The Success Paradigm: Creating Organizational Effectiveness Through Quality and Strategy

Organizations can accelerate the pace of quality improvements by ensuring that Total Quality efforts are driven from organizational strategy. In the process of doing this, a success paradigm can be created that allows different units of an organization to work more effectively toward a shared purpose. The significant examples presented here are the result of almost a decade of direct research and application in a very diverse set of organizations, including Fortune 500 manufacturing and services firms, non-profit organizations, health care organizations, and public education. The result is a specific process with enough detail for professional managers to read the book and implement the process in their own organizations. CEOs and NPO professionals, as well as business academics and upper level students, should find significant examples in an array of industries and situations that make this reading especially worthwhile.

The approach described in this book centers around Critical Success Factors which Rockart introduced in 1979. It is a learning-oriented approach to planning that the authors have implemented in a variety of settings, including Boeing, Air Midwest, and Conway Hospital. The important relationship between management control and strategic planning styles is discussed in several interesting chapters. Another topic that the authors address is the reinventing of government and the feasibility of applying the process in that environment. . Several examples of governments who attempted the task are offered along with discussion of their level of success. The approach described in this book is a powerful tool that can be used to develop a common vision in any organization.

MICHAEL E. FRIESEN is presently the partner business manager at SPRINT. He previously was manager of Information Services Strategic Planning at US SPRINT and manager of Strategic Planning at Boeing Computer Services. His specialty is in maximizing organizational performance through strategy and quality. He brings vision and great enthusiasm, as well as practical know-how, to corporations to assist them in fulfilling their missions and goals. Friesen is also president of Intuitive Strategies International.

JAMES A. JOHNSON is a Professor and Chairman of Health Administration and Policy at the Medical University of South Carolina and Associate Professor of Family Medicine and founding editor of the Carolina Health Services Review. He is the author of three books on health care issues, a consultant to hospitals, and lectures to health professionals around the country.