Based on an intensive three-year study of three insular companies on the brink of extinction, Taking Charge and Letting Go charts the successes and failures of key managers and their strategies as they sought to transform their firms into world-class "horizontal" competitors. Spector demonstrates that the process of reaching agreement on such fundamental issues as developing cross-cultural teamwork, the need for employee freedom and responsibility, and mechanisms for performance assessment requires a shared commitment to a single strategy. Spector's model gives managers an important new framework from which to address the challenge of sustainable change. This book will be essential reading for chief executives and division managers in seven million underperforming companies.