Compass: Creating Exceptional Organizations: A Leader’s Guide

Compass: Creating Exceptional Organizations: A Leader’s Guide teaches readers the fundamentals behind building exceptional organizations. Exceptional organizations, by this definition, are ones that pursue self-interest as well as concern for the larger society.

Author William F. Brandt argues that “few leaders are even aware of the possibility of their organizations being exceptional,” and explains three preconditions that must be met for success. First, leaders must possess right attitude, which he explains and outlines; second, the right resources; third, they need support of the people they are accountable to. If those criteria are met, then the next steps are to have a clear vision of the final organization, incorporating ways to make the organization viable, sustainable, and valued, elements he also describes at length. A leader must understand where the company is in relation to where it’s desired to be. And they must take action. He calls these steps “simple in concept,” but “difficult in practice.”

Compass is a how-to business guide, written in a highly logical manner, with the aim of offering a new business model for success that can operate within the existing structure. It’s written to work within the current economic reality to help develop a model for business organizations that pursue the twin goals of “self-interest” and “concern for others.” This could be criticized as dry reading, but in actuality it is merely a highly logical formula for success. Does Compass guarantee to grow and expand your business? No, only good managers can do that. But it does offer willing and open-minded leaders that encouragement and information to develop the capacities necessary to undertake the journey to exceptional. It also outlines a great many skills, attitudes, and mindsets that leaders and members of the team can embrace to increase the likelihood of developing the rare animal that is an exceptional organization, which cares for its own self-interest as well as the interest of others. That, Brandt argues, is the future of business.