Know-How

Know-How by Ram Charan

The current dominant approach to Russian peasant behaviour emphasizes rural resistance to reform in broad terms, and to the introduction of market forces in particular. Bringing together some of the finest scholars on rural Russia, this groundbreaking volume examines this perception with an analysis of both historical and contemporary patterns of rural adaptation in Russia.

Four articles included analyze peasant responses in the post-Soviet era, and focus on:

* the relationship between poverty and rural adaptation
* the social origins of private farmers in southern Russia and Ukraine
* response patterns by large farms (formerly collective and state farms)
* household adaptation using a standardized set of criteria.

This fascinating book gives an illuminating picture of the ways in which peasants respond to new environmental conditions and stimuli created by reform. The substantive material included draws on fieldwork and survey data collected from rural Russia, from the Stolypin reforms in the pre-Soviet era, and collectivisation of agriculture during the 1930s in the Soviet era.

This book was previously as a special issue of The Journal of Peasant Studies.

Ram Charan is an expert on corporate governance, author of four bestsellers (Execution, Confronting Reality, The Attacker's Advantage, and Boards That Lead), and winner of best-teacher awards at Northwestern and GE. With forty years of experience, he is a world-renowned adviser and problem solver to boards and CEOs. He serves on six boards.

Dominic Barton is the global managing partner of McKinsey & Company. He has authored more than eighty articles on capitalism, leadership, financial market development, Asia, history, and the issues and opportunities facing global and Asian markets, and he is the coauthor of three books, including Re-Imagining Capitalism.

Dennis Carey is Vice Chairman of Korn Ferry, where he recruits board directors, CEOs, and their direct reports. He has published five books, including Boards That Lead, coauthored with Ram Charan and Michael Useem, and more than fifty refereed journal articles covering topics ranging from CEO succession and corporate strategy to M&A, corporate governance, and human capital.