Triple Crown Leadership by Bob Vanourek & Bob Vanourek - Book review

Triple Crown Leadership

Building Excellent, Ethical, and Enduring Organizations

By: Bob Vanourek, Gregg Vanourek

Published: June 19, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 272 pages
ISBN-10: 0071791507
ISBN-13: 978-0071791502
Publisher: McGraw Hill












"The central message of this book is that leaders should commit to the overriding aim of building excellent, ethical, and enduring organizations", write retired major corporation CEO Bob Vanourek; and educator at the Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship and the Royal Institute of Technology, Gregg Vanourek, in their leadership and organization transforming book Triple Crown Leadership: Building Excellent, Ethical, and Enduring Organizations. The authors describe a fresh approach to leadership and corporate actions based on the principles of excellence, ethics, and endurance that boost performance, engagement, and impact.

Bob Vanourek (photo left) and Gregg Vanourek recognize that that the recent corporate scandals, debacles, and global financial crisis had their roots in a failed leadership model. The authors see history as repeating itself, as the lessons have only been partially learned by the current leadership teams. The authors remain confident that dramatic changes in that failed leadership business model will take place very soon.

In anticipation of the realization in the corporate boardrooms that a new leadership model is essential to the very survival of their organizations, the authors examine the form of that new leadership paradigm. Through the three principles of excellence, ethics, and endurance, which the authors call triple crown leadership, leadership will be transformed propelling their companies forward to new heights.

Gregg Vanourek (photo left) and Bob Vanourek understand that poor leadership, dysfunctional company cultures, a lack of ethic or sustainability, and continual scandals not only destroy the organization but the lives of people as well. The authors have seen great leadership in action as well, and attest to its energizing and life changing power. The authors have the expressed purpose of transforming leadership from the outmoded style to a new and vibrant model based on their three pillars.

The authors utilize horse racing metaphor as the basis for describing and establishing their life and organization changing leadership model. They present the process, in the book, as follows:

* The Triple Crown quest: Excellent, ethical, and enduring
* Head and heart: New approaches to people and their development
* The colors: Leaders employ the purpose, values, and mission
* Steel and velvet: Judgement of when to use hard or soft leadership edges
* Stewards: Empowered teams and group performance
* Alignment: Aligning the organization to the Triple Crown quest
* Breakdowns: Why some organizations fail in the quest
* Turnarounds: Using the quest pillars to rebuild a company
* Startups: Adjustments needed for these unique challenges
* Social impact: Impact on all stakeholders, communities, and the world
* Snapshots: How to assess progress

For me, the power of the book is how Bob Vanourek and Gregg Vanourek combine their theoretical framework for a new leadership model with the strategies and techniques for establishing the fresh leadership principles. The authors present a comprehensive blueprint, based on their three crucial pillars of leadership, to rebuild and strengthen any organization. The rich insight offered by the authors, that the standard leadership model has led to failure, scandal, and disaster, gives the book resonance with readers who value ethics, excellence, and endurance.

Another insight shared in the book is how the new Triple Crown leadership model is more effective in every way, creating greater performance levels, more engaged employees, and a stronger bottom line. The authors bolster their case with in depth interviews with other business leaders who share their thoughts on the demise of the older paradigm, and the benefits of the Triple Crown quest.

I highly recommend the idea filled and engaging book Triple Crown Leadership: Building Excellent, Ethical, and Enduring Organizations by Bob Vanourek and Gregg Vanourek, to any organizational leaders, at any level, who are seeking a fresh and effective model of leadership to replace the proven failed existing model. This book will give heart to those who are convinced that ethics and values have a central place in the overall and sustainable success of any organization.