The 20% Solution : Using Rapid Redesign to Create Tomorrow's Organizations Today

"Today, change flashes across the landscape like lightning. Simple,single–focus fix–it schemes no longer work, and isolated,unintegrated, one–time improvement efforts fail miserably.Organizations require periodic revolution, not just constantevolution." John J. Cotter

The first law of the jungle is that the most adaptable speciesare always the most successful. In the struggle for survival, thewinners are those who are most sensitive to important changes intheir environment and quickest to reshape their behavior to meeteach new environmental challenge. As author John Cotter makesabundantly clear in this groundbreaking book, the law of naturalselection holds as true for business organizations as it does foranimal species.

For Cotter, the key to getting a jump on change and beating outthe competition in today′s tumultuous, hypercompetitive businessjungle is Rapid Redesign^TM. A dynamic new approach toformulating and implementing strategic change, Rapid Redesign isbased on the ongoing, systematic assessment of "the 20% of what youdo that will contribute most to your success in the future," andthen doing less to accomplish more by concentrating your time andenergies on that 20%. Cotter demonstrates how Ford,Hewlett–Packard, Canon, and many other outstanding companies havesuccessfully used this technique to become leaders in theirrespective industries. More important, he provides managers with acomprehensive blueprint for making Rapid Redesign work in companiesof any size to increase their efficiency and effectiveness todayand in the future.

Cotter begins by spelling out the changes in perspectiverequired of every member of a company attempting to make thetransition to a flexible, change–centered organization. This isfollowed by a series of interrelated chapters in which he providesstep–by–step guidelines on how to go about designing, planning,building, and managing such an organization. You′ll learn how toidentify and prioritize key strengths and weaknesses in yourorganization′s structure, work routines, and personnel in thecontext of tomorrow′s opportunities. You′ll discover hundreds ofinnovative new approaches to improving productivity such ashorizontal business teams and internal and externalalliances and you′ll learn how to tailor them to the uniquedemands of your own organization and industry. You′ll also learnhow to reshape your organization in the three key areas ofstructure, support, and staffing, and how to build mechanisms forcontinuous reflection and renewal into the new organizationalstructure.

Read The 20% Solution and find out how to help your organizationmake the leap from merely surviving change to thriving on it.

Don′t wait for change to happen . . . make it happen!

A dynamic approach to building flexible, change–driven businessorganizations for greater profit and productivity

Rapid, unrelenting, all–encompassing change and uncertainty arethe only constants in business today, and the most successfulorganizations aren′t the ones that have learned how to survivechange, but the ones that actually thrive on it. Now, find out howto transform your company into a sleek, hard–driving glutton forchange in The 20% Solution.

Written by one of the world′s leading authorities on redesigningorganizations for changing times, this groundbreaking book showsyou how to design, plan, build, and manage a super–flexible,change–centered organization. John Cotter presents hundreds ofreal–life success stories that show how leading companies haveapplied The 20% Solution, and provides detailed, step–by–stepinstructions on how to make it work for you. He tells youeverything you need to know to redesign your organization forsuccess in the future.

The 20% Solution shows you how to:

• Identify your company′s core competencies and capabilities
• Zero in on the small number of key issues that are critical toyour company′s future growth and profitability
• Reshape your organization around the three key areas ofstructure, support, and staffing
• Create innovative new approaches to improving performance andcustom–tailor them to your company alone
• Guarantee continuous rethinking and renewal of the way yourorganization does business

JOHN J. COTTER is the founder of John J. Cotter and Associates,Inc., an international training and consulting firm headquarteredin Studio City, California. Among the many companies Cotter hasadvised about designing organizations for changing times are Alcoa,Alfa Mexico, AT&T, Colgate–Palmolive, Esso Europe, Ford, InlandSteel, National Semiconductor, Nippon Steel, Novacor, Polaroid,Santa Fe Railroad, Shell, Wyerhaeuser, and Whirlpool. Beforestarting his own company in 1978, Cotter was a founding member ofThe Center for Quality of Working Life at UCLA′s Institute ofIndustrial Relations. There, he advised representatives fromindustry, labor, and government, both in the United States andabroad, about the design of high–performance organizations, asubject on which he is an internationally respected authority. Mr.Cotter is the publisher of the well–known bimonthly newsletter, TheWork Design Network News, and he is frequently quoted in The WallStreet Journal, Industry Week, The Futurist, and other leadingnews–papers and magazines.