Agile Competitors and Virtual Organizations: Strategies for Enriching the Customer

Identifying the "new industrial revolution," the authors present a vision for "cooperating to compete" in today's rapidly-changing business world. Nagel, Goldman, and Preiss show exactly why mass production is a thing of the past, and why customized products are the key to business survival.

Agile Competitors and Virtual Organizations Strategies for Enriching the Customer Steven L. Goldman Roger N. Nagel Kenneth Preiss How can businesses flourish in the face or rapid change and intensifying global competition? Why do tried-and-true competitive strategies of the past 100 years consistently fail to win market share and profits today? Agile Competitors and Virtual Organizations: Strategies for Enriching the Customer addresses these critical issues and much more. A business "survival guide" for today’s environment, the book takes a comprehensive look at how rules have changed and offers a framework for profiting from the new realities of the global marketplace. It is becoming clear today that most of the management truisms that have guided executives and business educators for two generations no longer work. This book, written by three internationally recognized authorities on global competitiveness, is designed to help any business — large or small — come to terms with change and develop effective, profit-centered strategies. Clear, real-world examples are used to describe what it takes for companies and individuals to become "agile" — how they can thrive in a competitive environment of constant, unpredictable change. The book is the product of the authors’ extensive research in cooperation with industry and government leaders that resulted in the influential 1991 report, 21st Century Manufacturing Enterprise Strategy. This book presents an updated and expanded vision of agile competition, which promises to affect life in the 21st century as profoundly as mass production-based competition affected life in the 20th century. By focusing on practice rather than on theory, the book describes in detail how this new form of competition is rapidly differentiating winners from losers, not just in the U.S. but around the world Aimed at the general business reader as well as at those charged with strategic planning and policy development for companies, government agencies, and industry associations, Agile Competitors and Virtual Organizations covers:

• The strategic objectives of agile competition and how to use them to advantage.
• How new organizational structures and a focus on core competencies can enrich customers and producers.
• Strategic principles for using the virtual organization concept to enhance the profitability of a company’s operations.
• The new relationships among marketing, design, and product development that are preconditions for marketplace success.
• How people and information have become the differentiators of successful companies and the traits required to maximize the impact of people and information on a company’s bottom line.

Agile Competitors and Virtual Organizations is packed with historical perspective, strategic insights, and practical advice, including valuable sell-assessment tools for gauging a company’s agility and identifying the paths it must follow to become a more powerful competitor. A "must read" for executives who want to understand how to manage an agile company, Agile Competitors and Virtual Organizations should also be read by anyone who wants to position themselves for personal success in the new economic world order.