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3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Whatever the percentages, here's how to achieve substantial performance improvement Jun 13, 2007
By Robert Morris
I am among those who have read and admire Donald Mitchell's previously published The 2,000 Percent Solution: Free Your Organization from "Stalled" Thinking to Achieve Exponential Success that he co-authored with Carol Coles and Robert Metz. Its subtitle correctly suggests why the authors wrote it: To "free" organizations from "stalled" thinking so that they can achieve exponential success. Note the words enclosed by quotation marks. Most organizations (especially the larger ones) can easily become captive to basic assumptions and presumptions which are no longer valid...or at least appropriate. As a result, those involved feel obligated to defend the status quo. Their thinking is stalled. Managers become bureaucrats. Because they are defending the status quo, they resist and resent any suggested changes of it. Of course, as a result, change does occur: The organization deteriorates. The "best and the brightest" employees leave as do under-served customers. How to solve such problems? Effectively apply the "2,000 percent solution" process that the co-authors explain with rigor and eloquence.
I am delighted that Mitchell and Coles have co-authored The 2,000 Percent Squared Solution in which they examine "the fast and effective road less traveled for creating 400 times greater profits and effectiveness." Of course, the ultimate results achieved will vary from one organization to another and depend on several factors that include strong leadership at all levels and within all areas of operations; provision of sufficient resources; effective communication, cooperation, and especially collaboration among everyone involved; accurate and consistent measurement of process improvement initiatives; and perhaps most important of all, a shared and sustained commitment to achieving to achieving the desired objectives, whatever they may be.
Mitchell and Coles carefully organize their material as follows. First, they explain what a "2,000 percent solution": any method of operating that enables an organization to do what it does with only 0-4% of the time and resources it now expends, or accomplish an increase of 20 times in results while expending the same or less resources They then explain why such solutions are available for almost any business activity if decision makers (a) select the highest payoff opportunities first and then (b) develop the skills needed throughout the given organization to design and implement the 2,000 percent solutions.
Then in the Introduction, they observe that when there are initiatives to make large improvements with the 2,000 percent solution process, there is a tendency to "take a more-traveled road" by applying that process to only one improvement at a time. Invoking a metaphor from one of Robert Frost's poems, Mitchell and Cole observe that relatively few "take the poetic road `less traveled by' to seek first expanding usage 21 times...but that road `makes all the difference.'" Why? Because (mixing metaphors) picking what is often referred to as "low hanging fruit" is far easier and less perilous than attempting expanding usage.
Successful simultaneous application of 2,000 percent solution process to both usage and delivery effectiveness, two complementary solution processes, can to gain 20 times more benefits than from either alone. "That's what we mean by a 2,000 percent squared solution. You can also think of this concept as developing a 40,000 percent solution, or a 400 times increase in benefits."
The balance of the material is presented within two parts:
Part One: Build the High-Speed Road to 21 Times More Availability
Comment: Mitchell and Coles explain how a 2,000 percent solution that can achieve what Jim Collins would characterize as a BHAG (i.e. "big hairy audacious goal") but I presume to add a major caveat: there is no way to exceed, achieve, or even come near such a goal without formulating and then implementing an appropriate strategy to achieve only results that are most important to the given enterprise. Once again, I am reminded of what Peter Drucker observed in 1963: "There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all."
Part Two: Follow the High-Speed Road Inexpensively to Enjoy Increased
Benefits for 96 Percent Less Cost
Comment: Mitchell and Coles focus on how to make large cost reductions that are independent of the expansion size involved while achieving economies of scale and a more appropriate distribution of shared costs. In Part One, they recommend taking the road less traveled, building a new, high-speed highway. In Part Two, they extend the "road" metaphor when explaining how to maximize efficiencies during the journey to achieve optimal solutions (i.e. those with the greatest ROI). They examine a number of applications that have a cost-reduction focus.
For me, some of the most valuable material is provided in Chapter 12, "Write a Great Owner's Manual: Add Do-It-Yourself Features." Long ago, I realized that no two organizations are exactly the same, nor is any one organization the same two days in a row. Mitchell and Coles' point, with which I totally agree, is that it remains for decision-makers to collaborate on determining which "primal solutions" are their organization's highest priority. With all due respect to the methodology that Mitchell and Coles propose, it must be "translated" (if that's the correct word) by those who are responsible for implementing it and then customized to accommodate their organization's specific circumstances.
Worst case; let's say that no 2,000% solutions are achieved. Would 500% percent be acceptable, at least for the time being? Process improvement is a journey, not a destination, and it never ends. Build on the 500% solutions as you continue the journey.
More a quibble than a complaint, the material in this book requires a comprehensive index. The next edition should have one. That said, credit Donald Mitchell and Carol Coles with another brilliant achievement.
The substantial value of this book will be increased even more (if not by 40,000%!) if read in combination with one of more of these: Enterprise Architecture As Strategy co-authored by Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, and David Robertson, Richard Ogle's Smart World, Henry Chesbrough's Open Business Models and the more recently published Open Innovation, Vince Thompson's Ignited, and Oren Harari's Break from the Pack.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
A how-to manual for vastly improving your results May 29, 2007
By John Woodman
I'm sure you've heard the old adage about working smarter, not harder. But when have you ever heard anybody try to describe precisely what that might look like? Well, The 2,000 Percent Squared Solution is an extended discussion on that exact topic.
The premise of The 2,000 Percent Squared Solution is that in most businesses (and non-profit organizations), there's a LOT of room for improvement. So why doesn't it happen? In a word, complacency. Such complacency keeps people and organizations from even realizing that they may be massively underperforming in relation to their true potential.
This book is somewhat advanced reading, and you may wish to tackle The 2,000 Percent Solution first. However, it's also possible to start here. I did, and I plan to go back for the earlier work.
Chapter 1 is about expansion of your business or non-profit. The working idea is to increase your volume of providing your offerings by 20 times or so. But consider the implications. Depending on certain factors, you might make a lot more money by expanding -- or you might actually make less than you're making now. This chapter also explores the issue of how to find the pathways that will help you expand, by asking the right questions.
Chapter 2 seeks to help you figure out the possible reasons why more customers aren't already using your product or service. These are some of your barriers to expansion. The next few chapters (3, 4 & 5) are designed to help you come up with a strategy to avoid many of these, remove those obstacles that you can't more profitably avoid, and effectively communicate your new plan.
Part 2 is on reducing your costs and serving customers better. You can do this by:
* Discovering and eliminating the unnecessary (Ch. 6)
* Redesigning (and continually adjusting) your business model (Ch. 7)
* Removing delays and extra steps, especially for your customers (Ch. 8)
* Simplifying and simplifying again (Ch. 9)
* Heading off damaging, expensive accidents in the use of your product or service (Ch. 10)
* Automating important tasks, while avoiding automation where it doesn't serve well (Ch. 11)
* Making your offering easy to use and troubleshoot (Ch. 12)
* Outsourcing -- but only when and where it truly makes sense, while protecting yourself from potential outsourcing problems (Chapters 13 & 14)
The last two chapters are on getting others to help you find the best solution, achieving breakthroughs versus incremental improvement, going beyond the limits you think exist, and repeating and improving upon the process.
Some readers may wish for a bit more inspiration and a bit less regarding details. Nonetheless, the details are where the real action is at, and one way or another, you're going to have to confront and wrestle with those if you really want to create results that are vastly superior to what you have now. And we'd do well to listen to Mitchell and Coles -- their 30 years of experience with hundreds of companies speaks for itself.
Another issue is that truly superior offerings often require a bit higher initial cost for the customer -- so they may well need better, more sophisticated marketing to convince customers that their value is more than worth the extra expense. Perhaps some companion resources or references to help market higher-quality solutions might be helpful.
Finally, you should understand that the 2,000 Percent Squared Solution will bring you face to face with two limitations that are part and parcel of attempting to vastly improve results:
1) This is a process that involves a good deal of brainstorming. Such processes inevitably produce a lot of ideas that sound good at first, but then turn out to be unworkable. I don't know of a way to eliminate the idea-sifting that inevitably occurs, and Mitchell and Coles don't propose one. But that's okay. That's the inherent price for finding the relatively few "buried treasure" ideas -- the great ones that are going to revolutionize everything.
2) A detailed brainstorming and idea-testing process represents a very small outlay of resources for a big company. But for the small or one-owner business, the costs are much higher in terms of time, effort, opportunity costs and actual money. Again, this has to be confronted, in one format or another, if your sights are set on extraordinary progress.
Are vastly superior results possible? We only need to look at the Mars rover exploration missions to realize that truly spectacular results are indeed possible.
A final admonition: To really effectively use this book, you'll need to work and think your way through it -- over time, probably more than once. Like almost anything worth doing, the process described in these pages requires some time and effort. It may not be fast-food easy, but given that it could indeed be possible to improve your results by as much as 20 to 400 times, isn't that worth investing some -- or even a *lot* -- of your time and effort?
4 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Become More than 400 Times Better! May 11, 2007
By Samuel J. Okoro
Since I first read The 2,000 Percent Solution, Mitchell's and Cole's first book written together with Robert Metz, I have been an avid fan. I have since read all their subsequent books.
In this new book Don Mitchell and Carol Coles offer unique insights into overcoming distrust among potential customers and adding improvements in performance that can help you take your business several levels ahead of your toughest competitors. Just use the sequence in this book that (i) shows you specific levers of your business model you can pull to expand the scope of your offerings, (ii) helps you find out why people don't buy from you and (iii) gives you ideas for improving the delivery of your offerings and you'll be way ahead of where you could hope to reach on your own.
Each of the book's two parts is supposed to help you achieve a 2000 Percent improvement in performance. I thinks that's too modest. In my view, 2000 Percent Squared (400 times) improvements represent the lower limits of what you can achieve by putting their ideas to work for you. I draw that conclusion because this book helps you see untapped potential that is thousands of times your current level of performance.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Phenomenal Opportunity for Learning and Implementation May 11, 2007
By H. A. Guinn
Truth be known, I'm not generally known for recommending business books.
Let's face it. Many so-called "Business Books" often aren't worth reading. They tell you things you already know in long-winded passages filled with obscure jargon--sometimes written at such a "high-level" that you may or may not get any value from the time you invest in reading and studying them.
I found The 2,000 Percent Squared Solution is a happy exception to this. Who knew that a book about growing profits and effectiveness 400 times faster could be filled with simply uncommon good sense, interesting examples, and simple directions?
If you only read one business-improvement book this year, make it The 2,000 Percent Squared Solution.
Why?
Whether you run a one-person operation from your home, a large company or even a multinational organization, the thrift shop at your Church, or you volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, this book is filled with practical advice which will help you serve many more people at vastly less cost.
Best of all, you'll feel great about yourself.
Alan Guinn
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
The Management Book You Have Been Waiting For May 03, 2007
By Bill Lampton, Ph.D.
"Speech Coach for Champions"
When you browse through bookstores, chances are good that you quicken your pace when you get to the section displaying management books. Why? Because the ones you have disciplined yourself to read are bland at best and downright boring at worst. All too regularly, the authors bog down in jargon, untested generalities, and platitudes common in academia.
That's why The 2,000 Percent Squared Solution is the book you have waited for. The prose is vigorously alive. The illustrations--gleaned from Mitchell's decades of consulting with corporations of all sizes and with diverse missions--give the book a "page-turner" quality.
In addition to the refreshing style, you will get plenty of substance. Mitchell does not write about what could work, but about what really has worked among his clients around the world.
Share this book with your staff and employees. Hold brief seminars about each major point. Then incorporate what you are learning into your master plan. Sooner than you'd guess, your company will enjoy the happy combination of magnifying results while reducing expenditures.
Thanks to Donald Mitchell, for another one of his playbooks for success.The Complete Communicator: Change Your Communication-change Your Life!
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