Four Practical Revolutions in Management: Systems For Creating Unique Organizational Capability

Portland, OR: In Four Practical Revolutions in Management: Systems for Creating Unique Organizational Capability, the newest release from Productivity Press, authors Shoji Shiba and David Walden significantly revise their classic text on leading management systems -- A New American TQM (Productivity Press, 1993).The authors identify a comprehensive, state-of-the-art approach to business management that goes beyond business operations improvement and helps executives and managers create unique organizational capabilities. With new methodologies and case studies in every area of the text, the updated book remains one of the most comprehensive in the management field.To achieve a coherent and successful management system, the authors contend that organizations must develop skills in four major areas of practice -- the "four revolutions" of customer focus, continuous improvement, total participation, and societal networking. In each of these areas, the book presents proven and leading-edge methods that enable dynamic implementation strategies, ongoing exploration and learning, and the diffusion of information and practices in a reinforcing way throughout the organization's entire network.According to the authors, understanding and fulfilling customer expectations is the only lasting means to business success. True customer focus requires that organizations embrace the "market-in" concepts and skills presented in the text, but also that they learn how to interpret and integrate customer concerns with their own.Keeping pace with customer expectations in the face of accelerating change and increasing complexity requires continuous improvement. Four Practical Revolutions inManagement introduces key tools for process discovery, management, and improvement as well as multi-step methods for scientific problem-solving and project planning. The book moves beyond these "reactive improvement" methods to "proactive improvement", covering critical tools and methodologies including a 9-step concept engineering method that helps organizations find latent customer requirements and translate them into new products.The authors recognize the need for engaged, intelligent employee participation, and present a wealth of information on total participation. They provide extensive coverage on the much-needed skills of hoshin management, team- building, creating structures for mobilization, and leading change and breakthrough.Companies also need methods to understand and learn from the environment in which they exist, including their entire network of suppliers, customers, and other affiliates. To meet this need for societal networking, the book covers "mutual learning" methods, infrastructures for networking, and keys for integrating various management methodologies rather than treating them as competing approaches.Shiba, Shoji is the author of 'Four Practical Revolutions in Management: Systems For Creating Unique Organizational Capability', published 2007 under ISBN 9781563273889 and ISBN 1563273888.