Rating: 
Summary: Beyond best practice: "perfection as only you can imagine"
Review: The title of The 2000 Percent Solution, the new book from business strategists Don Mitchell, Carol Coles, and Robert Metz, plays off the famous Sherlock Holmes mystery title. But the mystery here is how the authors have uncovered a whole new way of looking at improving business performance.They define the "stall' - a condition that affects us all - which keeps us from achieving accelerated growth. They introduce "stallbusters" - a plethora of ideas for overcoming the dreaded stalls. They pepper their analysis with hundreds of colorful examples and anecdotes, such as the story of Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin. A typical stall Is: avoidance of the unattractive. Fleming did the opposite by focusing on the green mold such as found on old bread. In the second part of the book, they introduce the eight step process for improving performance twenty-fold - 2000%. Their advocate "uncovering and capturing maximum opportunity by asking new questions". They go beyond best practices to discussing how to pursue the theoretical ideal best practice, which they call "perfection as only you can imagine it". Don't miss their stimulating "thought-starters", any one of which could justify your time investment in reading this book. If you have a problem stretching your mind on a Sunday afternoon or a long plane ride, here's your 2000 percent solution. Roger Fridholm; President, Business, Technology, and Staffing Services Group; MSX International.
Rating:
Summary: The 2000 percent Solution - why settle for less?
Review: This is a compelling treatise on achieving exponential results using a variety of "stall-busters". Why settle for a 15% improvement when a 25% improvement is not only possible but perhaps easier to achieve? In some cases a twenty-fold improvement is possible, hence the title. "In fact, stalls, those habitual actions based on ways of thinking that impede progress, keep individuals, organizations, businesses, and even civilizations from realizing their full potential." The book is organized into two parts: Part one examines some of the most common stalls that plague individuals and organizations with ways of identifying if that stall is being used and ways to bust them. Part two presents 8 steps, to "learn the universal process of uncovering and capturing maximum opportunity by asking new questions". These steps necessarily require new ways of looking at things and perhaps a great deal of careful thought and effort, but the results can be dramatic. One of the key themes is to use a variety of means to discover future new best practices as they apply to your field and implement them before your competition does. Then continue with the processes of discovery and implementation because new challenges to your market position will invariably appear - not necessarily just from the companies in direct competition with you now, but perhaps from obsolescence of your product or service (as was the plight of buggy whip manufactures a century ago who did not transition to providing accessories for automobiles). Another key theme is to identify the key measurements needed for the performance desired. These measurements may need to be refined and changed over time. There are typically a number of measurements which must be tracked.
It is important to maintain the continual edge of innovation and not rest on your laurels, thus the authors, in their 7-step Afterward conclude with: 7. Reread this book annually. Good advice!
Rating:
Summary: How to Turn Unprofitable Behaviors into Profitability
Review: This psychologically astute how-to business book is more than a compendium of clever, useful, well-grounded methods to reverse unprofitable people situations (stalls). It is also a beautifully-written book that is a delight to read. It is a cross between "A Kick in the Seat of the Pants" and anything by Peter Drucker. Peppered with Rorschach-like drawings to jump-start a manager's creative problem-solving juices and expand her/his decision-making perspective, the book presents diverse, innovative, on-point, in-depth examples of proven methods to reverse stalls (stallbusters). What do "Tinkers to Evers to Chance," Tiger Woods, stand-up desks, and Grey Poupon have in common? Find out. But you don't have to be a manager to benefit from this book. The extra added bonus is that its principles and methods are universally applicable to our interactions with others in all aspects of our lives. But if you are a bottom-line conscious business person, The 2,000 Percent Solution is an absolute must-read.
| 
