Flawless Execution: Use the Techniques and Systems of America's Fighter Pilots to Perform at Your Peak and Win the Battles of the Business World [Paperback]

James D. Murphy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 23, 2006

Your business can take a lesson from the American military's fighter pilots. At Mach 2, the instrument panel of an F-15 is screaming out information, the horizon is a blur, the wingman is occupied, the jet is hanging on the edge -- and yet fighter pilots routinely handle the stress. It's not much different in today's unforgiving business world. One slipup and your company is bankrupt before your employees know what hit them.

What works on the squadron level for F-15 pilots will also work for your marketing team, sales force, or research and development group. By analyzing the work environment and attacking its centers of gravity in parallel, you'll begin to utilize the Plan-Brief-Execute-Debrief-Win cycle that will rapidly impact your business's future success. U.S. fighter squadrons have been using this program for nearly fifty years to reduce their mistake rate, cut casualties and equipment losses, and rack up an envious victory record. Now, with Flawless Execution, your business can too.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

James D. Murphy is the CEO of Afterburner, Inc., a consulting firm he founded in 1996 after four years in sales management and eight years as an F-15 fighter pilot. Murphy is also the author of Business Is Combat, and lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: HarperBusiness (May 23, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060834161
• ISBN-13: 978-0060834166
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #23,081 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

James D. 'Murph' Murphy, the Founder & CEO of Afterburner, Inc., has a unique and powerful mix of leadership skills in both the military and business worlds. Murph joined the U.S. Air Force where he learned to fly the F-15. He logged over 1,200 hours as an instructor pilot in the F-15 and accumulated over 3,200 hours of flight time in other high-performance aircraft. As the 116th Fighter Wing's Chief of Training for the Georgia Air National Guard, Murph's job was to keep 42 combat-trained fighter pilots ready to deploy worldwide within 72 hours. As a flight leader, he flew missions to Central America, Asia, Central Europe and the Middle East.

Prior to his service in the U.S. Air Force, Murph had a successful career in imaging equipment sales, where he helped increase his company's sales by 500%. Years later, he became Director of Sales for a small paint company. The concepts he developed and utilized in business and the U.S. Air Force would become known as Flawless Execution®. Applying Flawless Execution's continuous cycle of planning, briefing, executing, and debriefing, he increased his new employer's sales from $5 million to $52 million per year. Realizing that all companies and organizations could benefit from these same concepts, Murph started Afterburner Incorporated in early 1996.

Through his leadership, Afterburner landed on Inc. Magazine's "Inc. 500 List" twice. Murph has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Inc. Magazine, Newsweek, Meetings & Conventions Magazine and has appeared on CNN, Fox News, and Bloomberg News. He was also named as one of Atlanta's top 50 entrepreneurs by Catalyst Magazine. To date, the Afterburner team of elite military professionals has led over 1 million executives, sales professionals, and business people from every industry through Afterburner's Flawless Execution Model℠, and its unique, high-energy programs.

Murph and Afterburner have shared the podium with notable speakers like Bill Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, Marcus Buckingham, Colin Powell, J.W. Marriott Sr. and Terry Bradshaw. Murph serves as a panel member of the League of Extraordinary Minds with business and self-improvement gurus such as Tony Robbins and Stephen Covey. He is the author of the groundbreaking books Business Is Combat and Flawless Execution through Harper Collins publishing and has spoken at many of the world's most notable business schools to include Harvard, Wharton, Cornell, Emory, Duke and Fudan University in Shanghai, China.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the official Afterburner handbook., June 6, 2005

By 

S. Boyle (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flawless Execution: Use the Techniques and Systems of America's Fighter Pilots to Perform at Your Peak and Win the Battles of the Business World (Hardcover)

If you haven't had the opportunity to experience an Afterburner seminar yet, this book links you into their entire process top-down, from strategy to the flawless execution model to the people who carry out the mission. As head of Training for my organization, I was particularly interested in the section Murph dedicated to training. In the business world we don't place enough emphasis on the importance of training our people - in the military they never place someone in an environment they are not prepared to be in. Training seems to always get sacrificed because we're too busy carrying out tasks to get pulled away. Murph speaks on training to achieve a (specific) Desired Learning Objective, seeing how its done and then doing it - learning from experience. In the corporate world there is much we can learn from military processes. Flawless Execution is a process that can be applied to every business objective - its asks the questions: Did we plan right? Communicate to our people clearly? Give our people the tools they need to execute their job? And, did we capture lessons learned so we can sharpen the saw next time? It's a powerful tool we're applying in my organization with much success. I just hope our competitors don't read this book!

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pray this guy is never your competitor, May 12, 2005

By 

John Gamble - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flawless Execution: Use the Techniques and Systems of America's Fighter Pilots to Perform at Your Peak and Win the Battles of the Business World (Hardcover)

Frank, practical advice with a no nonsense approach...just like you'd expect from guys that operate in a space where coming in second isn't an option.

This is a no BS look at how to improve any organization's ability to kick the competition's butt. You won't find "theoretical" discussions from a group of "academics." No charts and graphs. No fancy formulas. Just dozens of ideas that anyone with a desire to improve can implement. The "debrief" section and advice Murph provides has literally changed the way we operate in our company.

Read it...and you'll understand why the USAF is the best in the world. More importantly, you'll see how their training methods can make you better. I couldn't recommend it more highly.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book! I recommend it to all my peers!, December 1, 2011

By 

Greg in Longwood - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Flawless Execution: Use the Techniques and Systems of America's Fighter Pilots to Perform at Your Peak and Win the Battles of the Business World (Hardcover)

This is a great book that revolves around project management and planning. I'm in IT and read this book last year. I still refer to it monthly and use the principles I learned in the book in process planning and day-to-day management.