As a manager who wants to attain, maintain, or reclaim a competitive position in the hotly contested and ever-changing marketplace, your goal is clear. Terrified of being the "hunted" -- in peril of being destroyed or devoured by your competitors you want to know how to once again become a "hunter." But the myriad improvement strategies that sound great in theory don't always work in practice, and they don't take into account the realities of your workplace.
Through an unusual and provocative blend of fact and fiction, Jim Swartz puts you inside the transformation process itself - inside the heads of those who, finding themselves among the hunted, realize they must change the fundamental way they do business. He makes it clear why reorganization, decentralization, de-layering, continuous improvement, benchmarking, and participative management are helpful tools but fall short of tackling the real enemy.
In this engaging business novel, you'll travel with Marcus, the "Master Guardian" who has been helping businesses in trouble for 1400 years, as he trains two guardian recruits: Lou, a tough steel company manager long on experience with the old ways, and Laura, a Harvard MBA with a global view and no industrial experience. Come along as they visit great business hunters past and present and become aware of the fatal corporate mindsets, mental models, and measures that doom many companies to a life of retreat and restructuring. By visiting turnaround companies, you'll learn new business process models that dramatically reduced costs, improved performance and product quality, and made these companies the fastest responding suppliers in the world.
Publisher's Message
Acknowledgements
Fact and Fiction
Hunted
Chapter 1: Lou
Chapter 2: The Return
Chapter 3: Wil
Chapter 4: The Awakening
Chapter 5: Continuous Improvement
Chapter 6: The Hunters: 1400 - 1900
Chapter 7: The Hunters: 1900 - 1930
Chapter 8: The Hunters: 1930 - 1950
Chapter 9: Quicksand
Chapter 10: Response to Customers
Chapter 11: Response and Process Model
Chapter 12: His Father's Son
Chapter 13: Response and Work-in-Process
Chapter 14: Valley of Death
Chapter 15: Capacity of Constraints
Chapter 16: Continuous Improvement Drivers
Chapter 17: Valueless Activity
Chapter 18: A Sinking Ship
Chapter 19: Customer Satisfaction
Chapter 20: Feedback System Design
Chapter 21: Feed-Forward System Design
Chapter 22: The Variance Graveyard
Chapter 23: System Value/Cost
Chapter 24: The Vision
Chapter 25: The Transformation Process
Chapter 26: Learning Organizations
Chapter 27: The Expert
Chapter 28: A Small Miracle
Chapter 29: Test Before the Lesson
Chapter 30: The Greatest Cost of All
Chapter 31: Hitting the Wall
Chapter 32: The Mind of the Hunter
Chapter 33: Recession
Chapter 34: The Finish Line
Chapter 35: 2022
Notes
A Special Note
About the Author
Index
