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Summary: "Less Is More" Is Definitely MORE
Review: Jennings' book is a delight to read besides being forthright, practical, and laced with humor. The language is clean and spare and does not waste the reader's time. Our economy would be healthier if all businesses practiced the principles Jennings and his team of researchers discovered in profitable companies. All overpaid CEO's should be required, no, forced to read "Less is More." Valuable book for management and employees who want to create a workplace that makes you want to come to work every day AND make a profit.
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Summary: Less is More, gives you More
Review: Less is More is jam packed with More practical, well researched business sense and Less bureaucratic Bull-S...than any contemporary academic business literature.Jason Jennings, in his second book, will arguably become a more popular and influential business author in the 21st century than Dale Carnegie was in past decades. Less is More outlines five key components of gaining and sustaining a competitive advantage through superior productivity. The book investigates some well known global organizations, and some lesser visible companies who have successfully negotiated the intensely competitive marketplace. Each business has a remarkably similar approach to achieving their incredible feats, it is this formula that Jennings details. From a simple Big Objective, to some shattering truths about the digital and technological revolutions many businesses seem eager to embrace. The myths and non-negotiable musts of streamlining an organization are discussed, reducing behemoth bureaucracies, systemization, Kaizen, and a tactic often forgotten, telling the truth. This refreshing insight is an exciting read, and motivates managers to embrace a better way yielding proven productivity gains. If you're stuck in an anachronistic organization, who think they are moving forward by going backwards, or with an out of touch boss, there is hope! The final chapter details the traits required to lead a highly productive enterprise, and concludes with four practical tips on the choices you can now make to move your career ahead. Jason Jennings has written an essential, five star read,for the business leaders of today. It's compulsory for 2003!
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Summary: Excellent ideas
Review: Less is More seems to be a confusing title. It is more about successful companies that do more of the things that unsuccessful companies seem to do less of. It focuses on a few excellent companies that seem to have the "In Search of Excellence" qualities of focusing on customers, employees, and doing things right. Mostly ideas that are easy to agree with, but for almost all companies hard to implement. Stories are well told with good illustrations of points though out. Hopefully most companies will read this and look at themselves and improve. I plan on giving this book to several key people at the company I work at, and hope it will change their perspective on what is important. I urge others to share this book with anyone in a decision making position at any company.
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Summary: For non-profit, academic and religious organizations too!
Review: Mr. Jennings provides a very interesting and readable book that is of value to those in non-profit organizations as well as corporations. What the reader learns about "the BIG objective" and "culture" is applicable in academic, religious, and not-for-profit settings. There are helpful ideas for organizations where many of the "employees" are volunteers. They, too, need to be a part of the team while the organization moves forward by improving and vitalizing the services it performs.
Managers, administrators, and clergy will gain insights from Mr. Jennings' work and the effectiveness and atmosphere within their institutions stand to benefit a great deal as this book stimulates creative thinking and leadership on their part. Be prepared to learn to enjoy your work!
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Summary: Less Is More Is More Than You Might Think
Review: My preconception about this book was that it would be the usual stuff of cutbacks and running lean operations. I found to my delight a very entertaining, quite well written account of a number of real world success stories, companies that far exceed their respective industries' performance standards by staying focused on what is really important. The example companies apply the most striking logic and simplicity in the tests and standards they apply to themselves and their businesses. And as for cutbacks, the book makes clear that cutbacks are just not part and parcel of companies that have shown over time they know what they are doing and where they are going. These top performers ask what resources they need and then execute flawlessly in ways, as recounted by Jason Jennings, that increase your awareness as to what is truly important in business today. Read for yourself and draw your own conclusions, but I can assure you it will make you think about what passes for conventional business wisdom. Thumbs up from this reviewer.
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Summary: Finally some smart advice worth my time
Review: Over the years I've read one how -to -succeed book after another and then I read this one. I concluded that this Jennings fellow says it straight and smart. He has done his homework and his intense research is obvious. I much appreciated that he did not just put some simplistic ideas together but had the courage to do a book that would showcase maverick but really strong thinking. With the economy pressing on businesses these days, this book would be an investment every single manager and owner should make. It 's an investment in time that will give business people the courage to be their best and do their best.; my business will without doubt be better off because I read (and will re-read) this solid book. I would like to congratulate the author and his team of savvy researchers. Just read it yourself and see what I mean about time well spent.
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Summary: Less is less
Review: Perhaps because of, or even in spite of, positive reviews aplenty from other Amazon reviewers, I found this book disappointing and confusing. A comment in the Introduction caught my attention. Jennings writes "we were eager to avoid Tom Peters' embarrassment when a number of excellent companies sagged badly soon after publication..." Quick Google searches on three (there were more companies; I just did three) Jennings-commended companies (The Warehouse, Ryanair, and Nucor) read more like embarrassments as well. To be specific: The June 4, 2003 New Zealand Herald reported that "The Warehouse founder Stephen Tindall has stepped back into the company's day-to-day operations, leading a scheme dubbed Project Urgency to fix its Australian problems. ... Tindall is leading Project Urgency. Its aim, as the name suggests, is to give the Australian operation a rapid makeover." At the same time, Ryanair had its own problems. Per the web report: "Europe's fast-growing low-fare airline, dropped as much as 14.7 percent Tuesday after the low-fare airline said it expects lower fares and yields this year will pressure its profit margin." The book may provide an explanation: Jennings lauds attention to customer service and satisfaction and chastises those who fail to respond to customers. As Jennings ironically notes: "Other than cheap airfares, customer service at Ryanair is nonexistent." Queried by Times of London reporter as to the paper receiving "more complaints concerning Ryanair's customer service than any other airline," Ryanair's CEO response: "We don't screw them every time we fly them." Nice attitude. A third featured company, Nucor, also turned south about the time Jennings went to press: Nucor's stock price dropped by half between mid 2002 and early 2003. There is more I found unsettling: Jennings repeats canards about "eggs and ham" (the chicken's involvement and the pig's commitment), about showing prospects a heavenly version of product yet delivering hell, and about decentralizing fireworks production (avoiding one big explosion). He mimics Jim Collins's "Get the right people on the bus." He follows Peter Drucker's ideas to produce the anagram, WTGBRFDT ("What's the good business reason for doing this?"). And Edwards Deming must be spinning in his grave when he reads Jennings: "The objective is to perform the task with zero variation." (p.129) The all-too-flattering biographies and profiles remind me of Fast Company or Inc. pieces. The book concludes with a self-congratulatory chapter recommending of Jennings' previous work, an epilogue featuring Jennings' personal trainer, and a lengthy section of acknowledgements that consists of name dropping more than links to research help. He commends his research team of recent graduates of Stanford, Princeton, and Berkeley yet he offers no systematic research, data, tables, graphs, analyses or standards. Jennings has a lot of ideas and inspiration, but little is substantiated. And, in another twist, the book is about more (productivity, profits, revenue per employee), not less. The final product is a watered down amalgam of "In search of excellence" and several other popular business authors and books.
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Summary: Not so much about productivity as it is about commonsense
Review: Personally I enjoyed reading the book. It is indeed a page turner. However, I cannot make similar comments about the scientific validity of the arguments. They are mostly based on anectodal evidence. Also, the book is not about productivity per se, contrary to what the title implies. It is more like 'management by commonsense', i.e. well-proven methods which are increasingly coming out in the management literature these days. Real productivity issues emerge in the last section of the book, after you have been 2/3s through. Naming every 'good' practice as productivity obviously does not make much sense. Also, there are some really naive comments about productivity at places....
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Summary: it's "the" roadmap to success valley
Review: Taking Jason's advice in this review.
It's a MUST have, read and most important, MUST APPLY what's inside the pages of Less is More: How great companies Use productivity as a Competitive tool in business, what really matters most. For me it's a clear roadmap to success, it could be yours too.
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Summary: You need this book
Review: The magic word in business today is "kaisan" (commonly translated into English as "lean"). It is used in business today like magic pixie dust in the IBM e-business commercial. "They" are probably using it today in your workplace, and when "they" see Mr. Jennings preaching "lean" culture, "they" will think they are on the right track -- that Mr. Jennings' book has no additional lessons for them. Fortunately, Mr. Jennings does give the criteria for dispelling "their" misconceptions -- particularly that while lean change ultimately bubbles out of all levels of a healthy and productive business culture, it doesn't happen in the short term, and that every worker (not just the front line, and particularly senior staffers) has to be committed (read: credible, humble, and persistent) to achieve the results "lean" is supposed to render. WHO SHOULD BUY THIS BOOK? If you're one of those people who is today using "lean" as a buzzword motto and not as a long-term method of correcting business failures, buy this book in order to clear your mind of the falsehood that you cannot run your business based on the long term. If you're a victim of the "lean" craze, you should read this book to get some comfort with the way "lean" organizations really run themselves, and then seek out a business like those Jennings discusses to work for "the next time". If you have never heard the term "lean" in your business, read this book to hear it right for the first time and do not forget that "lean" does not render short-term bang. Last, but not least, if you are starting your own business, found it on the principles Jennings lists in this book. You need this book to make your business into more than someplace somebody makes something.
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