Authors Pirasteh and Fox know what causes various improvement approaches to fail, and in response provide a new model that combines theory of constraints (TOC), lean, and Six Sigma into a unique program called TLS. This scientifically proven methodology improves results dramatically. The book is divided into two parts. The first is geared to senior decision makers—those who decide “if” their company should adopt a TLS approach. The second deals with the details of “how” and is directed at those responsible for implementing TLS. Readers who would like more depth on any section of Part I can go directly to the matching chapter in Part II. If your intention is to learn how to systematically improve quality, process reliability, and throughput while creating a wasteless enterprise, then this book is for you!
When Profit from the Core was published in 2001, it became an international bestseller, helping hundreds of companies find their way back to profitable growth after the bursting of the Internet bubble. The 2007 global financial meltdown reaffirmed the perils of pursuing heady growth through untested strategies, as firms in industries from finance to retailing to automobiles strayed too far from their core businesses and suffered the consequences. In this updated edition of Profit from the Core, authors Chris Zook and James Allen show that a renewed focus on the core is more critical than ever as firms seek to rebuild their competitive advantage coming out of the downturn—and that a strong core will be the foundation for successful expansion as the economy recovers. Based on more than ten years of Bain & Company research and analysis and fresh examples from firms responding to the current downturn, the book outlines what today’s executives and managers need to do now to revitalize their core, identify the next wave of profitable growth, and build on it successfully. Zook and Allen explain how companies can: • Develop a strong, well-defined core and use it to establish a leadership position • Follow the golden rule of strategy: discourage competitors from investing in your core • Assess whether your core is operating at its full potential • Uncover hidden assets in your core that provide the seeds for new growth • Find a repeatable formula to apply core business strengths in adjacent markets Building on powerful and proven ideas to meet today’s formidable business challenges, Profit from the Core is the back-to-basics strategy field guide no manager should be without.
An essential guide for putting workforce management systems to work for your business Showing you how to take your business from reactive to proactive and improve performance, No Boundaries provides a vendor-neutral guide on how your company can use workforce management systems to improve productivity and profits. Drawing upon years of experience implementing these systems, author Lisa Disselkamp offers numerous case studies illustrating how organizations have used workforce management systems to solve their business problems and discusses: How the latest software uses data from time and attendance to create real time visibility into employee activity and cost Developments in labor management technology that can mitigate the challenges faced by employers in every industry and public sector Using labor data to achieve financial goals and maximize profits Using workforce management technology to enhance operations, quality, compliance, and employee satisfaction and retention Adding value to data through integration with other key business information How to build a business case and gain internal support for an investment in time and labor management technology Guide to selecting and installing time and labor systems This book bridges the gap between what business leaders understand about their business and what they have yet to learn about this technology. The author introduces the concept of Mission Based Configuration, showing companies how to apply time and labor systems to their business needs to save time and money. The use of technology offers an effective tool to manage budgets, meet strategic targets, and channel decision-making toward best practices. No Boundaries reveals how your business can win the race for profits and productivity.
Supply Chain Excellence is the ultimate supply chain continuous improvement process. It is holistic, ensuring customer satisfaction from the original raw material provider to the ultimate, finished-product consumer. In other words, it is doing business with No Boundaries. When a supply chain achieves Supply Chain Excellence, its links run together into a smooth, agile, continuous flow. No Boundaries introduces you to the Six Levels of Supply Chain Excellence and the eight core competencies necessary for moving up the levels. You will learn how to achieve awesome supply chain results with technology. The supply chains you create with this book will have No Boundaries, resulting in tremendous competitive advantage. Achieving Supply Chain Excellence is a bold new journey, but it is the only way to travel. For those who want to win in today's global marketplace, it's time to begin the journey!
The emergence of China as a major world economy is of great importance to the global political economy and to international business. There has been much research on the macro level of institutional reform but little detailed work on the grassroots level of entrepreneurship in China. This innovative book addresses this gap by investigating how an economic system dominated by central plans, communist ideologies and suppressing bureaucracies could generate such energy from the bottom of society, fuelling the country's economic growth. Keming Yang’s theory of entrepreneurship is based on two interrelated concepts: double entrepreneurship and institutional holes. He argues that the two concepts bridge a gap between the neo-classical institutionalism of economic development and entrepreneurship studies that emphasize individual choice. The rigorous theoretical framework is supported by substantial empirical research, offering statistical analyses of survey data as well as detailed case studies. This timely book will appeal to an interdisciplinary readership in sociology, economics, business studies and Chinese and Asian Studies.
The 1970s were a pivotal decade for the US economy: deindustrialization broke the power of the labor unions and made possible the redistribution of income in favor of corporate profits; globalization and offshore investments opened alternatives to domestic nonfinancial capital accumulation; domestic productivity growth declined; and labor-saving technology empowered superstar corporations to rapidly gain market share. This book argues that the persistent fall in profitability, leading to the stagflation crisis, was a direct result of the transition from the Fordist phase of capital accumulation, based on large-scale manufacturing, to the neoliberal phase and the rising power of finance. Neoliberalism restored the power of rentiers but not the profit rates of nonfinancial corporations. Falling accumulation rates weakened the growth capacity of nonfinancial corporate firms and secular stagnation became the norm. Neo-Keynesian economists, Larry Summers and Paul Krugman, explained the persistence of secular stagnation with arguments borrowed from Alvin Hansen in the 1930s, such as the declining birth rate or the falling relative prices of investment goods, hence a shortfall of demand. In the Classical paradigm, profitability drives capital accumulation and falling profitability slows down growth. As the accumulation rate declined and the capacity growth diminished, breakdowns in supply links, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, prevented large infusions of purchasing power to find matching levels of supply, hence the stagflation crisis returned. The book will be a great asset to researchers and scholars interested in the development of Classical Political Economy concerning issues related to inflation, stagnation, growing inequality, and the next phase of neoliberalism.
The Foundation of Profitable Dentistry is the ultimate guide to becoming an effective leader and a profitable dental practice owner. A dentist’s loving, sincere, and calm presence and ability to foster strong relationships will be appreciated by their patients and reciprocated by their loyalty and many referrals. At the end of The Foundation of Profitable Dentistry, dentists see, know, and trust themselves as a leader. Throughout, dentists discover their values, boundaries, and what makes life fulfilling and complete for them. The Foundation of Profitable Dentistry also helps them to naturally discover with ease, clarity, and confidence the most resonant next steps for creating and maintaining a stress-free and profitable practice. Within its pages, Bita Saleh, D.D.S. teaches dentists: How to hire and retain the right employees; How to identify and attract ideal new patients to their practice; How to increase treatment plan acceptance; How to increase production and collection and decrease overhead; and How to make sound financial arrangements with patients and decrease no shows and last-minute cancellations.
A new economy is emerging from the global financial crisis. In this groundbreaking book, seasoned executive and Harvard-trained economist Mia de Kuijper guides readers through the fundamentals of this economy and explains how companies and individuals can create sustainable wealth now. The key is wielding one of twelve contemporary sources of profit power. Control just one and you are on the road to high returns. Turning profit power into sustainable wealth requires new strategies, enumerated here, for choosing and valuing investments, structuring and managing global enterprises, confronting competitive threats, and navigating markets which may increasingly display power law dynamics and where distributions may have "fat tails." To derive this book's unique framework for achieving high returns, de Kuijper rethought parts of economic theory itself in light of the most transformative force in the new economy (dubbed the Transparent Economy by de Kuijper), namely the vanishing cost of information and connectivity. Based on original research and illustrated with lively lessons from the experiences of the author and other successful investors and leaders, Profit Power Economics draws a detailed picture of the new competitive arena and gives readers a step-by-step approach to build (or find) exceptionally high-return enterprises and to utilize today's shifting market dynamics to influence choice and build wealth.
The New York Times bestselling author of Dealing with China takes the reader behind closed doors to witness the creation and evolution and future of China's state-controlled capitalism. Hank Paulson has dealt with China unlike any other foreigner. As head of Goldman Sachs, Paulson had a pivotal role in opening up China to private enterprise. Then, as Treasury secretary, he created the Strategic Economic Dialogue with what is now the world's second-largest economy. He negotiated with China on needed economic reforms, while safeguarding the teetering U.S. financial system. Over his career, Paulson has worked with scores of top Chinese leaders, including Xi Jinping, China's most powerful man in decades. In Dealing with China, Paulson draws on his unprecedented access to modern China's political and business elite, including its three most recent heads of state, to answer several key questions: How did China become an economic superpower so quickly? How does business really get done there? What are the best ways for Western business and political leaders to work with, compete with, and benefit from China? How can the U.S. negotiate with and influence China given its authoritarian rule, its massive environmental concerns, and its huge population's unrelenting demands for economic growth and security? Written in the same anecdote-rich, page-turning style as Paulson's bestselling memoir, On the Brink, Dealing with China is certain to become the classic and definitive examination of how to engage China's leaders as they build their economic superpower.
