From Promise to Performance: A Journey of Transformation at Smithkline Beecham

By Robert Patten Bauman, Peter Jackson, Joanne T. Lawrence

Here are lessons from the personal experience of the team that led one of the most successful transnational corporate mergers of all time-the transformation of SmithKline Beckman and the Beecham Group into SmithKline Beecham, a leading international health care company. The authors recount their thinking and actions as well as the successes, failures, and lessons learned. Through the story of the merger, they present a framework of five requisites for creating a culture of change: instilling a winning attitude, making the organization the hero, striving for continuous learning, instituting strategic communication, and aligning behavior with strategy. For managers, this account offers a rare, behind-the-scenes glimpse into how a major company aligned its business actions and behavior to be competitive in a rapidly changing industry, and how others can create an environment in which the ability to change sustains success. An absorbing, fly-on-the-wall account of a major merger.... For business executives and managers who want to know the inner workings of a well-executed and ultimately effective corporate merger, From Promise to Performance is a must-read.--National Productivity Review This is a fascinating, inside account of an extraordinarily successful merger. Even more important, it is a book about institutionalizing change. The merger is seen not as an end, but as a beginning. Change and learning are viewed as ongoing processes and values that sustain improved performance. I recommend it highly. It's both informative and entertaining. --Paul A. Allaire, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Xerox Corporation

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0875846343
• ISBN13: 9780875846347
• Release Date: February 1997
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
• Length: 302 Pages
• Weight: 1.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Useful guide for merging projects

I recomend this book as a guide for mergin proccess.