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Less is more (how great companies improve productivity without layoffs) - by Jason Jennings Jason Jennings is a businessman, teacher and writer who has spent a career trying to figure out how to increase productivity, motivate employees, deal with bad bosses and greedy investors while trying to increase profits. Its the great American business juggling act: trying to do more with less. he began his career as a broadcast journalist, was the nations youngest radio station group owner and the founder of the nations largest media consulting company. Hundreds of thousands of companies around the world use his audio and video programs on sales, customer satisfaction and leadership. His book, Its Not The Big That Eat The Small Its The fast That Eat The Slow, was a worldwide bestseller now translated into 24 languages and USA Today named it one of the top 25 books of 2001.
His book, Less Is More, spent six months on the bestsellers lists in 2003 and reveals the secrets of the most productive companies in the world. Theres a brand new book on the leadership of 10 of the worlds most successful companies coming in January 2005 from Penguin Putnam. 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. In Less Is More, Jennings shares tested and successful programs from the leading giants in industry and presents new trends that businesses of all sizes will be able to implement. Inside, you " ll learn how to: increase sales 300 percent without; increasing head count; become 10 times more efficient; keep track of every penny; use technology and automation in your favor. Less is More, takes a look at the 10 most profitable companies and identifies the factors that make them that way. To find these 10 companies, my research team and I spent over a year sifting through more that 4, 000 companies, looking for the 10 we could defend as being the most productive in the world, Jennings says.
We based our criteria on revenues per employee per year (which is very quantitative); operating income per employee per year -- -all very quantitative. The only qualitative criteria Jennings used, he says, was to get rid of anyone who was written about to death, and get rid of anybody that could do an Enron on us. The book is already hitting bestseller lists, and Publishers Weekly writes that is a plea for sanity in the post Enron age. Fast Company magazine calls it the new In Search Of Excellence. When not traveling for research and adventure, Jennings consults companies around the world and gives more than 50 keynote speeches annually for such companies as Verizon, Glaxo Smith Klin, Invesco, Sun America, Lexmark, Ford, Wells Fargo, and AOL Time Warner. Recessionary times emphasize efficiency over innovation, and this consultants folksy book is a good primer on enhancing productivity.
It profiles several companies that, by stressing efficiency, have succeeded in maintaining profits in tough industries - from Nucor in steel to Ryanair in airlines. Much of the author's advice is familiar: Focus on the key drivers of productivity, promote continuous improvement, reduce waste, help employees understand the economic consequences of their work, and invest based on business fundamentals instead of current pressures. But other pointers are counter intuitive Workplaces become efficient, Jennings says, not when they adhere to rigid and precise ways of doing things but when they can easily adjust machines and processes as supply and demand fluctuate. New technologies may offer impressive new capabilities but also introduce rigidity that reduces overall factory productivity. This book offers and engaging tour of best practices most useful for companies in the commodity industries without heavy investments in product development of sales forces. Here are seven that are among the many discussed in the book: Create a simple and authentic BIG objective that everyone can understand and relate to.
Quickly get rid of every executive and manager who doesnt share complete support for the BIG objective. Time will not bring them around. If a layoff is required to fix the business, do it ONCE, and then enter into a covenant with your workers that, in return for their productivity, there will never be another one. Figure out the real drivers that will allow higher productivity to be achieved, and then measure them hourly, daily and weekly, and have them posted for everyone to see. Ask WTGBRFDT Whats the good business reason for dong this each time you have to make a decision and instill that mentality in everyone. Let that simple question become the culture of the company.
Turn every facet of the operation into a system, and work continuously to improve the process by involving the people who do the actual work in the creation of the systems. Put everyone on a team whether in manufacturing, retail, or services and pay the team for what it produced, sold, shipped or serviced the previous week. The best team members will be more effective at dealing with slackers and non-performers than managers or HR could ever be. Well, the end result is definitely worth the effort he made, as this is a beautifully documented tome. Jennings fine writing has a conversational tone that demands your attention and keeps you reading. On top of that, nearly every sentence has value and is loaded with content (and while this may seem like a given, try telling that to many of the business book authors out there perhaps they need a lesson in less-is-more).
Jennings first book Its Not the Big That Eat the Small, Its the Fast That Eat the Slow, co-written with Larry Haughton, appeared in the 6 th edition of Jack Covert Selects and was a huge bestseller. This book is one of the most fun, loaded with innovative thoughts and ideas that make perfect sense. Less is More follows well within the footprints of Its Not the Big and was also as difficult to synthesize not because it is too complex a book, but because it is so good, you cant help but share what you just read with someone else. In this new book, Jennings tackles company productivity getting more with less. First, he and a team of researchers created a set of criteria with which to judge a productive company.
As the research went forward, they adjusted the guidelines to match their preliminary findings, ending up with: Revenue per Employee; Return on Equity and Return on Assets; and Operating Income per Employee. Then, they filtered the companies that made that first cut through the questions: Is this company overexposed? e. g. Southwest Airlines, Harley, Nokia and Might this company pull an Enron? . After the companies that passed the test were determined, the CEOs were interviewed.
Those interviews are incorporated into the book and offer much insight. Ultimately, Jennings concludes that productive companies have one unifying factor. Productive companies have a different definition of the words strategy and tactics than most people in business. That difference is the foundation that allows them to stay focused and build remarkably productive companies. They have institutionalized their strategy.
What is so refreshing is that the selected companies are not the usual cast of characters. Jennings does include IKEA and Nucor, but also tells us about a discount chain in New Zealand that puts twice as much profit per sales dollar to the bottom line as Wal-Mart and nearly doubles Wal-Marts Return on Equity. The research method Jennings and his team utilized for the book is the driver that makes the book so interesting. By carrying out detailed analysis to locate several under-the-radar, but incredibly productive companies, they managed to isolate some of the common threads for corporate success without being sucked into the vortex of large mega-companies whose stories are already well known and perhaps over-documented. The companies chosen represent a fairly good cross-section of international business. There are probably good reasons why there wasn't one, but there was no mention of this if my memory serves...
In addition to the excellent research on the case companies, there are also some good insights into legendary companies like Ford and Toyota briefly provided for specific instances. This book is showing you successful organizations that have implemented and applied cutting edge concepts. Jason Jennings has really done a terrific job in giving us this opportunity to learn from those companies successes and failures. Much of what Jennings says is true and interesting. 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. Jennings studied methods of companies and operations and lays out the secrets to success in clear, easy-to-follow steps. An invaluable resource for everyone in business. Bibliography: Review written by Peter Leerskov (Denmark); Review written by James A. Jensen (Houston, Texas); Reviews written by James Merchant (Landenberg, PA USA); Review written by "Roymassie" (Birmingham, AL United States); Review written by Investment Manager (California).
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Research essay sample on Operating Income Successful Companies
