Book Description

Less than one-third of family-owned businesses survive into thesecond generation. Why? Often they fail because their owners ormanagers avoid making needed decisions about the company's future. As aresult, the firms cannot stay intact through the rapid changes thattake place in business. Heads of firms that do survive learn toanticipate the changes, crises, or problems that may arise andeffectively plan to deal with these changes.In this new book, John L.Ward provides comprehensive, practical advice on strategies that willhelp family firms plan for and survive future growth and changes in thebusiness world. He shows how to maintain growing, healthy, andprofitable companies; shape future business directions; prepare newleaders; ensure the support of family members for the firm; help thefirm continue from one generation to the next; and balance the needs ofthe business with the needs of the family.Ward describes how tocreate strategies for the business and the family and combine them tocreate a comprehensive plan that resolves such issues as how the firm'sassets will be shared and who will succeed the founder. He offers toolsfor doing market and financial analysis of the firm and itscompetitors- and gives advice on how to use or reinvest funds to builda stronger firm. Ward discusses alternative strategic plans and showswhich businesses and families they are best suited for. And he providesexamples of family and business strategic plans, sample strategicplanning worksheets, a sample financial analysis of a family firm, anda questionnaire on the values of the business. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A classic in the field
Prof. John Ward is a top writer in the field, and this is a classic. Anyone who is interested by this fascinating subject should read this.

Where to get it
Order through Amazon.Com, in paperback reprinted edition, from Business Owner Resources. ... Read more

Book Description

With the massive increase in interest in BPR, TQM and ISO 9000 has come a tide of texts and evangelical razzamatazz on the philosophy and the hearts and minds issues. But those tasked with making change happen at the coal face must feel short of practical tools to work with when it comes to modelling and analysing the business processes that are to be re-engineered, improved or defined. This book provides an answer. Why worry about processes? People know that organisations have functions and responsibilities but not everyone will see these as part of the process. Each person does their bit, but how do all the pieces fit together? Starting people to think about processes and simply modelling the processes can provide individuals and groups with a perspective which transcends parochial views and results in a more collaborative spirit; "now I know what you want I can ensure you get it reliably". A model that makes the process visible to all concerned brings great value in itself. Business Processes is intended to help people "get out of the functional silos". What is STRIM? STRIM—A Systematic Technique for Role & Interaction Modelling—and its central notation—The Role Activity Diagram— provides a practical method for really getting to grips with what the organisation does and how it does it, in a way which is revealing, communicative, and accessible by everyone around the organisation. The book covers the full method: from organising a modelling project, through the notation, its use at micro and macro levels, patterns of organisational behaviour, through process analysis and on into process support system development. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Interesting approach for advanced practitioners
The STRIM (Systematic Technique for Role & Interaction Modelling) approach provided in this book is a straightforward method for capturing and modeling business processes. The book completely and thoroughly covers how to model and analyze business processes, starting with a well-written overview of concepts, then introducing STRIM and its application in various modeling scenarios.

As a modeling approach, STRIM and its role activity diagrams, are not mainstream. However, they are an effective tool in the advanced practitioner's toolbox. I especially like the way RAD (role activity diagrams) clearly and cleanly deal with parallel tasks, and the way they can be clearly depicted as concurrent execution threads even with decision points are involved. In addition, this methodology captures interaction between and among roles. Therein lies the power.

If you are new to business processing modeling it's probably safer to stick to a more established methodology, such as IDEF0 or force fit UML as your modeling approach. A caveat about using UML is it is better suited for modeling software. However, STRIM can be used in conjunction with UML if you want a business process modeling and analysis approach and have not standardized on any other method.

Another aspect of this book I like is the scope of coverage - the author addresses process patterns, large processes, and even managing the modeling process itself.

One final point in favor of this book and its approach is the author provides no cost downloads of Process Architecture Diagrams and Role Activity Diagrams in Visio 5 format. Those artifacts will help jumpstart any project based on the STRIM methodology.

Excellent book on the subject, very intuitive
The subject is introduced and explained very systematically and with very relevant examples. I wish it came with relevant software. ... Read more

Book Description

Join the best minds on business as they envision the future
The Drucker Foundation
This much anticipated second title in the Drucker Foundation Future Series imagines tomorrow's organization.
Bringing together such heavy hitters as James Champy, C.K. Prahalad, Charles Handy, Lewis Platt (CEO of Hewlett Packard), and Jay Galbraith, this second volume in the Drucker Foundation Future Series is poised to be the business book of the year.
In these 40 new, never-before-published essays, best-selling authors, top-notch consultants, Fortune 500 CEO?s, and revered management scholars expound on the challenges we face in building the organization of tomorrow. Fresh perspectives and challenging observations will enlighten business people from all industries on how to keep their organizations healthy and competitive well into the 21st century.
Supported by two giants--Peter Drucker opens the book, and Charles Handy closes it--the authors within provide their own perspectives on tomorrow, in thoughtful, to-the-point chapters. Together they underscore where, when, and how organizations and their leaders must evolve, not only to survive but also to prosper.
The contributors show how to:
* prepare for breakdowns and create the nimble, change-adept company
* navigate generational riptides among employees by meeting their preferences in leadership style
* attract, motivate, and retain the best employees
* achieve a winning culture of high performance and high self-esteem
* support work-life balance and provide flexibility to knowledge workers
Today's and tomorrow's leaders everywhere will find practical advice in these essays to help them reshape their own organizations of the future. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Outstanding views for today and tomorrow.
'The Organization of the Future' is an outstanding integration of much of the current thinking of leadership, organization, strategy, change, and innovation. Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith, and Richard Beckhard (editors) have gathered together in this collection remarkable 49 thought thinkers.

Charles Handy suggests in his chapter that "Margaret Wheatley, in 'Leadership and the New Science,' has written of the danger of believing in Newtonian organization in a quantum age. Newton wasn't wrong. He just wasn't right enough to cope with the dilemmas of science now. Similarly, the old way of looking at organizations wasn't wrong; it just does not capture the real essence of what it means to organize today." On the other hand, Peter F.Drucker notes in his introduction, "...now a totaly different approach is emerging, not replacing the older approaches but being superimposed on them: it says that the purpose of organizations is to get results 'outside,' that is, to achieve performance in the market. The organization is, however, more than a machine...It is more than economic, defined by results in the marketplace. The organization is, above all, 'social.' It is people. Its purpose must therefore be to make the strengths of people effective and their weaknesses irrelevant."

In this context, the editors divide this book into six parts. They write in their preface, "throughout the chapters in this book, the need for organizations is unquestioned. The authors provide a variety of forms and operating plans for organizations today and tomorrow; at the same time, each recognizes the indispensable role of organizations to human accomplishment and achievement."

Highly recommended.

Insightful!
Editors Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith and Richard Beckhard present a series of short essays by 39 authors describing the structure of tomorrow's organizations. The essays, which are introduced by Peter Drucker, are organized into six main themes: shaping future organizations, new models for working and organizing, organizing for strategic advantage, working and organizing in a wired world, leading people in future organizations and understanding and improving organizational health. Given this approach and more than three dozen authors, some repetition is inevitable, so we [...] wonder if readers will prefer to dip in and choose articles that appeal to them the most. Generally, the book explicates broad trends in structural thinking, almost like a survey of organizational forecasting by top philosophers, authors and leaders in the field. This is sure to intrigue the executives charged with steering large organizations to and through this complex future.

!
I am using this book for courses in a degree in leadership. This book is a definite plus! It is a compolation of 28 essays from different scholars and executives and is must read for MBA students and business leaders alike.

Very illuminating, changed my whole perception of myself
I am using this book for an MBA course. It is filled with advice and principles that look to the future. The principles are equally applicable to both organization as well as to an individual, if you view yourself as an organiztion of 1.

GREAT OPTIONS FOR CREATING ORGANIZATIONS THAT ACHIEVE MORE
THE ORGANIZATION OF THE FUTURE is the best compilation of essays that I have seen on different ways to organize businesses and nonprofits to achieve different kinds of results. The book is full of intriguing questions and choices, and lots of good ideas about how to make the desired changes you select. Anyone who manages people should read this book, and refer to it when effectiveness questions arise. The only thing that seemed to be missing from this book was a "clean slate" approach to organizations, by imagining what has never existed before. That would be an intriguing addition for future editions. The Drucker Foundation has done a real service to us all by creating its series (THE LEADER ..., THE ORGANIZATION ..., and THE COMMUNITY OF THE FUTURE). I hope that a future version will appear on THE MANAGEMENT PROCESSES OF THE FUTURE. That would be an invaluble complement to this outstanding series. ... Read more

Book Description

If managing change was easy, everyone would be good at it. We would all be humming along in our careers, feeling in control, staying mentally and physically fit, and having piece-of-mind. Obviously, no one can accurately predict the future; However, a variety of proven techniques, as well as fresh perspectives for handling change, as presented in this book will give you the edge you need to be effective. You'll be treated to a variety of strategies, mini-case histories, observations, witticisms, and good, old-fashioned common sense, mixed with leading edge thinking.

You are in good hands. Jeff Davidson has written six books in the CIG series, including The Complete Idiot's Guide to Managing Your Time, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Managing Stress, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Assertiveness, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Reaching Your Goals, and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Reinventing Yourself. As with all CIGs, proven subject matter experts are chosen to deliver high quality information in a palatable and often humorous form.

Jeff's primary focus at all times in assembling this book is to craft a user-friendly plan that you can easily understand and apply. Jeff's capacity for devising personal systems for accomplishment will work well for you the first and every time you put them into practice. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Complete and Easy To Understand
I can't say enough about this book. It's almost encyclopedic in its approach to laying out a process for identifying and attracting new clients. The book is loaded with charts and most of them are relatively easy to understand on first viewing. Although the book appears to be geared towards a firm with at least 8 or 10 professionals, I think the authors' system would work as well for a professional firm with only one or two individuals.

What a great book!
This is a deceptively clever book on the topic of change management in business. Normally I wouldn't consider picking up an Idiot's Guide on something as important as managing a change initiative, I was pleasantly surprised by the scope and depth of this book. It is well researched, far reaching, and a valuable asset for anyone whose been asked to head up any kind of business or organizational change. I can recommend it without reservation.

Easy To Read !
Having to manage change in my division is one of my least favorite activities but learned from this book, if you are in management today, you pretty much are a change manager. This book has lots of chapters, more than 25. Each of them, fortunately is easy to get through. The book cites a lot of the change management gurus through the years and gives a good summary of their theories and why they remained popular. But in addition to theory, there is lots of practical advice in this book. All chapters end with a section on things that are worth remembering and are most important from the chapter. I like that, because time is short, and sometimes you just want to get the answers!

change manager
I was recently assigned a change management project in my own company for the firs time. I got on the Internet to see what books were out there an quickly identified several. I ordered the Complete Idiot's Guide to Change Management as well as four others. Each book has made their own special contribution to my overall understanding of what it takes to be successful as a change manager. This book in was the easiest to read and understand. Some of the other books made for difficult reading with all kinds of concepts and charts and extensive footnoting. By contrast, this one was a breeze to read, while not being overly simple or talking down to the reader. The chapters on leap frogging, scheduling days of grace, and managing up and
managing down were great. I would recommend this book for first time change managers or possibly even veteran change managers looking for new strategies and or/a motivational boost.

making it easier
Change management is a scary topic, so I was glad to see this book as an Idiot's guide. Like the author says, its' not a book about project management. It is a book about keeping your eye on the big picture of the change you have been asked to manage and how your activities fit into with the overall activities of your company. I like the part about the descriptions of other players including sponsors and targets of change. When you understand how these players participate with each other in a
successful change crusade then you have a much greater chance of succeeding. Overall, I found this book to be very non-threatening. That was important to me because change as a topic is already tough enough. ... Read more

Book Description

A groundbreaking approach to successful performance improvement

Almost every executive in business today is faced with the challenge of improving performance, from incremental improvements to wholesale organizational change. Here, a world-renowned expert in organizational improvement asserts that most hard-won changes don’t last for long, however, because of the inability to identify the root causes of the problem. How Organizations Work offers a clear, integrated solution to performance improvement via a new "Enterprise Model"–which takes into account all variables that influence performance. Alan Brache provides a comprehensive "physical exam" for checking an organization’s vital signs and a 360-degree picture of how organizational dynamics can be harnessed to effect permanent improvements in performance. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

A STRAIGHT-FORWARD BOOK ABOUT STRENGTHENING ORGANIZATION.
Using a model of an enterprise, this book is a guide for exploring key aspects of organization, revealing how they are interrelated, and assessing them. The work focuses on: the external environment; leadership; strategy; business processes; goals and measurement; human capabilities; knowledge management; organizational structure; and culture. There are self-assessment questions throughout the book and numerous guidelines for diagnosing and designing a healthy organizational. Illustrations are used to flesh-out the diagnostic process. The work is a how-to guide; it is well organized, comprehensive, and highly useful. As a management consultant in organization analysis and design, as well as editor of Stern's Management Review, I seldom have encountered a book on this subject that is as straight-forward in its delivery of value as this work. Highly recommended.

Finally, a book true to the words of the jacket...
How many times have we been disappointed in the content of a book after having been impressed by the slick words on the jacket? Well, prepare yourself! Sometimes things really are the way they are stated. No illusions. And this is just such the case with Alan Brache's new book "How Organizations Work."

From his opening quotation of holistic unity from Chief Seattle on the jacket to his final inspiring words at the conclusion of the book, Brache ties all the elements of improving organization performance together in a scholarly, yet easy to read creation. His "Enterprise Model" for organizations, provides an impressive blueprint or x-ray for understanding the "complex network of interlocking factors" which contribute to How Organizations Work.

Using a model analogous to human biology, Brache has provided a framework within which we might better understand our organizations and the various factors that influence performance.

It is a great, easy read -- just in time for our serious summer reading list. Enjoy!

Alan Brache Does It Again
It is refreshing to run across a business book that goes beyond generalizations. In How Organizations Work, Alan Brache deconstructs the business organization to reveal all the elements of which it is made up. He then examines each, methodically, raising questions that really enable an executive to take stock and stock planning for improvement.
I worked with Alan many years ago, and I'm pleased to say that he is as lucid and logical as ever--and remains just as witty. His writing is crisp and to the point, and the real-life case studies that he intersperses ensure that the reader is never bored.
Alan has done a fine job with a subject that, in other hands, could have been not only dull but also purely theoreti-cal. Instead, this is a book you can read once to get the big picture, then go back to again and again for practical day-to-day advice.

Dale Corey, Business Writer & Researcher

This book provides insight on both the What and the HOW.
Reading "How Organizations Work" was not only an "easy read" [as was promised in the foreward] - but provided far more meaty content than one might expect.

In the game of golf there is an expression called "sneaky long". This is often used in reference to a golfer who seems to effortlessly swing at the ball and drives it much further than one might expect.

I would call Brache's book "sneaky profound". It makes a series of key points in such an easy way that if the reader is not careful - one might miss the nuggets of intellectual gold.

The book is full of valuable self assessment questions - which are easy to tailor to any given organization - given the investment of a little thought.

The repeated references to the central role of business processes have substance and meaning in the context of the "Enterprise Model".

This book is really worthwhile reading not just once - but two and maybe threee times to get full value.

A Real Gem!!! Worth its weight in gold!
I had read the author's previous book, Improving Performance in graduate school and loved it. I anxiously awaited his next book -and was not disappointed.

Of particular value was the chapter entitled "Leading the Enterprise."

As is pointed out in the Foreword by Rich Teerlink, retired CEO and Chairman of Harley-Davidson, Inc. - - - "Executives just don't know how to pull the right levers, in the right way, at the right time." Alan Brache shows you how.

A definite buy. ... Read more

Book Description

New Tools for Challengng the Status Quo

Immensely readable, this work bolts together the image or theory and the reality of what is required to change the performance of an enterprise. Whether the challenge is renewal or fundamental change, this book delivers real-life depictions that will help all who invest the time.
--Richard A. McGinn, president and COO, Lucent Technologies, Inc.

Stand on the front lines of innovation with today?s top business leaders. Throughout this page-turner, archconsultant David Nadler leverages twenty years of work with many of the world?s most acclaimed CEOs to provide a detailed, inside account of how they?ve led the most difficult and significant change efforts of our times. Case examples include initiatives undertaken at Sun Microsystems, Lucent Technologies, Xerox, Corning, AT&T and Kaiser Permanente. Engaging and inspiring, it offers leaders and managers at every level a new, field-tested repertoire of concepts, tools and techniques for understanding the dynamics of change and managing it effectively. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Excellent service
Very quick service and book was also in good condition.

Leadership and Change
Buy this book if you are seriously into leading or coaching change in organizations. Borrow this book if you want to briefly observe another person's system for change management, and particularly if you want to see more details shared about the role of the CEO.

For me a key point made by the authors is that "this is not a book about leaders of change; this is a book about leadership and change. There's a huge difference." [page 7]

One of the things I learned from the book is that CEO's are called upon to be initiating leaders who provide appropriate and decisive leadership to their organizations during times of stability, change and transition, transformation, and crisis. However, their leadership is a key and not the key. Long-term successful CEO's know how to create and nurture a culture of leadership throughout their organizations.

"Five Stages of Discontinuous Change"
"Your first visit to a new company can be awfully confusing. From the outside you see the front of the headquarters building and the visitor's entrance-but not much more. Inside you see a maze of offices and work areas-but at first glance they don't seem to be arranged in any particular pattern. You see people rushing busily to and fro, but you have no idea what they're doing or what, if anything, they're actually accomplishing. If you're to have any chance of quickly making sense of what's going on-of how the company is organized and how it really operates-you need a mental template, a systemic way to observe and understand the organization. For executives and managers intent on leading change, that kind of template, or model, is essential. Without it you haven't a clue where to start...Throughout this book I'm going to be talking about organizational change in terms of a model my colleagues and I have developed and refined over the past two decades" (p.21).

In this context, David A. Nadler divides his book roughly into three sections. In the first section, he (1) overviews the forces that make change at once so inevitable and so difficult in modern organizations, (2) describes the pivotal role of top leadership, (3) describes the four basic types of organizational change, with a special emphasis on the most difficult of all-the Overhaul, or radical discontinuous change, (4) explores the inevitable resistance to change, and (5) offers some specific techniques for overcoming those barriers. In the second section, he (1) deals with the substantive tools and techniques that are required as the organization passes through the five stages of the change cycle, (2) describes in turn the issues that confront leaders as they go about changing each component of the organization. In the third section, he deals with the unique role of top managers in leading change.

In Chapter 4, he introduces five stages of discontinuous change:

1. Recognizing the change imperative: The easy description of this stage is simply that it answers the question, What's going wrong here? (for detailed discussion see Chapter 6)

2. Developing a shared direction: Providing clear direction for change and building coalition that will provide the support essential to the success of any radical change effort. (for detailed discussion see Chapter 7)

3. Implementing change: The core of the change process. (for detailed discussion see Chapters 8 to 11)

4. Consolidating change: Making change an integral part of the way the organization operates. (for detailed discussion see Chapter 12)

5. Sustaining change: The challenge of maintaining momentum, avoiding complacence, and searching for signs of the next wave of change. (for detailed discussion see Chapter 12)

On the other hand, in Chapter 5, he lists and discusses twelve action steps for overcoming resistance to change as follows:

1. Build the support of key power groups.

2. Use leader behavior to generate support.

3. Use symbols and language deliberately.

4. Define points of stability.

5. Create dissatisfaction with the current state.

6. Build participation in planning and implementing change.

7. Reward behavior in support of change.

8. Provide people time and opportunity to disengage from the old.

9. Develop and communicate a clear image of the future state.

10. Use multiple leverage points.

11. Develop transition management structures.

12. Collect and analyze feedback.

He argues that "the twelve action steps are not a recipe for transition management. They're a template to be overlaid on each organization and adjusted to its unique set of circumstances" (p.108).

Highly recommended.

Too little new analysis, too much consultantspeak.
Q: How many CEO's does it take to change a light bulb?

A: Change?!?

Change is the corporate mantra of the '90s. Unknowable, unpredictable, unavoidable: change has made the ominous transition from verb to noun, as organizations scramble to predict, demand, drive, and implement change. And the more intense and comprehensive the change, the more its success depends on an integrated process driven by the top of the organization.

If you were surprised by that last sentence, then Champions of Change is the book for you. Author David Nadler's approach, which he would fight with tooth and claw to defend, is built on the premise that "discontinuous change" cannot succeed without the "active, public, and personal leadership of the CEO and other people at the top of the organization." Based on his work with Xerox and other major corporations, Nadler believes that change requires a multi-stage campaign, dynamic and participatory, that cannot triumph if its leaders treat change as an enemy to be resisted by sporadic skirmishing or clandestine conflict. If a corporation hopes to maintain or achieve competitive advantage, argues Nadler, then its senior leaders must launch early and dramatic change.

For many readers, this is hardly a heaven-sundering epiphany. And that's exactly the problem with Champions of Change: there's no there there. Nadler's concepts aren't new, although his momentous references to systems theory and organizational fit and "a process that we call strategic choice" (italics his) imply superior insight and wisdom with which few mortals are blessed. Using the sort of language that gives consultants a bad name, he announces that "based on years of close observation, I can assure you that transition states [between the current and the future] always feature three characteristics that if ignored, carry the potential to kill any change initiative." What is this trinity? Instability, uncertainty, and stress. No surprises there.

At heart, Nadler believes in system by classification. As a result, Champions of Change is more dictionary than discourse. Three challenges of discontinuous change produce five phases of change management, of which Phase 3 contains four steps, Phase 4 three activities, and so on. Chapter 5, "Winning Hearts and Minds," runs to twelve action steps, and Nadler doesn't effectively follow through on his promise to explain which step to take when. The book does offer some useful gems, most of them similarly numerical: every major message of change should be delivered six times; the number of collective ideas an organization can hold simultaneously is three, plus or minus one. But once you peel away the elaborate taxonomy, you find that Nadler offers no breakthroughs, no exceptional understanding, no real road map for change.

Champions of Change has its moments. The sixteen pages on "recognizing the change imperative" provide a solid grounding in diagnosis and interpretation, despite Nadler's plug for his company's software. If you want an insider's perspective on corporate change at Xerox, then buy the book immediately. For the most part, however, Champions of Change is a disappointment. Explaining change requires an intricate balance of perspective, pragmatism, and common sense; you can't get by on 300 pages of consultantspeak.

In-depth understanding and insights into the change process.
This is a highly informative work that explores the nature of organizational change and presents an approach to initiating, designing, and implementing change. The authors propose that the core principles of change managers are: appropriate involvement, committed leadership, valid information exchange, informed choices and integrated change. The book also discusses the role of management at all levels. It conveys experiences, guidelines and a congruence model for understanding the organization as a system. This book is on-target, providing in-depth understanding and insights into the change process. ... Read more

Book Description

Managing Innovation provides readers with the knowledge to understand, and the skills to manage, innovation at the operational and strategic levels.  Specifically, it integrates the management of market, organizational and technological change to improve the competitiveness of firms and effectiveness of other organizations.  The management of innovation is inherently interdisciplinary and multifunctional and Tidd, Bessant & Pavitt provide an integrative approach to the subject.

• Two new perspectives are introduced through which to re-examine material presented in each chapter: sustaining versus disruptive innovation (a greater emphasis will be placed on disruptive innovation) and organizations versus networks (greater discussion of the network issues raised in each chapter).
• Provides more treatment of innovation in services.
• Greater internationalization of case examples will be provided e.g. more examples will be included from Asia and Latin America.
• Introduces discussion of the relationship between innovation and the environment.

Reviews (2)

Brilliant read!!
Used this book for the 'Managing Processes and Products' course on my MBA. Found it quite interesting and illuminating with plenty of examples to bring the subject to life. Would definitely recommend it.

Not for the faint hearted.
This book is very difficult to read. The sentences are so long that you will struggle to make sense of them. The author goes out of his way to use long complicated words. This is not a good book to read to introduce yourself to the subject. ... Read more

Book Description

The first and most comprehensive guide of its kind, this desk reference is designed to guide managers through the various steps of change--including clearly defining goals and processes necessary to make successful change. ... Read more

Book Description

Breakthrough innovation is a prerequisite for success in almost anyorganization, yet the actual management of innovation has onlyrecently begun to receive the attention it deserves. Here, innovation thought leader Elaine Dundon offers a "how-to" prescription for building creative andstrategic innovation skills at all levels of an organization (rather than focusing on decision-making levels only) -- and explains how to produce measurableresults that translate directly to the bottom line.

Using field-tested concepts and practical examples, and featuring easy-to-apply processes and concrete thinking tools, this straight-talking book provides abroadly applicable guide to innovation -- one that's not limited to a specific industry sector. Today's most comprehensive, one-stop innovation resource,it describes:

* The three necessary components of innovation -- creative, strategic, and transformational thinking * Methods for applying innovative thought to existing products, processes, and business models * 90 great innovations and 90 trends to consider ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Gives the reader real innovation techniques to use
Innovation is an overwrought, overused word/topic with many books written about it. You are reading this review because you are seeking thinking tools and techniques to apply to your version of Innovation, whether for an organization, community, or to be used personally. This book provides you, the reader/user, with an excellent and sensible framework to define, understand, develop, and implement processes that empower and support environments where "innovation" can happen (you still need to do the work). Dundon defines innovation as "the profitable implementation of strategic creativity." Whether your "profit" is quantified in money or good will, this book gently instructs you in the finer arts of achieving real innovative results by taking a holistic 3 innovation-dimension views on your challenges. I have purchased 20 copies of this book and given them to professional colleagues, the book is that rewarding. Innovation is not creativity, which is a very common misperception. More information can be found at www dot seedsofinnovation dot com I higly recommend this book as one of the most important books in its field ever written.

Relevant, Practical, Good Tool
Innovate or stagnate. Or, put another way, innovate or stand helplessly and watch your competitors eat your lunch! Wise leaders stimulate, encourage, reinforce, and reward innovation. If you're not doing this in your organization, now is the time to start...and this book will show you the path.

The book is organized into three parts: The Seeds of Creative Thinking, The Seeds of Strategic Thinking, and The Seeds of Transformational Thinking. Dundon, a consultant and speaker on innovation, takes us out of the proverbial box. The process starts with an introductory chapter that delivers an introduction to innovation management. In this presentation, the author sets the stage nicely for the value of the balance of the book.

Each aspect of thinking is essential to making a difference in an organization. Dundon explains the what, the why, the how, and provides examples in a very instructive text. Each chapter addresses skills and strategies to generate creativity, a strategic approach (big picture and visionary), and practical how-to ideas to support innovation in organizational settings. Reading the chapters alone is worthwhile, but we're not done yet. Following the eleven chapters are five appendices, a recommended reading list, and an index.

The appendices provide an explanation of the nine step innovation process, a list of probing questions to energize innovative thinking, 99 innovations and 99 trends. Readers will find it valuable to go through the list of trends and consider their influence on how their organization does business...and will do business in the future. As a futurist by profession, I can vouch for this being a comprehensive and highly usable list. The additional criteria section, while not too long, offers even more thought-provoking insights to check your work, stimulate more discussion, and refine the product of your synergistic thinking.

Readers will find this book valuable as a cover-to-cover read, but then highly effective as a tool to achieve significant results.

Timely and well written - Dundon reveals real insight
The Seeds of Innovation: Cultivating the Synergy that Fosters New Ideas comes at a critical time in the quest for new ideas and breakthrough efficiencies by corporations, small businesses, universities and governments.

It is a tour de force of how to inspire and manage innovation. And this is the great value of Elaine Dundon's work -- she presents "how" to inspire and manage innovation based on real experience and valuable research. I highly recommend this book.

Readable, well-researched and very useful
I liked the approach taken in this book. The author combines easy-to-understand ideas for creative thinking with some solid advice on how to make these ideas more 'strategic' or useful. I also liked the advice on how to 'sell' your idea because this is where the real challenge is in most organizations.

Lola Rasminsky, Director, Beyond the Box™ ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Guilty of errors its authors accuses businesses of makingn
The collection of articles from 1991 to 1996 primarily focuses on differently seeing in manufacturing. They have missed a major discontinuity, and used the fatal strategy in a time of change - listening to the HRB customer's needs, the Hardware industries, with no prescience of E-commerce or Web as vehicles for innovation. Harvard B School, like Sears, had missed the change

Great anthology of important ideas in strategy
John Seely Brown has done us a big favor: he weeded through the business literature, picked a few authors that really help us "see differently," found works that describe their ideas in tight little packages, and put it all in one book. JSB's own framing comments are also valuable.

Selected highlights: Brian Arthur on increasing returns, Gary Hamel's Strategy as Revolution, Morris and Ferguson on the power of platforms, Brandenburger and Nalebuff on Game Theory for strategy, sections on competitive advantage and managing innovation.

I'm having my interaction design students read this, to add to their palette of points of view. ... Read more

Amazon.com

In today's fast-changing marketplace, a business can't expect to thrive by just making products and selling them, argues Stephan H. Haeckel in Adaptive Enterprise. "It does not matter how good you are at making widgets if the market for widgets disappears or if your competitors offer dramatically new and improved widgets faster than you can," writes Haeckel, director of strategic studies at IBM's Advanced Business Institute. Instead, for a company to succeed nowadays, says Haeckel, it needs to know how to adapt to customers--even before they themselves know what they want. Haeckel lays out a strategy to create such a "sense-and-respond" approach that will allow companies to move quickly amid change. Among the key steps: companies must use innovative ways to gather information about customer needs. For instance, car manufacturers used video cameras in airport parking lots to discover that people often struggle to lift heavy suitcases over the high lower edges of trunks. In mall parking areas, the cameras revealed that shoppers had nowhere to put soft drinks they just bought. Now, low trunk edges and cupholders are standard features in almost every car. Because "sense-and-respond" is a relatively new business model formulated by Haeckel, the book is heavy on theory and slim on concrete examples. Nevertheless, Adaptive Enterprise has some good ideas for business leaders looking for an edge in a world where rapid change is the norm. --Dan Ring ... Read more

Reviews (12)

A practical prescription for radical change.
Haeckel has written one of the most thoughtful and useful books on the enterprise available today. By use of simple metaphor, Haeckel makes the distinction between the existing build-and-sell model and his proposed sense-and-respond model. Build-and-sell firms are like bus companies with fixed routes and schedules designed to meet predicted customer demand. Sense-and-respond firms are like taxi companies that dispatch cabs in response to customer demand. Although the concepts are well presented and readily understood, Haeckel offers the reader no easy answers!

Hackel avoids using the usual metaphors of complexity science but instead adopts and explains the term "adaptive enterprise". This choice enables him to focus upon three essential elements of business - governance, leadership, and commitment.

Beware! Adopting his customer focus concepts will produce radical organizational change. For instance, "Sense-and-Respond firms do not forecast demand for products and services. But they do place selective bets upon the stability of fundamental customer needs and on what capabilities should be in their modular response repertoire." The need to create modular organizations that support modular products - a point often misunderstood in practice by even progressive build-and-sell firms - is well made in Appendix A.

Haeckel frequently returns to the theme of a phased transition to a sense-and-respond model and demonstrates a profound understanding of the risk and reward of change in an existing organization.

The Future of Service Industries
Adaptive Enterprise covers two separate but related topics - mass customisation (customisation at mass production costs) and agility (capability to deal with changes in the business environment and the associated high levels of uncertainty). The book is primarily focused on service industries, where services can often be customised through organisational (re)configuration (hence the agility dimension). Most importantly, the book covers the difficulties of moving from make and sell to sense and respond - difficulties often ignored in cookbook style business books. The book also addresses application of systems thinking to enterprise design - an important topic that is not covered enough in business books. Those interested in agility will also find Appendix B useful. Here one finds a decision process to use when one is faced with significant uncertainty. Overall the book is refreshing in its honesty. After reading this book you might also want to read some follow-ups: Mass Customisation (Joseph Pine); Agile Virtual Enterprise (Ted Goranson) and Agile Manufacturing (Paul T. Kidd).

Paul T. Kidd

Looking for Guidance in eCommerce - its not here
Adaptive Enterprises, the title holds the promise of long term sustainable advantage. Unfortunately the book reads like an extended IBM consulting sales pitch. The central case study (Westpac) is over 10 years old. Surly if this was a break through the book would talk about long term results and how they were able to take over their market by being adaptive. There is little evidence of this. Other examples are internally focused about how IBM's training and education have become more adaptive.

Not enough detail to warrant the read or to get a real idea of how you would implement the concepts.

If you are looking for guidance on eCommerce and competing in hyper competition. It is not here.

Command and control in complex adaptive systems
If you are ready to accept the notion that complexity governs your external markets, but are not yet ready to accept that the same rules may apply inside your organisation, you may find comfort in this prescription. It purports to be about the distinction between a 'make-and-sell' organisation and a 'sense-and-respond' organisation. The first is production efficiency focused and second is focused on customer satisfaction. (What the author calls 'sense-and-respond' is in fact an unacknowledged version of the Kolb cycle or cycle of organisational learning cycle, so well examined by Nancy Dixon. It is essential to all forms of learning, whether that is applied to providing customer satisfaction or to playing a musical instrument)

Overtly he argues that the shift from a make-and-sell orientation to a sense-and-respond orientation is a major piece of unfinished business for organisations. The reason that he can argue this is that he 'bundles' the issue of customer responsiveness with the much wider issue of complexity and unpredictability in the environment - in other words, he argues that it is not possible to be truly customer responsive if you do not also recognise complexity in markets.

Beneath this surface argument that the new complexity requires new approaches and its characterisation as a move to 'sense-and-respond', lies the real issue, which is the defence of command-and-control from devolution of control, which the author characterises dismissively as 'communicate-and-hope'. The author develops a framework which is designed to retain the essential features of command-and -control, while building flexibility and responsiveness. He argues that forms of governance that challenge command-and-control have only been effective in smaller and simpler organisations than the giants with which he is primarily concerned. By extension, he argues that they can not work in such organisations.

The core of his prescription is the ability of central management to provide central direction to the organisation by the use of an analogy to 'fly by wire' technology. In other words, he advocates the use of modern technology to keep central management informed of unpredictable change so fast that they can respond appropriately within tight time deadlines. When a 'modular' approach to structuring organisations is added, he argues that they can respond effectively not only to the generality of customers but to particular customers. However, the question of relationships with internal stakeholders - employees - does not figure in his schematic, nor does the issue of external alliances and partnerships. Both (separately and together) challenge the capacity of command and control: it is not just customers and markets.

A book full of really wonderful gems
As I am quoted as saying elsewhere "I wish I had had this book years ago!" In 1994 when Steve first introduced me to these principles, now so clearly set out in the book, I intuitively recognised their brilliance, and usefulness. The problem came in trying to implement a process that was itself in the throes of development. There is many a slip between "grasping the concept" and "making money from it."

In one sense, there is little that is completely new in this book. But, what a gem, where else have all the essential pieces been put together in such a logical and user friendly fashion?

I note that reviewers have not yet reached the Annexures. Using the "Adaptive Decision Process" resulted in the most exciting and valuable discussion of high level business strategy that I have ever been involved with. Debating with my management team the many strategic choices that were available to us in about 35 areas was a time consuming exercise. It took all of a day! As we progressed we found that we had developed about five possible strategies for the future. We were rather confused as to how we would make the many choices. Then came the enlightenment from modeling the financial impacts of each. We discovered that there were only a few choices that had significant financial impacts. And for once the entire management team was agreed on what these few vital choices involved. Talk about a powerful management process! This very powerful approach is hidden in an Annexure. Readers be warned, there is gold in the pages of this book, but there is so much that it is easy to miss much of it.

Another gem is the Commitment Management Protocol. My dream is to computerise this in such a manner that my email in box becomes my "promise" list showing what I owe to whom when, and what who owes to me when. Performance management becomes quite simple. This is despite the fact that we are now in an era when jobs can no longer be planned, scheduled and delivered according to schedule because those troublesome folk, our customers, do not want the standard services or products our assembly lines are designed to deliver. They want something almost unique to them.

The idea of "negotiating" conditions of satisfaction makes so much sense that I cannot believe it has taken so long for someone to write about it.

My congratulations to Steve Haeckel on a great addition to "wisdom literature". ... Read more

Book Description

Focuses on the critical people element in reengineering and restructuring efforts. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

one more of those
one more of those books we read, enjoy and forget what the heck the message was upon reading the last page.

Save your money and buy something else.

Incorrectly categorized
This book could have more appropriately been categorized as a negotiation strategy or conflict management book. Most examples in this book focus on negotiating a settlement between two (and only two) opposing groups when a change is proposed. There is little or no mention made of change management per se. Further, it's theories and suggestions focus very little on questions such as, "how do I get people to accept and support the change that I am proposing," and rather much more on understanding when resistance to your idea is present. Frankly, I know when resistence is present, I'm more interested in what to do with it.

Finally, the book is poorly written, in my opinion. It often wanders from the subject at hand to make obsure references - e.g., Groucho Marx movies and the third century emperor Pyrrhus. These references are distracting, and inappropriate in a book designed for corporate managers who have little time to read as it is.

Recipe is a Masterpiece--Best Book I've Read!
This is the "best" book I've read! With "change" the norm, you must know how to lead the change and we don't lead dollars or materials--it is people--as Tom Peters puts it--"people are our only asset". The author does an outstanding job of walking you through how to make change a reality--dealing head on--with people. I remember the authors recipe with the letters "PEP". Changes force an individual into a "protection" mode (which is natural), but you and I must understand that the protection wall is nothing buy "energy" (but it is critical to understand the energy is not positive nor negative--just energy). Next is "paradox"--you and I must continously engage in dialogue to help people understand why the change is necessary--thus continuously engaging the protective energy. The paradox is the more you engage the protective energy the more it becomes "positive"--leading to the individuals support of change. I have used this recipe and it works--people do not wake up in the morning--planning on how to oppose the future--they just want to understand. I read two books a week, and I've shared the contents of this book with many. THE BEST BOOK I'VE READ!

best book on change I know
As one who has recently written a book ("Difficult Converstions"), I'm aware that reader reviews sometimes come off as being written by a well-meaing friend or colleague. So I want to be clear that I've never even heard of Rick Maurer. I got his book off Amazon.com, along with about ten other books on corporate change. Mr. Maurer's book is the one I find the most compelling. More than any of the others, this book tries to adjust our relationship to resistance - to see it as natural, to engage with it, to treat resistors with respect, honesty, and to listen with genuine curiosity, thus turning resistors into legitimate partners in the process of change. It's the only book on change that I recommend to my own organizational clients. Congrats, Rick, on a terrific book, and thanks.

Helpful from the moment I picked it up!
Many books have been written about change and how to do it. This one is different. It explores how to deal with the natural and inevitable resistance to change. Many organizations have already undertaken massive change efforts, wrenching processes which have left people reeling -- and resistent. Rick's book focuses on how to use the power of resistance to build support for change in organizations. It explores the nature of resistance, how to recognize it, and what to do about it. It is full of practical, immediately useful techniques and tips for ensuring successful and enduring change. Must read! ... Read more

Book Description

According to James Belasco, too many organizations are like elephants: the only way to move them is to light a fire in the tent. Teaching the Elephant to Dance lights that fire, showing step by step how to create organizational change by selling a vision, hiring the right people, creating heroes, dealing with doubters, setting examples, and rewarding the faithful. The book makes its case by citing examples of strategies successfully used in companies such as Levi Strauss, Sony, Apple, Wal-Mart, and IBM. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

perhaps the best of it kind
I've had to read many learning organizational books for my graduate studies -- this was one of my favorites out of maybe 10 I've read. One, it's fun to read! The examples are erudite, taken from other disciplines like science and math, not just business. The 10 steps are easy to follow, logical and well represented. The authors rely on concrete examples that everyone can relate to. If I had to train a group of people or point an organization towards achieving its goals as a learning organization, I would rely on this book as my bible. Great writing style, great examples -- overall one of the most enjoyable I've read!

From the Information Age to the Age of Relationships
While there are many books about brain-compatible learning, systems thinking, communication, organizational and culture change, multiple intelligences..., this book has integrated them all into a very practical, wise and interesting manual for organizational growth. Ideally, people in any organization should start with the assessment tool and go sequentially through all the ten steps: 2. promote positive, 3. safe thinking, 4. risk taking, 5. people as resources, 6. learning power, 7. map the vision, 8. model the vision, 9. systems thinking, 10. get show on the road. But there are so many useful guidelines, stories and exercises, you can dip into any page and be enriched and enlightened. Just take "16 principles that promote learning" (pp. 16-19) or the 36 assessment items (pp. 66-67), they are very specific goals for us to aim at. "Why most training doesn't work" (pp. 168-171) should be required reading for all trainers. In fact, the whole book should be required reading by all those in management or interested in fostering growth through participative learning. For follow-up, it helps to read Peter Kline's The Everyday Genius, that gives a more comprehensive background to the Integrative Learning that underlies the present book. People can also go on to Peter Senge and team's books--if they haven't done so. In another revised edition, it might help to include an index and also update the checklist on 7 multiple intelligences to include the natural and existential intelligences.

Amazing
This book is amazing from the point of view of a H.R Professional.As the head of HR for a Global Multi National Corp I have been looking at a concise book which will help me to sell the idea of a Learning Organization to the top management.

I'am planning to distribute a copy of this book to each of the Executive Committe Members in my Company.

The 10 steps outlined in the book are Simple and Clear which will motivate any Top Mgmt to go towards creating a Valuable Organization.

A must read for every H.R Professional. ... Read more

Book Description

America's pre-eminent management lecturer and writer takes the management world inside timely and varied problems and opportunities of the 1990s. Drucker's latest book explores:
• The urgent requirement for each company to have a "theory of business"
• The five deadliest business sins of the 90s
• The need for executives to routinely seek new kinds of business and market information that today's technology provides
• Competition in the global economy
• How to develop new international markets
• Rules for managing the many kinds of family-owned businesses continuing to outnumber all other forms in the U.S.
• The extraordinary new cost-savings revolution in retailing Managing in a Time of Great Change, a bestseller for months in hardcover, is a wide-ranging guide for navigating the 1990s into the 21st century.
• The hardcover sales of Managing in a Time of Great Change are approaching 70,000 copies.
• Drucker remains the greatest "name" among all business and management writers today.
• Drucker'sbusiness pieces for the Wall Street Journal are read by millions. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Team leader
Outsourcing has less to do with economizing than with quality. Information is replacing authority. Most people still have the big company mentality buried in their assumptions.

A knowledge economy's greatest pitfall is becoming a mandarin meritocracy. The key to the productivity of knowledge workers is to make them concentrate on real assignments. One should be intolerant of intellectual arrogance. A balance needs to be worked out between specialization and exposure.

Every organization has a theory of business. Sometimes reality changes but the theory of business does not change with it. The assumption that the computer industry is hardware driven paralyzed IBM.

Assumptions about environment, mission, and core competencies must fit reality. Rapid growth is a sure sign there is a crisis in the business theory. Unexpected success and unexpected failure equally show an inadequate theory of business.

Mass retailers had based their strategy on market homogeneity. Whosoever exploits structural trends is almost certain to succeed. The worship of premium pricing always creates a market for the competition.

There is a trend toward alliances as a vehicle of business growth. The modern organization has social responsibility. An organization is effective only if it concentrates on one task. Knowledge workers cannot be supervised effectively.

In team building there are three kinds of teams. The first is the baseball team with fixed positions. The second is the football team where players play as a team at the behest of a coach. The third is the tennis doubles team where players have primary rather than fixed positions.

History books record the squalor of early industry. Nevertheless, the workers were better off working in the factories than they were on the farm or in domestic service. Blue collar workers were manual laborers.

The emerging society is one based on knowledge. The central workforce will consist of highly specialized people. The knowledge society is an employee society. The Japanese term for continuous improvement is kaizen. An old Bell Telephone invention is benchmarking. For the most part downsizing has not resulted in the hoped for improvements.

The book is a collection of essays and interviews. The middle sags but the material near the beginning and the end of the volume is first rate.

Great even if dated.
Even dated there is something to be learned from this book. Drucker is one of the few people who not only talks about the future of business but clarifies the present business climate. Even when he is wrong about what will happen, which he will be one of the first to say, he is smart enough to admit it and learn from it. Drucker gives solid practical advice and insight to all aspects of business. And more importantly what should be part of business. I give the book a B+ on the StuPage just because of it being dated.

Packed with Knowledge!
Peter Drucker's greatest hits. That's the easiest way to describe this book, which compiles essays written by the ultimate management guru from 1991 to 1994. All of theses essays are about change: changes in the economy, society, business and in organizations in general. Drucker's advice on how managers should adjust to these tectonic shifts centers around the rise of the now ubiquitous knowledge worker and the global economy. As always, Drucker's analysis is far enough ahead of the curve that his 90s-era observations and conclusions are still relevant in the 21st century. We from getAbstract recommend this seamlessly organized book as the perfect introduction to one of the most important management thinkers of his generation.

The best scientific book on managing
Peter F. Drucker 1995 book is the expected counter scientific answer for Managers in a Time of great change. To manage complexity properly in all fields we always have had the need of a good theory so that we can make not only predictions but also controling our changing environment. The Drucker`s theory of Business is based on a fundamental schema he also uses in the most original theory of society we have ever heard. Transcending the traditional dualistic paradigm of dividing society into two sectors, the Public sector or Goverment and the Private sector or Business, Drucker propose a threefold schema, which can be very useful among all in, in those countries in which "the social sector" is a political mean to maintain the control of people at any price. In this sense he is completely right when he says that there are not poor countries, but countries bad administrated. The most important thing with Drucker thought is that is consistent, precise and why not scientific. Today when change is a fashion word this book is a great aid for those leaders interested to take their organization into a new stage of mankind.

Drucker's Trumpet of Change: Knowledge
Similiar to Kennedy's (1993) "Preparing for the Twenty-First Century," Drucker's presentation is different. Drucker uses less jargon; does not read as research article; provides perspective on shared topics; and touches on areas not covered by Kennedy. Drucker provides a analysis of four major change issues: management, the information-based organization, the economy, and the society. Drucker could have subsituted the concept "knowledge" for "change" for his theme. His assessments, projections, and questions are crisp. He gives the reader more substance than just raw data, interweaving data within a setting to provide a more familiar, dimensional look at an issue. For those readers looking to understand the current business and social environment, Drucker's exploration will not be disappointing. For those active in business, his writing may confirm what experienced managers are already aware. Drucker's book may make a viable text for college undergraduate and graduate students considering today's economic and social factors, their relationships, and possible outcomes in tomorrow's society. ... Read more

Book Description

Over the last three decades the average life expectancy of a corporation in North America has dipped well below 20 years.In fact, by 1983 a full third of the 1970 Fort