Customer Reviews

High Velocity Leadership : The Mars Pathfinder Approach to Faster, Better, Cheaper

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It is refreshing to see a book about one of NASA's unmanned successes. No wonder why the public is unaware of the JPL. This books gives a glimpse into the many obstacles Pathfinder had even before it left Earth. Muirhead tells the story in a very down-to-earth style. I was a bit disappointed in the frequent references into business applications on the "cheaper, better & faster" approach. At times it disrupted the flow of the book and gave an informercial taste to this book. I would also have liked a closing chpater on some of the scientific results of the little rover that gave us a very memorable Fourth of July in 1997. Overall, I recommend this tale of scientific exploration just because it gives the public information on space exploration that it wouldn't find elsewhere.

So THAT'S how they build a spacecraft. Great insight into the process and a really amazing glimpse into the mind of the man who made it happen. Lessons that can be applied to nearly any business today. If you only read one business book this year, this is THE ONE.

From a good business book, you expect to get ideas you can put into practice to be a better manager. From a good story book, you hope to get a story that carries you along. Getting both in the same book is rare and unexpected. A winner!

When is the last time you read a business book, read it all the way to the end, and wished it was LONGER? Even when you know that the Pathfinder spacecraft landed successfully on Mars, there is still a suspense all the way through, how will they overcome THIS problem, how will they overcome THAT one. This book is too good to miss.

Brian K. Muirhead spins a great web of stories relating to the development and mission of the Mars Pathfinder. Against all odds regarding schedule and budget, he managed to keep his work teams focused on a shared vision towards a common goal. From initial proposal through early development into production and the actual mission, Brian and his team overcame obstacle after obstacle to make their dream of reaching and exploring Mars a reality. A must read for any manager of knowledge workers in the new global economy. The bible of faster, better, cheaper!

Brian Muirhead is good in front of an audience but it's even better here with the story told in full. This is the best management book I've read in years.

What's so amazing about this book is that the management approaches they used to build the Pathfinder spacecraft so quickly and so inexpensively sound like ideas every one of us can use every day. Loved the story, loved the ideas. Fascinating and absorbing.

This has to be the most valuable book I've read in ages. It offers fresh and extremely powerful management techniques. The theories are not just ivory tower meanderings....but, down-to-earth, practical ideas that proved themselves in the field for a manager in a high-pressure, high-power position. The author performs magic by making this very non-fiction work read with the same pace and style of a novel.

I bought this book earlier in the year. I saw it hyped on TV. After two recent massive failures costing at least 1/2 billion dollars total since my purchase of High Velocity Leadership..reading this book makes a person wince painfully. I am sure this new high risk management philosophy will be put on the grill when the U.S. Congress examines these failures. Thank God there were no human beings on these flights. Space exploration is the most dangerous, most high risk business ever conceived of by man short of war. After 42 years of this type of unforgiving scientific activity that has now largely been privitized and contracted out to the lowest bidder, it is time the U.S. reevaluates whether this is a successful policy or not. JPL head in-their-hands employees looking wistfully at their monitors are no longer cute or funny or sad. They own these failures along with President Clinton for cutting corners. This book, though describing one successful mission, actually becomes an insider's account how they dodged the bullets of risk in the fastest, cheapest, but clearly not the best way. Now every single Mars project and possibly a lot of other NASA projects are in mortal jepordy because of the project management philosophy described in this book. The authors can't have it both ways now. The whole world is watching. This book will be in the dollar or less bins at your local chain book store....and very soon...maybe before Christmas.