The book offers a revolutionary model in order to shift the management focus from the usual structural control to guided interactive method. Using this new approach, companies can create enough space for managers to excel, and further avoid any unpleasent surprises that can lead to some corporate scandals. The book proposes a new approach to leading large corporations, which extends "beyond control" through a system of strategic alignments, and complements the traditional command and control systems. Concepts elucidated in this book are based on authors' work with many multinational corporations over a period of five years. In the book, a case is made out that their approach is appropriate for the 21^st century. They have quoted the following companies in particular: TNT, ABN AMRO, Sara Lee/DE, Numico, Warner Lambert, Heineken, Philips, British Telecom, etc.

The authors quote extensively from the mistakes that they have witnessed in the above corporations to strengthen the fact that in the corporate world, strategy and execution are sometimes misaligned leading to an out-of-control situation, which could be irreversible at times. Executives of many industries follow the established procedures in a disciplined way and yet fail to realize acceptable profit levels. The corporate black box of the operating arena, especially in multinational corporations, requires an opening up. It could be done through the processes of dialogue, transparency, and accountability that the top management has with their individual heads of operations and managers in different geographic locations. The operating arena is where this interaction takes place.