson is a leader whose vision shaped an industry and the future, a leader whose character, values, and ethics merge seamlessly with the mission and values of a successful, innovative business."
--Frances Hesselbein, President and CEO The Peter F. Drucker Foundation

"Ken Iverson taught us that America could compete in a tough global economy. He did it in an industry where being a maverick was the only way. His accounting of Nucor's story should serve as a blue-print for us all."
--David Glass, President and CEO Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

"No theory; just important, practical ideas proven by Ken Iverson in the furnace at Nucor."
--Peter Larson, Chairman and CEO Brunswick Corporation

"It is a masterpiece! The book provides a penetrating analysis of why Nucor has performed so well for so long, full of insights and solid conclusions. The book is easy to follow, very well written, and a 'must' read for every executive."
--Vijay Govindarajan Earl C. Dum 1924 Professor of International Business Amos Tuck School of Business Administration, Dartmout College

"This is a story about Ken Iverson, a man who built a major steel company from ground zero. But most of all, it's about motivating people to a level of remarkable accomplishment. You will enjoy reading this book as much as the people who work for Nucor enjoy being there."
--James F. Collins, President Steel Manufacturers Association

Author Biography

F. KENNETH IVERSON was raised in Downers Grove, Illinois. After earning a bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering from Cornell and a master's degree in mechanical engineering at Purdue, Iverson started his career as a research physicist and held several technical and management positions in the metals industry.
He joined Nuclear Corporation of America as a vice president in 1962. When Nuclear Corporation faced bankruptcy in 1965, the board elevated Iverson, then thirty-nine years old, to President and placed the company's future in his hands. He focused the failing company on two businesses--fabricating joists from steel (to be used in nonresidential construction) and making steel itself from recycled metal scrap. In 1972, Nuclear Corporation changed its name to Nucor Corporation. Today, Nucor is America's third-largest steel maker.
Iverson has served on the boards of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. and Wachovia Corporation. President Bush awarded him the National Medal of Technology, America's highest award for technological achievement.

TOM VARIAN is a principal of Strategic Communications Services in Mooresville, North Carolina. His clients include Johnson & Johnson, 3M, and the Special Projects Group at FORTUNE magazine.