Results Rule!: Build a Culture That Blows the Competition Away by Randy Pennington

We fell in love with Pennington’s focus on the practicality of much of his methodology. Not only did he provide examples of how a successful company leverages its culture to create a strong, productive workforce, but he answers typical questions that a business will face. Should we opt to pursue what is easy versus what is the best? In building a culture that empowers its employees, where is the line between recognizing activity and recognizing actual achievements? When is the right time to walk away? These are questions that can stop any business owner in their tracks, but Pennington provides simple, effective ways to tackle these situations as they come with productive action. Additionally, we appreciated how he provided examples along the way to support his methodology. Rather than simply providing the logic behind culture and its importance in business, Pennington includes these examples, giving us the ability to visualize how culture can go from affecting employees to affecting overall performance and profitability.

While we were reading the book, we could not shake the feeling that we were focusing on only one aspect of the big picture. Pennington does a great job tackling the concept of culture, but emphasizing just one aspect of business and perfecting it does not constitute success. It is a major aspect of a business, yes, but we would have liked to see more integration of other fields and methodologies that would have proved that culture truly is at the heart of the business. There is not a great deal of content that pushes the idea that culture will have definitive results that affect the bottom line either, which will make many skeptical of how successful a culture change will be in driving success overall.

In a competitive environment in which products and services are frequently interchangeable, what sets a great business apart from the competition? Everyone shares the same tactics, the same buzzwords, and the same technology, so why do some businesses consistently dominate their competitors? The answer lies in intangibles—the factors broadly defined as the organization’s culture.

Over the course of his twenty-plus years as a business performance consultant, Randy Pennington has learned two vital truths about the most successful companies: they never lose focus on results, and they always create a compelling organizational culture that engages all employees in the company’s mission.

These intangibles are what separate truly great companies from everybody else—and lead to consistent results. Results Rule! provides principles and strategies for building a remarkable organizational culture that will make you the standard by which the competition is measured. Applying its lessons will enable your organization to execute more effectively, engage all staff members in every project, and quickly respond to competition and changing markets.

The right culture can make all the difference. It will help you and your people focus on the fundamentals of your business; create better, more effective partnerships and teams; and encourage everyone to do what’s best for the company rather than what’s easiest for them. Pennington not only shows you how to create this culture, but gives real-world examples of people and companies who excel at getting results. You’ll see what works for major organizations like Southwest Airlines, Wal-Mart, and GE, as well as smaller, less well-known companies that lead, innovate, and get results in their own industries. Delivering results ultimately comes down to choices, and Pennington providesthe six principles you need to make and implement the right choices for long-term consistent results.

An endless number of books claim to solve your business’s problems with the latest buzzwords and overhyped methodologies. Those books might make you feel better about yourself, but they probably won’t make you feel any better about your business. The secret to success is simple: results rule! If you want to build a business that gets results, start here.

Across the many books we have read, culture is one of those aspects of business that takes backseat to other more pressing matters and newer trends. For any individual who is seeking to improve morale in the workplace, motivate employees, or restructure their business to be more productive, this book would be of great help. Establishing a culture is the cornerstone of any effective business plan and sustainable business endeavor. However, it will require additional knowledge and methodology to integrate it with the products and services, as well as management style, that will make a business viable. We would recommend that this book be read first to gain knowledge and perspective for how businesses treat their employees, then use that to augment an already successful product or service to boost productivity and drive results.