Professor Sean Meehan, IMD Business School, Lausanne, CH:
Lars H. Nielsen’s thoughtful reflections on the journeys of successful Olympians, including his own, provide a clear, straightforward and motivating approach to achieving the persistent peak performances required to win. His approach is informed, and in “Winner Culture” vividly illustrated, by his work with winning organizations such as PANDORA, ATP, Danfoss and Jyske Bank. More a “just-do-it” than a detailed “how-to”, Winner Culture identifies critical elements which based on my own observations, leadership teams have, despite repeated urging not to, a tendency to either overlook or not take sufficiently seriously enough. Two examples: 1) The power of establishing an highly ambitious goal, aligning by visualizing what goal achievement will require and reinforcing what is required along the journey through crystal clear communications (super illustrations here from the sports and business worlds); 2) Stay the course! I see this myself in practice: executives get fatigued, burned-out, bored and frustrated with the lack of progress. They unhelpfully introduce new twists, new ideas, often at just the wrong moment. The bigger lesson is that a strong performance management culture offers lots of space to all helpful ideas, but each in its own place and at the right time. A persistent theme running through the book, but not emphasized is the strength of the leaders ‘showcased’; they are all strong leaders who took responsibility for creating, cultivating and guarding their winning cultures. The stories in which they feature are top class – Lars does a great service in lifting the curtain on these journeys to goal accomplishment. “Winner Culture” is an easy accessible read which should motivate executives and leaders as they face unrelenting uncertainty. Read it!
Olympic Champion, 2012, Mads Rasmussen, Rowing: “A winner culture can be created. In this book Lars explains how.”
A winner culture is when success turns into a conscious habit. This was ATP’s ambition and it worked. The results speak for themselves: In 2010 ATP was named the world’s best pension fund. A winner culture means delivering the out-of-the-ordinary top performance on a daily basis. It is a winner culture which enables competent organizations and teams to achieve success when needed most. Since 1989, Lars H. Nielsen has been helping to create winners in a large section of the business sector. In addition to ATP he has cooperated with organizations as Jyske Bank, Danfoss and PANDORA – and it is the creation of a firmly anchored winner culture in these companies that this book is all about. In this book, which is intended for the ambitious manager or staff member and is based on in-depth case studies, Lars H. Nielsen tells how it is possible to create a winner culture for any team or organization. Be inspired, create a winner culture and reach the optimum performance – not just once but again and again.