What America Does Right - Hardcover

Waterman Jr., Robert H; Waterman

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393035972 ISBN 13: 9780393035971

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 1994

Synopsis

True or false? "America is falling behind in world competition." The surprise answer is "false." Recent research on industrialized nations shows that American workers outproduce workers in Germany and France by 20 percent, workers in Britain by over 30 percent, and Japanese workers by over 60 percent. The reason has nothing to do with technology, worker attitude, or worker skill. In this incisive, anecdotal book Robert H. Waterman, Jr., looks at some of the best American firms and concludes that the key to strategic advantage is organization: they are organized to focus on the things that motivate their own people, and organized to anticipate customer needs. Waterman's crisp case studies give us an insider's view of why these firms are so good. For example, we'll see how Procter & Gamble gets a productivity advantage of 30-40 percent through a work force that's essentially self-managing. (Procter & Gamble developed this system over thirty years ago and considered it so strategic that they wouldn't talk about it until now.) We'll see how a set of strongly held, shared values - not strategy - built the AES Corporation from a start-up eleven years ago to a company whose market value today is close to $1.7 billion. Waterman also gives us an in-depth look at how companies such as Merck and Rubbermaid maintain a strategic edge through raw innovation. In 1993 Rubbermaid invented 365 new products, one for every day of the year. How did they manage it? Waterman's argument is firmly grounded in specific details and in firsthand observation. But his message about American competitiveness transcends any particular case history or industry. All of us can learn from the example of these firms that inone way or another strike out into new frontiers of excellence.

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Reviews

Still in search of instructive excellence, consultant Waterman (The Renewal Factor, etc.) offers a relentlessly upbeat briefing on what he views as the managerial lessons to be learned from presumptively paradigmatic US enterprises. Citing data from the OECD as well as other sources to argue (contrary to popular belief) that per capita wealth creation in America remains appreciably higher than in other industrial powers (France, Germany, Japan, et al), the author focuses on a relatively small sample of domestic companies and institutions. In addition to blue-chippers like AES (n‚ Applied Energy Services), Federal Express, Levi Strauss, Motorola, Proctor & Gamble, Rubbermaid, and Sun Microsystems, their ranks include Public School 94 in the Bronx, New York. Waterman argues that his chosen role models outperform their rivals (or counterparts) because they are better organized to meet the needs of employees and consumers. This claim may strike some as overstated in light of P&G's recently announced plans to lay off 12% of its worldwide work force by mid-1995. Be that as it may, the author commends a host of operational and personnel policies he observed in practice at various venues: ceding greater control to lower-level workers; establishing training programs that permit promotion from within; recognizing accomplishment; and making a genuine commitment to quality. While much of Waterman's counsel is unexceptionable, he does embrace the trendy concept of stakeholders, which holds that for-profit concerns should consider the (often conflicting) interests of all their constituencies, e.g., customers, employees, host communities, and vendors as well as those of shareholders. As a practical matter, this invitingly feel-good theory, the author concedes, has yet to achieve much acceptance in the capitalist system. The bottom line: anecdotal happy talk that promises far more in the way of socioeconomic rewards than its New Age precepts can plausibly deliver. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Waterman, coauthor of In Search of Excellence , here illuminates "why a handful of widely admired American firms do so well" and why "some giant companies . . . stumble badly." He argues that firms excel by building coherent, clearly defined cultures. A successful company creates "shared values that give its people a sense of purpose," while eschewing bureaucratic organizational charts, job descriptions, written policies and other strictures that might restrain employee initiative. The author relies heavily on case studies of company strategies that he defines as great, including Federal Express's people-first philosophy, Merck's investment in intellectual capital and other guideposts from Levi Strauss, Proctor & Gamble, Rubbermaid and Motorola. Waterman's anecdotal lessons from the best methodologies is outstanding, like the rest of this book.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Waterman's purpose here is to examine and understand how and why certain American firms have fared so well over the years, organizationally and structurally. The companies he studied include Procter & Gamble, Motorola, Federal Express, Levi Strauss, Rubbermaid, and Merck. Waterman (coauthor, with Tom Peters, of In Search of Excellence , LJ 2/15/83) believes that these corporations share a commitment to organizing in ways that treat employees and customers fairly. He acknowledges the similarity between the theme of this book and his earlier ones, but he does succeed in providing a more detailed profile of each company than he did previously. The book is readable, and Waterman's decision to interview employees from all levels of an organization and to include comments from dissenters is a definite strength. Recommended for public libraries.
- Mark McCullough, Heterick Lib., Ohio Northern Univ., Ada
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Just over 10 years ago, Waterman coauthored with Torn Peters the tremendously successful In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies (1982). In this similar work, he pursues a main theme of the earlier one: American companies will prevail in the global economy because the best of them know the importance of putting people (both employees and customers) first. Here, instead of using examples from a number of companies as he and Peters did earlier, he provides in-depth profiles of Proctor & Gamble, Federal Express, Motorola, Merck, Rubbermaid, Levi Strauss, Applied Energy Services, a public school in the Bronx, and a surgical clinic in Vail, Colorado. Waterman shows how each of them has been uniquely successful by organizing in order to recognize, understand, and meet the needs of its people. Although this idea is not new--for example, Charles Garfield says the same thing in Second to None: How Our Smartest Companies Put People First (1992)--Waterman's association with Torn Peters, his detailed portraits, and his "feel good" title should create demand. David Rouse

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393035972
• ISBN 13: 9780393035971
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 318