CEO Tools: The Nuts-n-Bolts of Business for Every Manager’s Success
Kraig Kramers
Gandy Dancer Press Llc (2002)

Welcome to the Kramers Hardware Store where results-driven executives find the tools they need to outperform their competition

I first met Kraig Kramers about 20 years ago when he conducted workshops for owner/CEOs of small companies who were members of what was then The Executive Committee (TEC). I chaired two of its local chapters in the DFW area.  The members of my TEC groups voted him and Jim Collins the best of all the dozens of prominent thought leaders who had interacted with them while conducting a four-hour workshop. Kraig introduced many of the same tools that he later discusses in this book, tools that are indispensable to “the nuts-n-bolts of business for every manager’s success.”  He also shares additional tools as well as all that he had learned from those C-level executives (including TEC members) who had applied the tools in real-world situations, diagnosing and then solving especially difficult problems. It should also be noted that he was the CEO of eight quite different companies and thus has a wealth of personal, “in the trenches,” “dirt under his nails” experience.

The material in this book will be of incalculable value to anyone in any organization who needs to expedite development of leadership and management skills.  Kraig Kramers is best viewed as a personal mentor, a world-class pragmatist who has an instable curiosity to understand what works, what doesn’t, and why…then share what he has learned with as many people as possible. I know of no other single source that offers more and better information, insights, and wisdom about achieving and then sustaining business success than does this book.  If you haven’t as yet read it and then frequently consulted it, say a little prayer that your competition hasn’t either.