The Cure: Enterprise Medicine for Business: A Novel for Managers [Paperback]

Dan Paul (Author), Jeff Cox (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 14, 2003

A novel about transforming organizations from the author of bestselling business books The Goal and Zapp!

The Cure is a novel for managers about transforming an under-performing bureaucratic organization into a boundaryless, fact-driven management culture like the one that made Jack Welch's General Electric so consistently successful. It offers real, practical advice for overcoming political inertia, reinventing the company, and doing it in a year or less. By giving each key character a distinct voice, readers are reminded of people they have met and who may even sit in the desk next to them. These characters interact realistically and act pragmatically, and as a result readers become invested in how these people tackle their challenges and create real solutions.

The methods described in the book have been successfully employed at many of high-profile companies, such as Black & Decker, Coleman, Emerson, Parker Hannifin, Textron, United Stationers, and Moen. The Cure argues that modern organizations must be flexible, quick, and boundaryless in order to thrive and survive, but it also shows managers how to make it happen fast. Based on the successful management theories of Dan Paul's General Management Technologies, The Cure accomplishes these things in the form of an entertaining, enlightening, and dramatic business narrative.

Jeff Cox (Murrysville, PA) is a creative writer known for weaving progressive business concepts into compelling fiction. He is the coauthor of such business bestsellers as The Goal, Zapp!, and Heroz.

Dan Paul (Pittsburgh, PA) is CEO of General Management Technologies, a consulting practice which focuses on the alignment of clients' strategies, work processes, and culture in order to target all the functions of a business on the same priorities. Formerly with General Electric, he's worked with many high-profile clients and spoken at many conferences on strategic management for Business Week and the American Management Association.

Editorial Reviews

Review

&contains much sound advice and, apart from being a good story, is very informative and instructive&' -- Professional Manager, July 2003

This collaborative effort bv Paul, a former strategic planner for CEO Jack Welch at General Electric, and business writer Cox (Zapp!) is described in the promotional copy as "a novel for managers," a fictional story that illustrates the business principle of the "boundaryless" company pioneered by Welch. It's a stodgy but effective effort in which an inefficient, disorganized widget-producing outfit called Essential resolves a dire companywide communication problem just in time to avoid corporate disaster. Paul and Cox's approach is to create a series of high-level managerial characters with stereotypical business personalities. The huge cast includes Rick Riggins, the authoritarian "get it done now" company president; Frank Harlan, the egotistical, turf-protecting genius engineer; and Jake Foster, a slow-but-steady operations manager new to the company. Essential is about to lose its biggest client because the company can't deliver its widgets on time. The desperate Riggins hires a wise consultant named George Tracey, who guides the company through the revitalization process, starting with candid employee interviews followed by a weekend brainstorming session and a retreat. Paul and Cox do a solid job of creating believable business problems and interpersonal conflicts, though the story is broken up by having too many employees take a turn narrating in short, choppy sections. General readers will steer clear, but the novel does offer a pleasant spoonful of literary sugar for business types who want to absorb the latest management trends. (Feb.) (Publishers Weekly, February 10, 2003)

‘…contains much sound advice and, apart from being a good story, is very informative and instructive…’(Professional Manager, July 2003)

From the Inside Flap

From Enterprise Medicine creator Dan Paul and bestselling business author Jeff Cox comes The Cure. Based on Paul’s years of experience working with CEOs and their senior teams to build better businesses, The Cure models the process for overcoming organizational inertia and creating a dynamic, boundaryless management culture.

Enterprise Medicine traces its roots to Dan Paul’s days as a manager at General Electric, regarded as one of the best-managed companies in the world for over six decades. Despite all the press, few executives have been able to create the type of disciplined, boundaryless management that GE’s Jack Welch demonstrated to be so effective. Now, Paul and Cox have written a page-turner of a novel about reinventing the strategy and culture of a business–and doing it in less than a year.

Using Paul’s time-tested principles, Cox sets the story inside the fictional Essential Corporation, a company with a proud history but a lot of hidden problems barring it from a promising future. Once the leader of its industry, Essential Corporation has lost its way. Its flagship product line is being rendered a commodity by competition. One huge retail account is diverting attention from smaller, traditional customers. Suspicion and blame are dividing departments. Worst of all, management is in denial, with some managers hiding problems rather than working to solve them, while others struggle to preserve the status quo rather than move forward to new opportunities.

Narrated by both senior managers and middle managers from functions throughout the company, The Cure presents the issues from different points of view, and depicts the competing interests that make collaboration between leaders so difficult. Yet it brings to life the process of change that ultimately drives out fear and creates open communication, a common commitment, and a united direction.

Though The Cure is fiction, Enterprise Medicine is fact. It has been put into practice at dozens of companies, including Black & Decker, Coleman, Master Lock, Parker Hannifin, Emerson, Danaher, United Stationers, Moen, and many others. Now, you can use it. The process described in The Cure can be put to work inside your organization to rapidly build a management culture that is flexible, responsive, and driven by market realities rather than egos. While your competitors are bogged down by politics and indecision, your company can move fast when markets change, perform better during bad times, and create new opportunities to become market driving rather than market driven. Take The Cure

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (February 14, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471268305
• ISBN-13: 978-0471268307
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #753,390 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The book you'll want to get for all managers in your company, February 20, 2003

By 

FilmProf (Wexford, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cure: Enterprise Medicine for Business: A Novel for Managers (Paperback)

Forget all those boring management books that are high on theory but low on applicability (not to mention readability!). The Cure rocks! It's a page-turner of a business novel about the hypothetical Essential Corporation, populated with people you'll swear you know--from operations, marketing, sales, finance, R&D, HR, etc. Each character in the book has a different perception of what ails the company. In spite of an abundance of business improvement initiatives, heavy capital investments, new technologies, and strategic plans, Essential is floundering--and the senior management team doesn't have a clue what to do about it. Until they discover the common-sensical "secrets" of Enterprise Medicine. In cinematic fashion, The Cure portrays the ever-so-real journey of the nearly dysfunctional management team, from diagnosis of symptoms, to eventual treatment and cure.

What made the book work for me is that, in following the story, which is told from the different points of view of more than a dozen characters, you LIVE the transformational journey with them. So many management books just bandy about academic theory. The Cure shows you how a large company can actually get from point A to point B--in one year or less. But it doesn't sugar-coat the path. It deals head-on with politics, headquarter pressures, sacred cows, hallway muggings, and turf protection--the stuff many executives prefer to ignore.

The Cure explains why a company such as GE has been so successful for so many years (it's actually based upon Jack Welch's principles of management), and hints at why companies like Enron and the dot.coms exploded. But The Cure is not just for companies in trouble. Whether you work for a megacorporation, or a midsize firm, have serious competitive problems, or merely a few "aches and pains," The Cure outlines what you need to do to achieve the next plateau of performance.

If you liked The Goal and Zapp! (also written by Jeff Cox), you love The Cure!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read as a Novel!, February 16, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Cure: Enterprise Medicine for Business: A Novel for Managers (Paperback)

I've read other books by co-author Jeff Cox- "Zapp!" and "The Goal" and once again he weaves an intriguing story.

Using co-author Dan Paul's Enterprise Medicine methodology, Cox tells the story of a successful company on the brink of disaster - how apropos in today's environment. I won't give away the story here, if you're tired of the over-simplified quick fixes or ex-CEO love fests, you have to read "The Cure" to see how real business works.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good for what ailsyour company, March 11, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Cure: Enterprise Medicine for Business: A Novel for Managers (Paperback)

Not at all your typical business book, but every bit the truth about the corporate world that I have experienced. As I became drawn in by the story, as told through the eyes and thoughts of the characters, I relived my own personal nightmares of ineffective management. But their outcome was much more pleasant, and entirely plausible. Judging by the many positive comments of some very highly placed executives, it appears that Enterprise Medicine is for real. By joining together and focusing on the possibilities, they made their vision a reality through teamwork, mutual support and encouragement - along with a good dose of flexibility. I honestly dream of working at a place like that! The employees were empowered and took ownership of their future - and the future of their company. I can think of quite a few companies who are ailing right now. They have the potential to become great again, but I think they could use a good dose of "The Cure" to get them back on their feet!