The Productive Edge: A New Strategy For Economic Growth [Paperback]

Richard K. Lester (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2000

What is it about some American industries that has allowed them to make significant new productivity gains and thus gain "the productive edge"? Lester searches five success stories for clues to shape a new strategy for economic growth in the volatile economy of the future.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The Productive Edge, by Richard K. Lester and his team at MIT, points to the need for flexible and 'creative' organizations in the fast-moving global markets of the 21st century. American industry, which has an amazing capacity to reinvent itself, would do well to study this book and implement its recommendations. -- Gordon E. Forward, President and Chief Executive Officer, Chapparral Steel

A fascinating tale of America's industrial comeback--how it happened, where it happened, and what must be done to make it last. -- Jeffrey E. Garten, dean of the Yale School of Management

A nation's standard of living depends mainly on its own productivity. Richard Lester takes a fresh and penetrating look at how some American firms have turned themselves into highly productive competitors. There are vital lessons here for everyone. -- Robert M. Solow, Institute Professor of Economics, Emeritus, MIT; Nobel Laureate, 1987

An important book on a critical issue by a particularly clear writer and thinker. Anyone interested in America's future competitiveness in world markets should read Richard Lester's thoughts on productivity, and discover why this measure of industry is the key to continued economic success. -- William Spencer, Chairman, SEMATECH

At this point in the nation's overenthusiastic public conversation, it is refreshing to hear several cogent ideas, free of the customary bombast, about how we can genuinely improve matters. -- Jeff Madrick, The New York Times Book Review

If you want to understand the fundamentals of America's economic and competitive status, where it's been, and where it could (and should) be headed, this book is required reading. Lester has written a stunningly readable book, the single best source I know of about the issues and dilemmas facing U.S. industry as it approaches the millenium. -- Warren Bennis, author of Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration

From the Author

Living with Ambiguity: A New Agenda for Economic Growth. "The scare over 'economic insecurity' in the mid-1990s was no chimera. It was rooted in real and fundamental changes in the nature of the economy. To dispel it will take more than the expansion phase of one business cycle. Rather, our society must accept the inevitability of a significantly higher level of economic ambiguity and volatility than in even the recent past; we need to recognize that this will be a normal condition of our economic existence for the foreseeable future. The challenge is to find a way to grow and flourish in such an environment, rather than just wishing it away. As I will try to show in this book, success will require a basic rethinking of many of our most cherished business practices and public policies-- a formidable task that is only just beginning." -- from the Introduction by Richard K. Lester, May 13, 1998.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc. (January 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393320383
• ISBN-13: 978-0393320381
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,911,420 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Richard K. Lester is Japan Steel Industry Professor and Head of the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering (NSE) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he is also the founding director of the MIT Industrial Performance Center (IPC). His teaching and research focus on innovation management and policy, with an emphasis on the energy and manufacturing sectors. He has led large-scale studies of national and regional competitiveness and innovation performance in North America, Europe, and Asia. He has also written extensively on the management and control of nuclear technology. In addition to his latest book, Unlocking Energy Innovation, other recent books include Innovation - The Missing Dimension (with Michael J. Piore), on the sources of creativity and innovation in advanced economies, and Making Technology Work, based on a popular MIT course on "Applications of Technology in Energy and the Environment" he co-taught for many years with his colleague John M. Deutch.