The 2,000 Percent Solution - Ultimate Competitive Advantage

272 Pages·2003·5.86 MB·English

The
2,000
Percent
Solution
Free Your Organization
From ‘‘Stalled’’ Thinking to
Achieve Exponential Success
Donald Mitchell
Carol Coles
Robert Metz
American Management Association
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Mitchell,Donald
The2,000percentsolution:freeyourorganizationfrom‘‘stalled’’
thinkingtoachieveexponentialsuccess/DonaldMitchell,Carol
Coles,andRobertMetz.
p. cm.
Includesindex.
ISBN0-8144-0476-6
1. Creativeabilityinbusiness. 2. Organizationalchange.
3. Management. I. Coles,Carol. II. Metz,Robert. III. Title.
HD53.M58 1999
658.4(cid:1)063—dc21 98-40541
CIP
(cid:2)1999DonaldW.Mitchell.
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To our spouses, parents, and children for inspiring
us to want to improve the world for everyone
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Contents
Foreword vii
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
PartOne:FreeYourOrganization FromMind-Forged
Manacles 7
Chapter1: LikeaMosquitoinAmber,SuspendedinTime
TheStallMind-Set 11
Chapter2: KnucklebustersandSawdust
TheTraditionStall 33
Chapter3: You’veGottoBeKidding!
TheDisbeliefStall 49
Chapter4: MisusedCliche´s
TheMisconceptionStall 63
Chapter5: UglyDucklings
TheUnattractivenessStall 83
Chapter6: WordsFailMe
TheCommunicationsStall 93
Chapter7: MolassesintheWorks
TheBureaucraticStall 103
Chapter8: Man˜ana
TheProcrastinationStall 114
v
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vi Contents
PartTwo:AStallbuster’sGuideinEightSteps 129
Chapter9: MeasuringCavernsMeasurelesstoMan
StepOne:UnderstandtheImportanceof
MeasuringPerformance 131
Chapter10: TooManyTrees
StepTwo:DecideWhattoMeasure 149
Chapter11: WhereManyCooksImprovetheBroth
StepThree:IdentifytheFutureBestPracticeand
MeasureIt 163
Chapter12: AllAboardforBest-PracticeCity
StepFour:ImplementBeyondtheFutureBest
Practice 178
Chapter13: PerfectionasOnlyYouCanImagineIt
StepFive:IdentifytheTheoreticalBestPractice 187
Chapter14: OntheTrailoftheHolyGrail
StepSix:PursuetheTheoreticalBestPractice 203
Chapter15: TheSquare-Peg-in-the-Square-HoleOpportunity
StepSeven:IdentifytheRightPeopleandProvide
theRightMotivation 217
Chapter16: MustardRepeats!
StepEight:RepeattheFirstSevenSteps 231
Epilogue: TheRoutetoYour2,000PercentSolution
AnEvolutionRevolutionofContinuingChallenge 241
Afterword 249
Index 250
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Foreword
How to Get the Most Value
From This Book
Unlike most business books, The 2,000 Percent Solution is primarily
aboutwhattododifferentlyratherthanhowtodosomethingbetterthan
you do ittoday. Itspurposeis tofocus your attention on importanttasks
thatyourorganizationshouldbe,butprobablyisnot,workingonnow.
The book’s fundamental premise is that no matter how successful
your organization is, it is performing way below its easily achievable
potential. If your organization is like most, it is probably functioning
below average in many important activities. For example, if yours is a
public company, the price of your stock may have grown more slowly
than the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock average in the last five years—an
averagethatyoucaneasilyexceedbyadoptingactionsthatstockholders
stronglypreferandthatmakesenseforyourcompany.
Complacency is the primary reason for this frequent, significant
gapbetween potentialand achievement.Herearethreereasonswhy:
1. At best, complacency causes you to be satisfied with far less
than your personal and organizational best. If your company is
notaccelerating itsrateofimprovement,youareprobablyrest-
ing on your laurels—something that often occurs when com-
pensation and promotion are associated with easy-to-beat
budgets.
2. Complacency also keeps you from seeing and acting on your
organization’s best opportunities. You may achieve gains by
measuringcoststhatinvolvespendingmoney,butifyouneglect
tomeasurewhathappenswhenyoudonotpursuecertainlarge,
vii
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viii Foreword
excellent opportunities, the reduced results may offset the for-
mergains. Forexample,WaltDisney’s accountingrecordsindi-
cate how much it costs to operate its theme parks, but they say
nothing about lost profits as a result of not opening more parks
or by having allowed anothercompany to develop the Japanese
versionofDisneyland.
3. Atworst,complacencyfoolsyouintofallingbehindothers,trig-
gering predictable crises. However, those crises may cause you
to act to restore your organization’s effectiveness and vitality to
a portion of its former competitive level. For example, IBM
once dominated the market for all kinds of computers. That
dominance slipped, and for years little effective action was
taken until profits, cash flow, and the balance sheet were really
in trouble. Then the company began to take meaningful action
toimproveitselfunderLouGerstner’sleadership.
The2,000PercentSolutioniseasyandfuntoread,withmanymore
anecdotes than most books. Hopefully, you will see yourself in the ex-
amples.Butdon’t lettheanecdotestempt youtoreadit asa discussion
abouthowsuccessful companiesgotthatway.Usethem as examplesof
new things you must do, and be encouraged as you see the types of
resultsthatcanfollowfromaskingtherightquestions.
This book has a serious and important purpose: to make you and
yourorganizationvastlymoresuccessfulbyhavingyouaskandanswer
newquestions.Theauthors aretrying toshockyououtofyourcompla-
cency—to get you to think and to act effectively on the basis of these
new thoughts—and we ask you four new questions that are critical to
yourorganization’sfuture:
1. Of all the things you do now, how do you know what works for
you?
2. Whereiscomplacencycostingyouthemostinlightofwhatyou
couldaccomplish?
3. What do you need to know and do that is different from and
moresuccessfulthan whatyouknowand donow?
4. No matter how successful you are in what you do, how can you
improvealot whereitwillbeworth agreatdeal?
Ernest Hemingway’s famous novel The Old Man and the Sea
(Scribner 1952) can be read from several different perspectives. For
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Foreword ix
someitis merelyan adventurestory about catchingafish. Forothersit
isalsoabout‘‘mankindversusnature.’’Forstillothers,thenovelisabout
mankind’sindomitablespirit.
Similarly,The2,000PercentSolutioncanbereadinmanydifferent
ways, each of them rewarding. There are six ways you can and should
readthisbooktobenefityouandyourorganization.Thebookoffers:
1. Storiesofproblemsthatmanyhavefound difficulttoovercome
2. Storiesofsolutionstothese sameproblems,locatedlaterinthe
samechapter,calledstallerasers
3. ‘‘How to’’ steps to implement solutions for these problems in
yourorganization,attheendsofthechapters,calledstallbusters
4. A call to set objectives and plans to achieve well beyond the
best of what someone will soon implement as tomorrow’s best
practiceforyourkeyactivities
5. Acalltogoforthemaximumresultthatcanbeachievedinyour
most important activities with reasonable risk and resources—
always much greater than merely exceeding tomorrow’s best
practice
6. A way to create economic relations between your organization
and your customers, employees, suppliers, partners, sharehold-
ers, and the communities in which the organization operates
that will create much more effective and affluent results for all
thesestakeholders
Tomakeiteasierforyoutoappreciateandseealltheperspectives,
you will find a few sentences at the beginning of each chapter that put
the material you are about to read into one or more of these perspec-
tives.Thismaterial isprinted initalics toremindyouthat theyserveas
roadsignstothemeaningofthematerialthatfollows.
The2,000PercentSolutionhasanotherimportantmeaningforyou
and your organization. It contains a new thought process to help you
achieve large benefits that can be applied to a broad range of issues,
both organizational and personal. In essence, you have an opportunity
to adopt a way of thinking that can help you in everything you do. In-
stead of adding specialized thinking that fragments your organization,
The2,000PercentSolutionwilladdvaluablethinkingthatwillunifyand
directyourorganizationintonewandmoreeffectivewaysofoperating.
Be sure to read the Afterword. In it, you will find a call to action
thatwillfocusyouonwhatyoumustdonow.
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