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In Four Practical Revolutions in Management: Systems for Creating Unique Organizational Capability, authors Shoji Shiba and David Walden significantly revise their classic text on leading management systems -- A New American TQM. This book is a comprehensive approach to business management that goes beyond business operations improvement.
The authors demonstrate a program for establishing a sophisticated, state-of-the-art management system that creates unique organizational capabilities. Containing new methodologies and case studies, the book is one of the most extensive in the management field and provides a step-by-step program for implementing leading management techniques.
To create a successful management system, the authors argue that companies must be organized around four major areas of practice called the "four revolutions". They are customer focus, continuous improvement, total participation, and societal networking. For each of the areas, the book presents proven methods that enable dynamic implementation strategies.
Customer Focus
Any effective management system begins with the customer. Companies must learn to integrate a customer's concerns into their own. The book presents how to embrace the "market-in" concept and integrate the other skills in the book into a management strategy that focuses on the customer.
Continuous Improvement
For a company to be successful in the 21st century, it must continually improve its processes to meet the ever-changing needs of the customer. This book introduces important tools for process discovery, management, and improvement. In the process, it moves beyond "reactive improvement" methods to "proactive improvement" efforts.
Total Participation
The key to creating a dynamic management system is employee participation. Employees are the ones who work on the issues of quality and customer satisfaction on a daily basis. This book presents skills such as hoshin management, team-building, creating structures for mobilization, and leading change and breakthrough.
Societal Networking
Besides a company's internal audience, another source of business improvement ideas is societal networking. This is the set of companies, customers, and suppliers associated with any organization, that can learn from the experiences of these groups. To develop these valuable resources into a comprehensive management strategy, the book covers "mutual learning" methods, as well as keys for integrating various management methodologies.
