• What all the teaching about leadership has in common—and what it misses: style versus substance.
  
• The 8 capabilities leaders really need, and how personal traits affect them.
  
• Examples of leaders who have outstanding know-how in areas critical to their business, from positioning and repositioning the business to building the social system.
  
• How to build and improve your know-how.

Business Acumen
Some people have a nose for business. More often than not, their instincts take them in the right direction, and the company makes money. These people have business acumen. What exactly is business acumen? Is it a raw talent or something that can be cultivated and improved? How does the business acumen of a Jack Welch differ from that of a street vendor in India? Based on the book What the CEO Wants You to Know: How Your Company Really Works and ongoing research, this session:

• Defines business acumen
  
• Explains why it is becoming a key criterion for those who evaluate and hire business leaders (Warren Buffet used it to recruit board members)
  
• Shows how it differs from other leadership traits
  
• Teaches how to develop it in yourself and others

Execution
For many leaders, creating a strategy is the easy part. Making it happen is the bigger challenge. Why is flawless execution so hard to achieve? Because few leaders understand what it requires. Execution takes personal discipline, and more important, a systematic approach to synchronizing the moving parts of the organization. Based on the best selling and highly praised book Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, this session explains:

• Why execution cannot be delegated
  
• How companies like Wal-Mart, Dell, and GE use execution to outcompete
  
• The framework of flawless execution
  
• Tools to develop your own discipline of execution

Growth
Especially in a slow economy, growth can seem impossible to achieve. But growth opportunities almost always exist. What is needed is a disciplined approach to identify, pursue, and fund them. Based on Charan's two books on growth, Every Business is a Growth Business and Profitable Growth is Everyone's Business: 9 Tools You Can Use Monday Morning), this session shows:

• Why companies often look for growth in the wrong places
  
• How to assess the risks associated with growth
  
• Principles for identifying and pursuing growth
  
• How to fund growth

Corporate Governance
Sarbanes-Oxley and the NYSE guidelines can go only so far. Boards must go beyond compliance to ensure that they are focusing on the substance of corporate governance: providing oversight and adding value. Designed for those involved in corporate governance, this session is practical and down to earth. Based on Boards at Work (1997) and Boards That Deliver (2005) informed by work with some of the country's best boards, it shows how any board can be among the best. This session:

• Pinpoints new and existing mechanisms that are crucial to good governance
  
• Tells how best to implement those mechanisms
  
• Explains how to leverage the board's collective judgment and collective power
  
• Gives specific advice on perplexing board problems, such as how to use executive
  sessions how to keep the dialogue on track, and why board retreats often fail.