Extreme Competition: Innovation And the Great 21st Century Business Reformation [Hardcover]

Peter Fingar (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 2006

There are some fierce new competitors on the block, ready to engage your company, and you personally, in extreme competition. In this riveting new book, Peter Fingar and his colleagues from around the globe sound a penetrating wake-up call to governments, companies, and individuals alike. Bringing great urgency to the book's pages, Fingar makes it crystal clear that we are not on the brink of a great transition -- we've already crossed the threshold to a new economic world order. With precision, insight and clarity, he reveals the 5 key drivers and 16 new realities of extreme competition that are hidden in plain sight. This book begins where Thomas Friedman's popular book, The World is Flat, leaves off, but spares readers from Friedman's grandiloquent prose, and offers 13 concrete suggestions for action. This thought-provoking book, along with its companion video,"Extreme Competition: The Keynote" is the definitive guide to winning in the new age of global competition.

Peter Fingar and his colleagues from around the globe take us on a fascinating journey of discovery of tomorrow's flat world. For entrepreneurs and incumbent business leaders alike, the implications run deep and wide. --Rajesh Jain, Managing Director of Netcore, and Founder of IndiaWorld, Mumbai, India

Peter Fingar has fused a gem of a book under the pressure of the need for change. I started to read Extreme Competition and I could not put it down until I finished it, except what was necessary to sustain life. I rarely take time to 'drink in' a book about business revolution, but this book has the potential to guide a significant change in the way we look at business. --Jim Sinur, VP Distinguished Analyst, Gartner Research

Extreme Competition shows in concrete detail how old assumptions and business models are being rapidly obliterated by the rise of India and China and the negation of time and distance by the Internet and global supply chain management. This is the definitive guide to business success in the new age of total global competition. --Clyde Prestowitz, President, Economic Strategy Institute,and author of Three Billion New Capitalists

In an interconnected world, the services sector has seen varied levels innovation, often inspired by historical breakthroughs in manufacturing. At Wipro we are pioneering the use of Lean manufacturing techniques in the digitization of business processes. This innovation is our key to surviving and thriving in the world of Extreme Competition. --Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro Ltd., Chennai, India

Peter Fingar is exactly right that a new world of extreme competition is emerging, and that business process innovation will be its primary battleground. If you don't think that the ideas in this book are important, you simply won't be in business for very long. If you do, get busy reading about how to be successful in this brave new world. --Thomas H. Davenport, Professor and Director, Process Management Research Center, Babson College. Author of Thinking for a Living (Harvard Business Press)

Extreme Competition is an exciting book about the realities and opportunities of the 21st Century. Its recommendations are right on, especially Fingar's call for setting the pace of sustained innovation. Of great value are the hundreds of engaging, real-life examples. --Mark. S. Lewis, EVP and Chief Development Officer, EMC Corporation

Fingar takes the normally fuzzy topic of innovation and gives it structure. His suggestions for action are both practical and visionary. --Patrick Whitney, Professor, and Director, Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology

Peter Fingar points the direction to tomorrow's business success, clearly and persuasively. Extreme Competition examines how the Internet and global sourcing are changing the rules for all businesses and how yesterday's proven strategies aren't likely to make for tomorrow's winners. Fingar charts a roadmap to the future that no business person today should be without. --Stan Gibson, Executive Editor, eWeek

In order to beat the competition, we must first compete against ourselves. At Cincinnati Bell we are committed to a 'defend and grow' strategy, and use bundling to engage in both defensive and offensive plays. In short, we have no choice but to be the extreme competitor described in Peter's intriguing book, nor do you. --John F. Cassidy, CEO, Cincinnati Bell

Extreme Competition eloquently describes how companies must rethink their business strategies, from the ground up, to respond to the realities of 21st century competition. --Bryan Maizlish, CTO, Program Team, Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems & Solutions

Today, companies must ask how an ever more connected world will change the rules in their industries. Extreme Competition offers the in-depth analysis needed to formulate those questions, and chart a path ahead. --Edward C. Grady, CEO, Brooks Automation

Companies that have embraced Fingar's message are moving ahead, and creating innovative new business models so remarkable that in some instances they appear to give away their core products and services. How? Extreme Competition captures the moment and provides the answer. --Steve Towers, CEO, Business Process Management Group, Warwick, England

Reading Fingar's book on the plane made up for the hockey game I missed watching. The book's pace was faster and the impact made me feel like I was on the ice getting hit. And unlike a game that is forgotten when it is over, the ideas and challenges presented in this book simply cannot be forgotten. --Dave Hollander, Co-inventor of XML, the Lingua Franca of the Internet

Peter Fingar makes it clear that to survive in a world of extreme competition, it's essential to develop an obsessive, even paranoid, attention to business processes, and to manage them to support continuous and unrelenting innovation. Readers and companies that have low adversity quotients on this issue will become history, extremely fast. --Kiran Garimella, Chief Architect, GE Healthcare Financial Services

Peter Fingar draws an exciting portrait of what lies ahead as globalization and technological innovation magnifies both the opportunity and competition at hand. A must read for all businesses looking to navigate this new world paradigm. --Joseph Halpern, Partner, Halpern Capital

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

To distill the great 21st century business transformation and what it portends for businesses and individuals, I decided to open up the screen on my desktop and reached out to experts from India, China, Europe, Japan, Australia, Korea, Singapore and the MidEast to bring up-to-the minute research to these pages. Those experts brought fresh information you'd only hear around the water cooler in high-tech organizations in Shanghai, London, Bangalore, Taipei, Tokyo, Hyderabad, Sydney, Riyadh, Manama, Seoul and Singapore--stepping up to the plate to make this synthesis and distillation reflect a global snapshot of the new world of extreme competition.

Indeed, there is a next big thing in business, but it's not about dot-com booms; it's about operational innovation and business transformation, driven by the emergence of a wired world.Are you ready to engage in extreme competition? Do you have a complete understanding of the five forces driving the global business transformation? Has your company addressed the sixteen new realities of extreme business? Do you have the thirteen strategies for extreme competition in place?

These are not high-level academic questions for economists, they are questions that your company and you, personally, must answer. Further, one-time answers are not enough, for as with any structural change of this scope, it's not obvious in the beginning how the great 21st century business reformation will be played out. As events unfold, these questions will be asked over and over by companies and individuals that want to win in the decade ahead.

From the Inside Flap

Foreword by Rajesh Jain Today's world looks very different from the vantage point of where I reside here in Mumbai, India. It is a world full of infinite opportunities as companies seek to leapfrog the legacy of decades of slow development. It is a world with youthful energy and money being unleashed as one navigates the new malls and restaurants coming up all over. It is a world where mobile phones connect people who never used a landline before--and perhaps will never use a desktop computer, opting for more advanced NetPCs and wireless devices of all manner.

It is also a world where the services juggernaut in urban India is complemented by the largely agricultural rural economy, where hundreds of millions still live in poverty. It's a world where the old still exists and, at times, even dominates the new. The contrasts may be stark, but there is one thing that is ubiquitous in my homeland: Optimism! For the first time in living memory, there is a belief that tomorrow will be better than today. That perception alone can make all the difference. I see not just the Old India of yesterday, but the New India of tomorrow. It is an India that will be built in a world of extreme competition, and extreme opportunities--powered by transformations and disruptions.

Disruptions are technological shifts that can provide opportunities for newcomers to take on incumbents--and perhaps usurp their power. It happens all the time. Today's king is not guaranteed to be tomorrow's emperor. We have seen this in history and politics, and we also see it in business. While at times, incumbents hasten their downfall by questionable decisions (in retrospect), at other times entrepreneurial start-ups, with some luck, race their way to the top. While there is no magic formula, understanding disruptions and key trends is crucial for success. This is the journey Peter takes us through--from business process transformation creating real-time enterprises, to the combined buying power of the billions in the world's emerging, underserved markets. Today's world is one of complexity, but a thorough understanding of the underlying principles can help in reaching new markets and customers.

I am a strong believer that there is a tectonic shift taking place in the world. The East is rising. And with a reverse brain drain of talent taking place from the West, innovations are now starting to flow from the world's emerging markets--with the potential to blowback to the developed nations. Today's non-consumers are becoming the new battleground--because their delight will shed light on the economic future of all nations. What is needed is an understanding of the present to build a vision of the future. Extreme Competition provides the needed framework to peer through the fog of today, and unravel the contours of tomorrow.

--Rajesh Jain, Managing Director of Netcore, and Founder of IndiaWorld, Mumbai, India

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Foreword by Tom McCarty

Like the proverbial frog in the boiling pot of water, business leaders may find themselves in such a sea of complex, external forces that they are slowly 'boiling to death,' frozen in their current state, unable to make the leap to the next business model. In this book, Peter Fingar issues a wake up call to those leaders that may still be thinking that 'this too shall pass.' He provides a compelling summary of the major forces that are shaping our current environment.

Having led the Six Sigma for Suppliers initiative at Motorola University, where Six Sigma was born, and as a Blackbelt who has been working with business leaders to create competitive advantage through business process management practices, I am especially encouraged by Peter's insights into the importance of process excellence as a path to success in the future. Of particular interest to me is the focus on processes that extend across the value chain, tying supply and production seamlessly through to full delivery of customer benefits.

Leaders that are able to re-think their business processes in ways that remove traditional boundaries between supply processes, production processes and customer processes, can achieve extreme competitive advantage in reaching global markets and delivering customer benefits at previously unimagined rates of speed and efficiency. 'Grok process!' will be the new battle cry for leaders that embrace Peter Fingar's thoughtful advice. I view this book as a must read for those leaders.

--Tom McCarty, Executive Vice President and Six Sigma Practice Leader, Jones Lang LaSalle, and former Vice President of Consulting and Training Services at Motorola University.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 222 pages
• Publisher: Meghan Kiffer Pr; 1 edition (March 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 092965238X
• ISBN-13: 978-0929652382
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,527,998 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

PETER FINGAR is an internationally recognized expert on business process management and business strategy. He is a former CIO and practitioner with over thirty years of hands-on experience at the intersection of business and technology.

Peter has taught graduate computing studies and has held management, technical and advisory positions with GTE Data Services, American Software and Computer Services, Saudi Aramco, EC Cubed, the Technical Resource Connection division of Perot Systems and IBM Global Services.

In addition to numerous articles and professional papers, he is an author of nine best-selling books including the just released Dot Cloud: The 21st Century Business Platform Based on Cloud Computing. Peter has delivered keynote talks and papers to professional conferences across the globe. www.peterfingar.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "All business is global" and the U. S. is quickly losing the lead, July 14, 2006

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Extreme Competition: Innovation And the Great 21st Century Business Reformation (Hardcover)

If you are a citizen of India or China, this book will warm your heart and swell you with pride. If you are an American, it will scare you to the end of your toenails. Fingar describes the modern economic world and how it continues to change. I cannot describe him as a pessimist, although his projections describe a great deal of future economic difficulty for the United States. It is hard to tag someone as a pessimist when they are almost certainly correct.
I have seen this before, in the 1980's the mantra of fear in the United States was about the Japanese taking over the U. S. and the rest of the economic world. That turned out to be overblown but there is no doubt that the current situation with India and China is more genuine. Japan is a small country with few resources and a small population relative to the rest of the world. Furthermore, their population is growing very slowly, so this combination means that it is difficult for them to sustain significant economic growth.
That is not the case for most of the other nations of Asia. With populations measured using nine zeros to the left of the decimal point, China and India have an enormous capacity to produce goods extremely cheaply. Even a relatively insignificant $1 increase in their per capita earnings will grow their economies by over a billion dollars. However, the source of their economic power is not just in their ability to provide cheap labor for manufacturing. Both countries have embarked on significant programs to improve the technical skills of their population.
The numbers of highly skilled technical people that the university systems of India and China are producing compared to the United States is enough to make you question the future stability of the U. S. economic and social structure. Combining this with the fact that the U. S. is running enormous budget deficits that are being financed by foreign countries makes you realize that there is a crisis in the making.
Fingar uses examples and data to emphatically make his points. This is one of the few business books, and I have read a lot of them, that I couldn't put down. As I read through it, I repeated to myself, "That's right", and started thinking about ways in which I could modify my business strategies. As a decades-long news and political junkie and occasional activist, I was able to relate his case studies to the past and projections for the future. The business and political leadership of this country needs to get a symbolic swift kick in the sit-down in order to get motivated to face the fierce realities of business in the 21st century. Fingar provides a great deal of excellent advice on how to survive and thrive in the modern world. In politics, the phrase is "All politics is local." The modern slogan for business is now, "All business is global."

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fight or Flight, March 20, 2006

By 

Mike Evans (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Extreme Competition: Innovation And the Great 21st Century Business Reformation (Hardcover)

In the animal kingdom, a sudden threat means either facing the threat ("fight"), or avoiding the threat ("flight"). Globalization, driven by the Internet and three-billion new low-wage and highly-educated competitors from China, India and the former Soviet Union should trigger the fight or flight response in anyone who reads this book.

But you cannot run away from the threat this book describes, so you'll have to learn the nature of the threat and act. No, it won't be a physical fight, it will be mental, and this book conveys what you should be thinking and doing as you call on your ingenuity to compete in the 21st century.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most important business book I have read in a long time, February 23, 2006

By 

Terry Schurter (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Extreme Competition: Innovation And the Great 21st Century Business Reformation (Hardcover)

In some ways, this is a scary book - because it speaks of global business change on a scale that is daunting. Yet that is not the real message here. Peter has done a very good job of presenting the information necessary for readers to successfully begin preparation for a degree of competition unprecedented in human history.

And that's the point. Not that the change is occurring (sure, for many of us this is relatively new) but that it is heralding in a period where new extremes of competition will be experienced. Those who are ready and willing to compete will participate in a new era of creativity and innovation - and that participation will unlock new doors of opportunity and success. Those who don't will fail.

Take your time when you read this book (and you NEED to read this book). To be successful in the future we must all be prepared to join in a new game of global competition - what Peter calls Extreme Competition. I give this book my highest endorsement because I believe Peter has done an excellent job of unmasking the biggest change, threat and opportunity to personal and business success we have experienced in my lifetime. Not even the advent of the PC and the Internet are of the magnitude of change presented in Extreme Competition (though they are essential parts of what has enabled this change to occur).

This book provides all that is needed to open the mind and awareness to the coming effects of globalized capitalism. There are clear indications that not only will the number of competitors in business skyrocket, but that many of the rules, approaches and techniques for succeeding in business will change as well. Extreme Competition presents the facts of this case clearly and simply. Well done, Peter.