Walk the Walk: The #1 Rule for Real Leaders.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey
• Position: Book review

Walk the Walk: The #1 Rule for Real Leaders. By Alan Deutschman. Portfolio, 206 pages. $24.95

In Walk the Walk, writer Alan Deutschman offers a series of nicely reported narratives exploring how leaders--both corporate and otherwise--are bucking convention and leading by example.

The book starts with a pointed example of what he decries as lack of true leadership: Coca-Cola Co.'s elevation of Muhtar Kent as the number two executive back in 2006, a decade after he says Kent had bet against the company's stock to profit personally. Kent left the company under a cloud, but was rehired four years later and, riding a record for making profits, rose rapidly through the ranks.

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The author's point here is that, arrayed against Coke's formulation of its basic values and vision--codified in a book sent to thousands of employees worldwide--the selection of Kent sent a strong signal that it really cared only about short-term profits. At too many large companies, he argues, leadership has given way to "lemmingship," in which company tycoons march to Wall Street analysts' insistence on profits and predictability.

One of Deutschman's heroes is Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon. He details how Bezos focused the company on its customers and on the long-term, and in doing so did things other executives might have vetoed without a second thought. For instance, Bezos enabled customers to post reviews of products that Amazon was trying to sell--sometimes scathing reviews. And he allowed third parties to compete with Amazon on its own Web site, including used booksellers whose prices might be slightly lower. His rationale for such heresy: The company wanted to do what was right for customers, and they would reward Amazon's candor and openness with their...