Leaders Talk Leadership: Top Executives Speak Their Minds

Robert W. Sexty is a professor of commerce and business administration
at Memorial University of Newfoundland and the author of Canadian
Business: Issues and Stakeholders.

This book is a compilation of interviews and essays edited by two
employees of Heidrick & Struggles International, an executive search and
leadership services consulting firm. The contributors include management
experts, senior managers of leading business corporations and nonprofit
organizations, and Canadian academics such as Henry Mintzberg (McGill)
and Elspeth Murray (Queen’s). Celestica, Research In Motion, and Onex
Corporation are among the Canadian companies represented.

The contributions are grouped under five themes: leadership, managing
human capital, establishing competitive advantage, strategic change and
transformation, and the stakeholder’s view. (Interestingly, the
book’s index cites “business ethics” only twice, and “social
responsibility” and “corporate citizenship” not at all.) In the
introductory section, the editors point out that an organization’s
greatest single asset is human capital. In the past decade, however,
corporations have neglected human resources in their quest for
improvements in manufacturing, finance, and information technology. What
the editors propose is the People Operating System (POS), a systematic,
holistic approach to human capital.

Leaders Talk Leadership will be of particular interest to senior
managers and students of business.