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)

~ (Author) "The ability to perform a task in the prescribed mannerFlawless Executionis one of the most daunting yet vitally important missions facing corporate America today..." (more)
Key Phrases: Papa John, Desert Storm, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

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.

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: Harper Paperbacks (May 23, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060834161
• ISBN-13: 978-0060834166
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #151,125 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 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.

7 of 8 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!

4.0 out of 5 stars Incredible Insight On Execution, October 11, 2009

By	John H. Boudreau (Warwick, RI USA) - 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 (Paperback)

This book has provided some incredible insight regarding some challenges that many companies face when trying to execute a mission or business plan. It's give me some great ideas on how to improve my company and help my employees execute thier "missions". I've used the book as the basis of some of my blog posts at [...].