Customer Reviews

Less Is More: How Great Companies Use Productivity

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Perhaps because of, or even in spite of, positive reviews aplenty from other Amazon reviewers, I found this book disappointing and confusing. A comment in the Introduction caught my attention. Jennings writes "we were eager to avoid Tom Peters' embarrassment when a number of excellent companies sagged badly soon after publication..." Quick Google searches on three (there were more companies; I just did three) Jennings-commended companies (The Warehouse, Ryanair, and Nucor) read more like embarrassments as well.

To be specific:

The June 4, 2003 New Zealand Herald reported that "The Warehouse founder Stephen Tindall has stepped back into the company's day-to-day operations, leading a scheme dubbed Project Urgency to fix its Australian problems. ... Tindall is leading Project Urgency. Its aim, as the name suggests, is to give the Australian operation a rapid makeover."

At the same time, Ryanair had its own problems. Per the web report: "Europe's fast-growing low-fare airline, dropped as much as 14.7 percent Tuesday after the low-fare airline said it expects lower fares and yields this year will pressure its profit margin." The book may provide an explanation: Jennings lauds attention to customer service and satisfaction and chastises those who fail to respond to customers. As Jennings ironically notes: "Other than cheap airfares, customer service at Ryanair is nonexistent." Queried by Times of London reporter as to the paper receiving "more complaints concerning Ryanair's customer service than any other airline," Ryanair's CEO response: "We don't screw them every time we fly them." Nice attitude.

A third featured company, Nucor, also turned south about the time Jennings went to press: Nucor's stock price dropped by half between mid 2002 and early 2003.

There is more I found unsettling: Jennings repeats canards about "eggs and ham" (the chicken's involvement and the pig's commitment), about showing prospects a heavenly version of product yet delivering hell, and about decentralizing fireworks production (avoiding one big explosion). He mimics Jim Collins's "Get the right people on the bus." He follows Peter Drucker's ideas to produce the anagram, WTGBRFDT ("What's the good business reason for doing this?"). And Edwards Deming must be spinning in his grave when he reads Jennings: "The objective is to perform the task with zero variation." (p.129)

The all-too-flattering biographies and profiles remind me of Fast Company or Inc. pieces. The book concludes with a self-congratulatory chapter recommending of Jennings' previous work, an epilogue featuring Jennings' personal trainer, and a lengthy section of acknowledgements that consists of name dropping more than links to research help. He commends his research team of recent graduates of Stanford, Princeton, and Berkeley yet he offers no systematic research, data, tables, graphs, analyses or standards. Jennings has a lot of ideas and inspiration, but little is substantiated. And, in another twist, the book is about more (productivity, profits, revenue per employee), not less. The final product is a watered down amalgam of "In search of excellence" and several other popular business authors and books.

This is the second of two books by Jennings which I have recently read, the other being It's Not the Big That Eat the Small...It's the Fast That Eat the Slow. His focus in this volume is on eight companies which "use productivity as a competitive tool in business." He set out to learn how they got that way and which lessons can be learned from them which "any company could follow." He and his research associates examined more than 4,000 companies, settled on a short list of 100, and then reduced it to the top eight outstanding performers. The criteria for evaluation and selection included revenue per employee, return on equity, return on assets, and operating income per employee. Next, questions were posed such as "Has the company been overexposed?" and "Might this company pull an Enron?"

Prior to the final selection, several pit bulls (cleverly disguised as CPAs) sank their teeth into the companies' public data with the admonition to "take it apart, put it back together again, and provide as much assurance as possible that each of the companies was strong and likely to endure." Here are the eight: IKEA, Lantech, Nucor, Ryanair, SRC Holdings, World Savings, Yellow Freight, and The Warehouse. When discussing them, Jennings focuses with meticulous on issues such as these:

* Tactics which are most effective when selling "the BIG idea" (strategy) to an organization (pages 23-35)

* Action steps which will "drive a stake through the heart of bureaucracy" (pages 66-68)

* The undesirable consequences of balancing the books by resorting to layoffs (pages 84-86)

* The meaning of WTGBRFDT and why effective use of it is essential to the success of any organization (pages 106-113)

* The proper role of the accounting and financial reporting functions (pages 115-121)

* How to "systematize everything" (pages 127-132

NOTE: While being interviewed by Mike Litman, Michael Gerber (author of various "E-Myth" books) observes that Ray Kroc and other entrepreneurs such as Fred Smith created "an absolutely impeccable turnkey system that would replicate the results [he and they] wanted no matter how many stores he opened up. No matter how many trucks Federal Express has got out there in the street...The real work is to create a system through which your company can absolutely differentiate itself from every other company in the world because it's able to do what it does impeccably, infallibly, every time."

* Principles which highly productive companies employ to achieve continuous improvement (pages 147-153)

* "Ruthless and strict" criteria by which to evaluate technological initiatives (pages 182-184)

* Sequential initiatives which to permanently motivate a workforce (pages 200-204)

* Traits required for a leader of a highly productive enterprise (pages 215-227)

* "Twelve Rules for Doing More with Less" (pages 234-235)

These are not checklists. On the contrary, each of these passages consists of a probing and eloquent analysis. By this process Jennings reveals the "lessons" to which I referred earlier. All of these lessons are directly relevant to all organizations (regardless of size and nature) and can effectively applied IF (huge "if") those who read this book select an appropriate course of action from among the four options Jennings identifies on page 232. If nothing else, each reader can model herself or himself after the principles and traits of the most productive companies and their leaders.

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to Jennings' previously published book as well as Bossidy and Charan's Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, Coffman and Gonzalez-Molina's Follow This Path, and Kaplan and Norton's The Strategy-Focused Organization.

A great study of how business should be run. Stay true to yourself, your employees and your customers and success will be yours. This book highlights companies from widely ranging industries and shows that "common sense" always trumps complicated process. If you read Jennings's first book, you will thoroughly enjoy this one. An easy and entertaining read. This book does what most don't.....get you thinking and start applying paradigm shifting practice right away.
In the age of ENRON, MCI, Arthur Anderson and the DOTCOM bust, this book proves that the true maxums of successful and long lasting business have always applied. Truth, Honesty, and Integrity.

My preconception about this book was that it would be the usual stuff of cutbacks and running lean operations. I found to my delight a very entertaining, quite well written account of a number of real world success stories, companies that far exceed their respective industries' performance standards by staying focused on what is really important. The example companies apply the most striking logic and simplicity in the tests and standards they apply to themselves and their businesses. And as for cutbacks, the book makes clear that cutbacks are just not part and parcel of companies that have shown over time they know what they are doing and where they are going. These top performers ask what resources they need and then execute flawlessly in ways, as recounted by Jason Jennings, that increase your awareness as to what is truly important in business today. Read for yourself and draw your own conclusions, but I can assure you it will make you think about what passes for conventional business wisdom. Thumbs up from this reviewer.

When Fast Company Magazine reviewed this book and called it the new In Search Of Excellence I bought it immediately and I agree with their review. Jennings has taken eight of the most productive companies in the world - newly discovered companies that haven't been written about to death - and shares their operating secrets. For me the three most important lessons were: the role of systems in every aspect of every business, the negative role that lay-offs play in businesses trying to be more productive and the way that productive businesses use `drivers' to manage their businesses not financial statements. The examples he uses are compelling and the book is a page-turner. His stories about Ryanair, World Savings and IKEA are priceless. I'd recommend this book to anyone who owns a business, manages a business or aspires to own or manage. It's a must read. Jennings just keeps churning out one hit after another.

Jason Jennings latest book, Less Is More, has two very rare features that establish it as a classic, head-and-shoulders above other books in this category.

The first outstanding item is easy to spot: the writing style is incisive and entertaining. When was the last time you read a book about business productivity that you thoroughly enjoyed? Even those completely unfamiliar with business tactics, financial statements and the like will find this book not only understandable but as easy to read as great fiction. And those with no background in business may be inspired to learn more, as Jennings advocates for all employees.

The second rarity is the unflinching dedication to humility, respect for the work team, and adherence to building a culture of honesty. In the aftermath of the Enron & WorldCom scandals, we need a return to basic values and simplicity. The blueprint is here in this book.

Jennings reads his book on the unabridged audiocassette. He definitely has an announcers voice and is easy to understand. I found his inflections sort of larger-than-life/not natural at first but I quickly got acclimated, not a big issue. The book is fairly long and repeats many important themes like the need for healthy culture, process and vision in many different ways. It might be able to be shorter.

The research method Jennings and his team utilized for the book is the driver that makes the book so interesting. By carrying out detailed analysis to locate several under-the-radar, but incredibly productive companies, they managed to isolate some of the common threads for corporate success without being sucked into the vortex of large mega-companies whose stories are already well known and perhaps over-documented. The companies chosen represent a fairly good cross-section of international business, but I would have like to have seen at least one very high tech computer vendor make the cut. There are probably good reasons why there wasn't one, but there was no mention of this if my memory serves... In addition to the excellent research on the case companies, there are also some good insights into legendary companies like Ford and Toyota briefly provided for specific instances.

The significant flaw in this book is that when it is taken as a whole, it amounts to not much more than a very interesting, carefully crafted, indictment of most executive management in corporations today. The executives profiled all really know the nuts and bolts of their business and have been with them long enough to really cast Deming-like vision into reality. That plays well for well a while, but with 6 tapes, I'd like something more practical I can start at work tomorrow since I'm not an executive and probably never will be. The book does try to service this need for mid-managers like me towards the end of the book by encouraging that we apply at least some of the key principles to some degree in the hope of making a grass roots difference at least within our department. Actually, the department I work with abides by many of the principles given and they do help. But that doesn't stop large-scale lay-offs, frozen budgets and other realities that most managers really have to live with. The book's untitled theme is that strong success only flows from the top down. In the highly successful cases analyzed, each has exceptional Level 5 leaders (to use Jim Collins terminology). What if where I work is like 90% of all places where the executives turn-over a lot, are forced to optimize all decisions for short-term profit on Wall Street and de-rail some good plans due to economic realities? The book's primary advice to me would seem to be: go to work somewhere else, find that 10% club. Maybe true, but not particularly helpful today.

Even for those top-level executives whom this book will reach, it is likely to fall on deaf ears. Not because executives really are the "wing tip shoe wearers, peacock strutting" jerks Jennings occasionally alludes to. No, it is Jennings own inflammatory and derisive language that will tend to make executives shut the book. I wanted to lend my tapes to the president of my company because of the good macro-productivity ideas, but decided I wouldn't because he might take it as my endorsement of this class-warfare attitude.

There are other sources out there for most of the information here on egalitarian culture, continuous process improvement, open-book management, profit sharing incentives, etc. I'd be interested to know the average working hours of the employees in the case study companies as a cultural factor but I don't recall this being mentioned. In any case, the productivity measures would factor this in, just a cultural question I have about these companies.

Much of what Jennings says is true and interesting. There are some things that can be learned here, but much of it comes down to re-invent almost everything, starting with your executives. Who can implement that? Again, it is the detailed case study research that puts compelling value into this book.

This is one of the best books on what makes a great company great that I have ever read. Jennings has hit on an area that no other business author has ever really attempted. Less is More is a very well organized book that is easy to read and not just a lot of unrelated ideas , but a clear concise outline of how to make your company more productive. After reading Jason Jenning's book, any business owner or CEO, no matter how large or small their company, should be able to grasp on to some of these words of wisdom to make his or her business a lot more productive and therefore a lot more profitable. I know that it is going to help me.

Addition by subtraction is what this book is really about! It supports in great detail the setting aside of the manusia that organizations get caught up in that demonstrates how most get in the way of their own potential and consistent success and growth over time. It is about the simple, not rocket science, "SOUL" that should guide and drive your business every day. The book gives example after example of the common denominators that have allowed top performing organizations to vastly outperform other companies in their industries each and every day over many many years. Every manager and employee in your organization should have a copy of this book. When inspired porductivity drives everyone in your organization the sky is the limit!

Less really is more!

Onward and Upward!

John Cassidy - CEO Sierra Central Credit Union

I read this book in one sitting, and am going to return to it again and again. The style of writing is not only easy to read, but more importantly, the messages are simple yet profound. It is not often that I have read a book that from the first few pages gave me an insight into something that I had almost taken for granted. The concept of productivity is both easy and complex and Mr. Jennings has done what few authors are able to do and that is make the complex simple. Every owner of a business has to read this book. It is not filled with platitudes that sound good, it is filled with ideas and insights that can change a business and a life. I highly recommend it.