Kennedy Health System

Foreword by Don Valentine, Founder and Principal Partner, Sequoia Capital "Going the Distance is the first systematic guide to overcoming the perils that can cripple even the most dominant companies--and to sustaining market leadership for years, even decades. Former Cisco SVP/current Openwave COO Kevin Kennedy and organizational consultant Mary Moore focus on complexity as the #1 challenge to long-term success. They identify eight predictable challenges bred by complexity, showing how each company's response to these challenges will drive a future of either failure or sustained dominance. For each challenge, Kennedy and Moore list vital signs or leading indicators designed to help managers and investors evaluate the health of any corporation--and formulate effective strategies for both prevention and recovery.Anticipating fire "before you get burnedSeeing trouble a mile away--and changing course to avoid it Learning and alignment: The antidotes to corporate arteriosclerosisKeeping your company alert to the world around it Leadership DNA: Developing the next generations of leadersPromoting leaders for today, tomorrow, and decades to come Healthy leadership, healthy structure, healthy business modelsPrevention and early detection for corporate "killer diseases" Inventing the next great companyNew financial and management models for long-term dominance Kennedy and Moore have spent more than 50 combined years living the challenges and solutions discussed in this book, in both large and small companies with widely diverse cultures, leadership, and markets. Why do most great companies eventually fail? More important, why do a few beat the odds--and reach dominance or continuedominance for generations? In "Going the Distance, Kevin Kennedy and Mary Moore identify the eight key obstacles to the long-term success of great businesses--"and how to overcome them. "Moore and Kennedy capture exactly what is unique about Cisco System's success as a growth model.

In this remarkable book, two of America's best-known journalists use their unparalleled access to the major players to examine The System, specifically as it operated during the ferocious battle over the Clinton effort to provide universal health insurance for Americans - and they come to some startling conclusions about America's future. From the beginning of the struggle, Johnson and Broder gained the confidence of more than one hundred of the participants, including the President and the First Lady; key congressional leaders like Bob Dole, Newt Gingrich, Ted Kennedy, and George Mitchell; the many competing special interests; and, outside the Beltway, ordinary citizens and workers on the battlefront of medical care. The authors have written a brilliant chronicle of the battle - of lost opportunities in the White House and of the savage determination and cunning tactics of the Gingrich forces, who plotted secretly for more than a year in advance to kill health care reform in an attempt to regain control of Congress and lead a conservative Republican Revolution that would fundamentally alter American government, privatize public function, and dismantle progressive programs and policies established over the last sixty years. Filled with stunning disclosures about the President and his supporters and adversaries, The System is an extraordinary portrait of democracy under siege, providing one of the most candid looks at American politics and government ever written. It is a book of vital importance to every American and is certain to become a classic in years to come.