The 2,000 Percent Solution Free Your Organization From ‘‘Stalled’’ Thinking to Achieve Exponential Success Donald Mitchell Carol Coles Robert Metz American Management Association NewYork•Atlanta•Boston•Chicago•KansasCity•SanFrancisco•Washington,D.C. Brussels•MexicoCity•Tokyo•Toronto ..........................7302$$ $$FM 05-19-0309:08:42 PS Thisbookisavailableataspecial discountwhenorderedinbulkquantities. Forinformation,contactSpecialSalesDepartment, AMACOM,animprintofAMAPublications, adivisionofAmericanManagementAssociation, 1601Broadway,NewYork,NY10019. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative informationinregardtothesubjectmattercovered.Itissoldwith the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional service. If legal advice or otherexpertassistanceisrequired,theservicesofacompetentpro- fessionalpersonshouldbesought. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Mitchell,Donald The2,000percentsolution:freeyourorganizationfrom‘‘stalled’’ thinkingtoachieveexponentialsuccess/DonaldMitchell,Carol Coles,andRobertMetz. p. cm. Includesindex. ISBN0-8144-0476-6 1. Creativeabilityinbusiness. 2. Organizationalchange. 3. Management. I. Coles,Carol. II. Metz,Robert. III. Title. HD53.M58 1999 658.4(cid:1)063—dc21 98-40541 CIP (cid:2)1999DonaldW.Mitchell. Allrightsreserved. PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica. Originalillustrations,imagesbyartistTobiKahn:12imagesfromtheseries PYM-CADAH(cid:2)TobiKahn.Allrightsreservedbytheartist. Thispublicationmaynotbereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem, ortransmittedinwholeorinpart, inanyformorbyanymeans,electronic, mechanical,photocopying,recording,orotherwise, withoutthepriorwrittenpermissionofAMACOM, animprintofAMAPublications, adivisionofAmericanManagementAssociation, 1601Broadway,NewYork,NY10019. Printingnumber 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ..........................7302$$ $$FM 05-19-0309:08:42 PS To our spouses, parents, and children for inspiring us to want to improve the world for everyone ..........................7302$$ $$FM 05-19-0309:08:43 PS ..........................7302$$ $$FM 05-19-0309:08:43 PS Contents Foreword vii Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 PartOne:FreeYourOrganization FromMind-Forged Manacles 7 Chapter1: LikeaMosquitoinAmber,SuspendedinTime TheStallMind-Set 11 Chapter2: KnucklebustersandSawdust TheTraditionStall 33 Chapter3: You’veGottoBeKidding! TheDisbeliefStall 49 Chapter4: MisusedCliche´s TheMisconceptionStall 63 Chapter5: UglyDucklings TheUnattractivenessStall 83 Chapter6: WordsFailMe TheCommunicationsStall 93 Chapter7: MolassesintheWorks TheBureaucraticStall 103 Chapter8: Man˜ana TheProcrastinationStall 114 v ..........................7302$$ CNTS 05-19-0309:08:46 PS vi Contents PartTwo:AStallbuster’sGuideinEightSteps 129 Chapter9: MeasuringCavernsMeasurelesstoMan StepOne:UnderstandtheImportanceof MeasuringPerformance 131 Chapter10: TooManyTrees StepTwo:DecideWhattoMeasure 149 Chapter11: WhereManyCooksImprovetheBroth StepThree:IdentifytheFutureBestPracticeand MeasureIt 163 Chapter12: AllAboardforBest-PracticeCity StepFour:ImplementBeyondtheFutureBest Practice 178 Chapter13: PerfectionasOnlyYouCanImagineIt StepFive:IdentifytheTheoreticalBestPractice 187 Chapter14: OntheTrailoftheHolyGrail StepSix:PursuetheTheoreticalBestPractice 203 Chapter15: TheSquare-Peg-in-the-Square-HoleOpportunity StepSeven:IdentifytheRightPeopleandProvide theRightMotivation 217 Chapter16: MustardRepeats! StepEight:RepeattheFirstSevenSteps 231 Epilogue: TheRoutetoYour2,000PercentSolution AnEvolutionRevolutionofContinuingChallenge 241 Afterword 249 Index 250 ..........................7302$$ CNTS 05-19-0309:08:46 PS Foreword How to Get the Most Value From This Book Unlike most business books, The 2,000 Percent Solution is primarily aboutwhattododifferentlyratherthanhowtodosomethingbetterthan you do ittoday. Itspurposeis tofocus your attention on importanttasks thatyourorganizationshouldbe,butprobablyisnot,workingonnow. The book’s fundamental premise is that no matter how successful your organization is, it is performing way below its easily achievable potential. If your organization is like most, it is probably functioning below average in many important activities. For example, if yours is a public company, the price of your stock may have grown more slowly than the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock average in the last five years—an averagethatyoucaneasilyexceedbyadoptingactionsthatstockholders stronglypreferandthatmakesenseforyourcompany. Complacency is the primary reason for this frequent, significant gapbetween potentialand achievement.Herearethreereasonswhy: 1. At best, complacency causes you to be satisfied with far less than your personal and organizational best. If your company is notaccelerating itsrateofimprovement,youareprobablyrest- ing on your laurels—something that often occurs when com- pensation and promotion are associated with easy-to-beat budgets. 2. Complacency also keeps you from seeing and acting on your organization’s best opportunities. You may achieve gains by measuringcoststhatinvolvespendingmoney,butifyouneglect tomeasurewhathappenswhenyoudonotpursuecertainlarge, vii ..........................7302$$ FRWD 05-19-0309:08:51 PS viii Foreword excellent opportunities, the reduced results may offset the for- mergains. Forexample,WaltDisney’s accountingrecordsindi- cate how much it costs to operate its theme parks, but they say nothing about lost profits as a result of not opening more parks or by having allowed anothercompany to develop the Japanese versionofDisneyland. 3. Atworst,complacencyfoolsyouintofallingbehindothers,trig- gering predictable crises. However, those crises may cause you to act to restore your organization’s effectiveness and vitality to a portion of its former competitive level. For example, IBM once dominated the market for all kinds of computers. That dominance slipped, and for years little effective action was taken until profits, cash flow, and the balance sheet were really in trouble. Then the company began to take meaningful action toimproveitselfunderLouGerstner’sleadership. The2,000PercentSolutioniseasyandfuntoread,withmanymore anecdotes than most books. Hopefully, you will see yourself in the ex- amples.Butdon’t lettheanecdotestempt youtoreadit asa discussion abouthowsuccessful companiesgotthatway.Usethem as examplesof new things you must do, and be encouraged as you see the types of resultsthatcanfollowfromaskingtherightquestions. This book has a serious and important purpose: to make you and yourorganizationvastlymoresuccessfulbyhavingyouaskandanswer newquestions.Theauthors aretrying toshockyououtofyourcompla- cency—to get you to think and to act effectively on the basis of these new thoughts—and we ask you four new questions that are critical to yourorganization’sfuture: 1. Of all the things you do now, how do you know what works for you? 2. Whereiscomplacencycostingyouthemostinlightofwhatyou couldaccomplish? 3. What do you need to know and do that is different from and moresuccessfulthan whatyouknowand donow? 4. No matter how successful you are in what you do, how can you improvealot whereitwillbeworth agreatdeal? Ernest Hemingway’s famous novel The Old Man and the Sea (Scribner 1952) can be read from several different perspectives. For ..........................7302$$ FRWD 05-19-0309:08:51 PS Foreword ix someitis merelyan adventurestory about catchingafish. Forothersit isalsoabout‘‘mankindversusnature.’’Forstillothers,thenovelisabout mankind’sindomitablespirit. Similarly,The2,000PercentSolutioncanbereadinmanydifferent ways, each of them rewarding. There are six ways you can and should readthisbooktobenefityouandyourorganization.Thebookoffers: 1. Storiesofproblemsthatmanyhavefound difficulttoovercome 2. Storiesofsolutionstothese sameproblems,locatedlaterinthe samechapter,calledstallerasers 3. ‘‘How to’’ steps to implement solutions for these problems in yourorganization,attheendsofthechapters,calledstallbusters 4. A call to set objectives and plans to achieve well beyond the best of what someone will soon implement as tomorrow’s best practiceforyourkeyactivities 5. Acalltogoforthemaximumresultthatcanbeachievedinyour most important activities with reasonable risk and resources— always much greater than merely exceeding tomorrow’s best practice 6. A way to create economic relations between your organization and your customers, employees, suppliers, partners, sharehold- ers, and the communities in which the organization operates that will create much more effective and affluent results for all thesestakeholders Tomakeiteasierforyoutoappreciateandseealltheperspectives, you will find a few sentences at the beginning of each chapter that put the material you are about to read into one or more of these perspec- tives.Thismaterial isprinted initalics toremindyouthat theyserveas roadsignstothemeaningofthematerialthatfollows. The2,000PercentSolutionhasanotherimportantmeaningforyou and your organization. It contains a new thought process to help you achieve large benefits that can be applied to a broad range of issues, both organizational and personal. In essence, you have an opportunity to adopt a way of thinking that can help you in everything you do. In- stead of adding specialized thinking that fragments your organization, The2,000PercentSolutionwilladdvaluablethinkingthatwillunifyand directyourorganizationintonewandmoreeffectivewaysofoperating. Be sure to read the Afterword. In it, you will find a call to action thatwillfocusyouonwhatyoumustdonow. ..........................7302$$ FRWD 05-19-0309:08:51 PS ..........................7302$$ FRWD 05-19-0309:08:51 PS