Chasing the Rabbit: How Market Leaders Outdistance the Competition and How Great Companies Can Catch Up and Win, Foreword by Clay Christensen

by Spear, Steven J.

• ISBN13: 9780071499880
• ISBN10: 0071499881
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-09-29
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill

Summary

Winner of the Shingo Prize for Research and Professional Publication, 2009How can companies perform so well that their industry counterparts are competitors in name only? Although they operate in the same industry, serve the same market, and even use the same suppliers, these "rabbits" lead the race and, more importantly, continually widen their lead. InChasing the Rabbit, Steven J. Spear describes what sets high-velocity, market-leading organizations apart and explains how you can lead the pack in your industry.Spear examines the internal operations of dominant organizations, including Toyota, Alcoa, Pratt & Whitney, the US Navy's Nuclear Power Program, and top-tier teaching hospitals--organizations operating in vastly differing industries, but which share one thing in common: the skillful management of complex internal systems that generates constant, almost automatic self-improvement at rates faster, durations longer, and breadths wider than anyone else musters. As a result, each enjoys a level of profitability, quality, efficiency, reliability, and agility unmatched by rivals.Chasing the Rabbitshows how to: Build a system of "dynamic discovery" designed to reveal operational problems and weaknesses Attack and solve problems at the time and in the place where they occur, converting weaknesses into strengths Disseminate knowledge gained from solving local problems throughout the company as a whole Create managers invested in the process of continual innovationWhatever kind of company you operate--from technology to finance to healthcare--mastery of these four key capabilities will put you on the fast track to operational excellence, where you will generate faster, better results using less capital and fewer resources. Apply the lessons of Steven J. Spear's and leave the competition in the dust.

Author Biography

Steven J. Spear is a Senior Lecturer at MIT and aSenior Fellow at the Institute forHealthcare Improvement. Formerlyan assistant professor at HarvardBusiness School, he is also a frequentcontributor to the HarvardBusiness Review.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. vii
Preface	p. xvii
Acknowledgments	p. xxiii
Getting to the Front of the Pack	p. 1
Complexity: The Good News and the Bad News	p. 33
How Complex Systems Fail	p. 45
How Complex Systems Succeed	p. 87
High Velocity Under the Sea, in the Air, and on the Web	p. 109
Capability 1: System Design and Operation	p. 155
Capability 2: Problem Solving and Improvement	p. 193
Capability 3: Knowledge Sharing	p. 225
Capability 4: Developing High-Velocity Skills in Others	p. 263
High-Velocity Crisis Recovery	p. 295
Creating High-Velocity Health-Care Organizations	p. 323
Conclusion	p. 357
References	p. 365
Notes	p. 375
Index	p. 393
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