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Businesses have always been competitive. Globalization, the Covid pandemic, and an ever-shifting economy have made one fact crystal clear: businesses today need every advantage they can get to rise above competitors. Marsden’s guide presents five essential principles for any organization to be effective and functional. These principles are mission/values, strategy, leadership, communication, and teamwork. Each chapter defines the tenet, offers examples of how it applies, and gives examples of the dysfunction caused when it is not.
Marsden spent over thirty years in the military before entering the private business sector, working in a wide variety of industries. His astute observations have led to the development of a framework for success. Each company he worked for offered valuable lessons in what makes a company function well or what makes it chaotic. Using his extensive training from the military, Marsden could apply the basic concepts to these companies with positive results. A primary example of this is communication. Many leaders talk about the importance of communication but do not implement an effective system for employees to transmit information. Here, it is presented in simple, concise terms that can be operationalized.
Marsden’s book is skillfully written with friendly, informal language without diminishing the author’s authority or expertise in the subject. There is a balance between instruction and vignettes or examples to assist the reader in fully understanding the key concepts. Marsden is highly intelligent and educated. He also possesses a strong sense of the industry landscape, which is evident in his guide. Rather than presenting chapters of complex business and economic theories, he recognizes that today’s business world is a mix of old, huge companies and millions of smaller startups. His mentorship in this guide can provide leaders, regardless of type or size, with foundational strategies that are operational.