Driving Change: How the Best Companies Are Preparing for the 21st Century (Hardcover)

by Jeremy Main (Author), Jerry Wind (Author) "Unflattering descriptions of the corporation abound..." (more)
Key Phrases: classic corporation, next enterprise, boundaryless behavior, United States, General Motors, Levi Strauss (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Managers trying to cope with an endlessly changing marketplace will find comfort in this study by University of Pennsylvania Business School professor Wind and freelancer Main, who point out how technology and information are forcing the world to move ever faster, which, they underscore, has always been the case. In today's environment, companies are still learning how to adapt to the steadily shifting landscape dictated by tiny market niches, instantaneous communications and more demanding customers, they stress. Instead of offering a "silver bullet" solution, the authors of this often entertaining book present snapshots from the business evolution, focusing on the strategies of such companies as VISA, Hi-Bred, Xerox and AT&T. Pioneer, they show, has created a global net linking its 35,000 consultants; General Electric has instituted the "work out" that brings together the staff closest to a particular job to search for a "better way" of accomplishing their tasks. The book's approach, which allows readers to find ideas that are likely to work for them and their companies, is useful.

Copyright 1997 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review
Every generation likes to believe that it belongs to a time of unique challenge, discovery and change. The phenomenon 'change' has been in management-speak for decades, and is the subject of many texts from management gurus such as Peter Drucker and Tom Peters. Two academics from the highly acclaimed Wharton School of Business, Wind and Main bring us another book on change. So what distinguishes Driving Change from all the other business books on the bookshelf? This is a highly readable guide to the qualities that all corporations will need to survive and prosper in the 21st century. Based on eight years of in-depth research covering the real-world experiences of many of the Fortune 500 companies, it manages to pull away from academic theory and classroom debates to explain why the classic 20th-century corporation isn't suited to the 21st century. They argue that corporations will need to be flexible, learn fast, think quickly and act globally as well as be customer-focused, cyberspace-orientated, value creators and encourage employees to make decisions, in order to survive and prosper in the new millennium. The book is neatly divided into four parts, guiding the reader through the classic logic from 'where we are now' to 'where we want to be'. Each part is further segregated into chapters. Chapter by chapter, the authors describe the experiences of companies that put new ideas into action, what went wrong, what went right, and the lessons they learnt. Each chapter wraps up with pointers, links and cautions to make an integrated and structured approach to instituting change. An excellent book which keeps the attention, brimming with sound advice and superb examples. (Kirkus UK) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; 1st Edition: 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 edition (January 22, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684827441
• ISBN-13: 978-0684827445
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,106,884 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars More like a textbook. Meanders a lot. Worth collecting., April 17, 2003

By	Harinath Thummalapalli (Austin, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Driving Change : How the Best Companies Are Preparing for the 21st Century (Hardcover)

If you are looking for a good management book that will present a new paradigm or will change the way you think, this book IS NOT for you. If you love management books, and find historical information about great companies and anecdotes within these companies, this book will nicely add to your collection.

The book was written before 1998 and was aimed at giving a picture of how the best companies of the time were getting ready to face the 21st century. To give you an idea of how well the book succeeded in predicting the future - the word 'Internet' is mentioned on ONLY 9 pages in the entire 350 page book. Of course, the inability to accurately predict the future and especially a sudden change brought about by something like the Internet is forgivable. The authors combine the Internet with a general section on Information Technology and its impact on the future.

The book makes for an interesting read though. It is packed with quotations, little known but interesting facts about big businesses, deep insights into what the leaders at the time were thinking (at companies like Ford, GM etc.), and commonsense management advice. Evertime I picked up the book, I got the distinct feeling that the authors didn't have a real point to make, but at the same time, I couldn't put down the book as I was fascinated by everything they found in their research.

There are not only references but also discussion of famous books by other authors, like 'Reengineering the Corporation' by Michael Hammer & James Champy. The authors throw some cleverly disguised aspersions on the authors of these other books.

The book is split into four parts (taken directly from the introduction and a really good summary of the whole book) -

1. The first part describes the drivers of change - the obsolescence of the old corporation, the eruption of information technology, globalization, the new intensity of competition, society's expectations, and customers' expectations.

2. The second part describes how the new enterprise is reshaping the way business views people, including the customer, the leader, and the employee.

3. The third part analyzes how companies are using the new tools they have in information technology, innovation, speed, and quality.

4. The fourth part takes up the changes in the corporation itself, how companies are becoming global, how they network, how they learn, how they can best respond to society's demands, how they can redesign their architecture.

Bottom line, if you are interested in curious facts and little known information about famous companies, this book would serve quite well for that purpose. I am still enjoying my many sessions with this book learning about all these companies. This is one of those books that you won't feel like throwing away. It has that endearing quality to it. But don't expect to learn something revolutionary in this book that will change your future. It's just a fun management book to read.

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Research-based book in blizzard organizational change pubs., March 30, 1999

By A Customer

This book: describes the drivers of change; examines how the new enterprise views people; analyzes how companies are using new tools in information technology, innovation, speed and quality; and explores how organizations are changing. Chapters end with highlights that prove very helpful to serious readers with limited time.

The discussion about organizational drivers of change is based on research findings, which makes this book not only interesting but credible in a blizzard of publications spewing forth about organizational change. Given all these books on this subject, many based on the thin ice of one person's experiences in a few enterprises, a research-based work is appreciated. Reviewed by Gerry Stern, founder, Stern & Associates, author of Stern's Sourcefinder: The Master Directory to HR and Business Management Information & Resources, Stern's CyberSpace SourceFinder, and Stern's Compensation and Benefits SourceFinder.

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The definitive book on business organisations of the future, October 22, 1998

By	[e-mail] (Mumbai, India) - See all my reviews

The book is extremely well researched and thorough and is not blase enough to put forth a framework. Where it succeeds is by putting forth what the most successful companies are doing to prepare themselves for the next century in all aspects of their operations