Jim Champy - Deliver!: How to Be Fast, Flawless, and Frugal

How to Be Fast, Flawless, and Frugal

2012 by James A. Champy

Publishing as FT Press
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ISBN-10: 0-13-231246-8
ISBN-13: 978-0-13-231246-2

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This book is dedicated to my dear friend and
colleague, Tom Gerrity, from whom I have
learned so much about whats important in
life and work.

As always, my best work is done in association with others. For this book and the others in this series, my thanks go to the talented editors at Wordworks, Inc.: Donna Sammons Carpenter, Maurice Coyle, Ruth Hlavacek, Robert Shayerson, and Robert W. Stock. I am also grateful to my long-time literary agent, Helen Rees, and my publicist, Barbara Hendra. I am deeply appreciative of my publisher, Tim Moore, and all of his colleagues at Pearson: Amy Neidlinger, Megan Colvin, Julie Phifer, Sandra Schroeder, Jovana Shirley, Gloria Schurick, Lisa Stumpf, San Dee Phillips, and Sarah Kearns.

Finally, as always, I am grateful to my wife, Lois, and son, Adam, for their support and advice when I write. They keep me focused on the important, the real, and the practical.

Jim Champy is one of the leading management and business thinkers of our time. His first best seller, Reengineering the Corporation, remains the bible for executing process change. His second book, Reengineering Management, another best seller, was recognized by Business Week as one of the most important books of its time. Champys last book is Reengineering Health Care: A Manifesto for Radically Rethinking Health Care Delivery.

This book, DELIVER!, is a part of a series that examines new business models. The earlier books in the series are OUTSMART! and INSPIRE!. Champy has filled these books with examples of how companies are outsmarting their competition, engaging customers, and operating in fundamentally new ways.

Champy is also an experienced manager and advisor. He is the Chairman Emeritus of Dell Services Consulting Practice and serves on several private and public sector boards. He speaks and writes with the authority of real business experience and brings pragmatism to the world of business. Champy observes that there is not much new in management, but there is a lot new in businessand a lot to learn from whats new.

WHEN I TITLED THIS BOOK DELIVER!, I CHOSE A WORD WITH RICH MEANINGSBRING FORTH, GIVE BIRTH, SET FREE. JOHN ADAMS MARKED THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE BY INVENTING AMERICAS DAY OF DELIVERANCE (JULY FOURTH). RECALL THE OLD HIGHWAYMANS THREAT (STAND AND DELIVER!). PONDER THE MODERN IRONY THAT COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS HAVE BACKDOORS MARKED DELIVERIES. I WOULD ARGUE THAT THE WORD IS SO POWERFUL THAT IT SHOULD MARK FRONT DOORS ONLY.

At first glance, the stories I share between these covers might appear implausible. The organizations I studied all had formidable challenges. Some were being tested by the scope of their own ambitions. Others created their own problems or faced daunting market demands. In each case, they recognized that they would have to undertake a serious reordering of their operationsand they diligently pursued that goal, pushing ever upward and reaching amazing altitudes in their accomplishments. This book honors their leaders and their people. To the best of my ability, it also explains their methods and highlights the lessons to be drawn from them.

Ive studied a wide variety of enterprises, from a conglomerate of household brands to the U.S. Navy, and Ive learned a lot along the way. These organizations, and others discussed in this book, share an impressive ability to delight their stakeholders by delivering far more value than expected.

In todays challenging economic climate, when funds for major initiatives are scarce, the richest source of advantage may be operations, a treasure hiding in plain view. In the pages ahead, I show how smart leaders have achieved the seemingly impossible, delivering more sales, more earnings, more savings, more qualitythe list goes onby rethinking and retooling the basic, day-to-day activities of their organizations.

Deliver! is the third in my ongoing series of briefings on business achievers and the ideas and practices that make them successful in the twenty-first century. The first book, Outsmart!, was about strategy; the second, Inspire!, focused on marketing. This latest book is especially close to home for me. Operational efficiency was at the heart of the work I wrote with the late and much missed Michael Hammer in 1993 called Reengineering the Corporation. It spent 41 weeks on The New York Times best-seller list, and its ideas were widely put into practice by such companies as American Standard, Procter & Gamble, and Xerox.

To prepare for writing this volume, and its two predecessors, I looked at hundreds of companies and interviewed dozens of business leaders. I was and remain convinced that great new business and management insights were coming not from academic ivory towers, but from companies themselves. Fresh ideas were fermenting in the heat and sweat of daily, on-the-ground competition.

The pages ahead are filled with such ideas. Interestingly, I found no single formula guaranteeing universal success. What I did find were dozens of ingenious solutions to everyday, every-company problems, solutions enabling organizations to keep delivering more.

I also discovered two characteristics that all the organizations shared. They all started by creating a plan that was rooted in a clear understanding of the management processes required to bring about change. And in executing that plan, they demonstrated a commitment to management basicssteady and persistent focus on goals, discipline, and details. Much of this book is about the grittiness of everyday execution.

I ALSO DISCOVERED TWO CHARACTERISTICS THAT ALL THE ORGANIZATIONS SHARED . T HEY ALL STARTED BY CREATING A PLAN THAT WAS ROOTED IN A CLEAR UNDERSTANDING OF THE MANAGEMENT PROCESSES REQUIRED TO BRING ABOUT CHANGE . A ND IN EXECUTING THAT PLAN, THEY DEMONSTRATED A COMMITMENT TO MANAGEMENT BASICSSTEADY AND PERSISTENT FOCUS ON GOALS, DISCIPLINE, AND DETAILS . M UCH OF THIS BOOK IS ABOUT THE GRITTINESS OF EVERYDAY EXECUTION .