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4.0 out of 5 starsand shareholders are not satisfied with anything less than growth
ByIan Mannon April 11, 2017
Conversations I have with business leaders rapidly move to one common problem: The current business environment is brutal, and shareholders are not satisfied with anything less than growth.
The knee-jerk answer is to grow the bottom line by cutting costs, which usually means cutting jobs and squeezing suppliers further. However, as Tom Peters famously pointed out in 1997, “You can’t shrink your way to greatness.” You could not then, and you cannot now.
Clearly, if your strategy is flawed, nothing will help until that is problem is resolved. However, your strategy is essentially sound, the ideas driven organization could well be the full answer to your problems, or at least a substantial part of it. Let me repeat that: The central idea of this book could well be the full answer to your problems, or at least a substantial part of it.
The authors, Robinson and Schroeder are consultants, and lecturers. Between them, they have advised hundreds of organizations in more than twenty -five countries on how to improve their innovativeness and performance.
Their solution involves the very people that bear much of the burden of the problem – frontline employees. These people see many problems and opportunities that their managers do not, but organizations have very successfully suppressed their ideas rather than promoting them.
If managers were able to implement twenty, fifty, or even a hundred ideas per person per year, everything would change. If this sounds fantastical, it is not. Organization that have implemented processes to garner frontline employee’s ideas and then implement the best ones have shown spectacular growth, even in difficult trading conditions.
Dave Brailsford, director of British Cycling and manager of cycling’s Team Sky, was asked how the team managed to win seven out of a possible ten gold medals at the 2012 Olympics. He explained that it was not one critical thing that did it, rather it was “the aggregation of marginal gains,” – doing many things, just a little bit better.
This is true for business as well.
Traditionally, organizations have been directed and driven from the top. To achieve today, in this difficult environment, they need to be directed from the top, but are driven by ideas from the bottom.
You probably have a “Suggestion Box” somewhere, and most probably, it has yielded little. Perhaps you have held an organization wide contest for brilliant ideas with a fabulous prize or two that, similarly, yielded little.
As the authors point out, these idea-gathering processes are deeply flawed and rarely yield more than an implementable idea or two. There are many reasons for this. Gathering “suggestions” is simply that, suggestions which “the adults” will review decide on. It is based on the presumption that someone in head office is better able to decide on what is best for customers he has never met that is the deliveryman.
Additionally, the deliveryman is most unlikely to offer a suggestion to his superiors, many of whom would not take advice gracefully from a corporate inferior. Of course, many of the ideas that come from the front-line in idea forums are simply a waste of time and effort.
To garner many quality ideas requires the implementation of a well thought through process that addresses this multifaceted challenge.
In organizations where management lacks the humility to realise that their superior education and elevated positions do not make them experts on everything, failure is guaranteed. This is why there is a training element necessary if the organization is to be driven by ideas from the vast majority of staff who are not in head offices.
Irrelevant ideas that cannot be implemented are a very quick way of burying this initiative. There needs to be unequivocal clarity regarding what is being sought: Customer retention; increased margin; and increased turnover. This will have to be translated into relevant goals for each participating department.
For our deliveryman, this translates into finding ways to make the customers you deliver to happier. It means finding ways to save costs in delivery such as not wasting fuel and organizing your routes better. It entails looking for products the companies you deliver to could be buying from us.
When ideas come in, they need to be dealt with rapidly. There are few ways to demotivate a staff member faster than not having suggestions acted on.
The value of this book lies in two areas. The first is the description of idea-systems from organizations ranging from hospitality to hospitals, from services to manufacturing, and even from government. The second is the prescription for implementing this process in your organization. This is not a “paint-by-numbers” prescription, rather the steps in the process you will need to customise to your company.
If you have any doubts about the efficacy of this approach consider the results in one of many examples in the book. The Clarion-Stockholm is a four-star hotel in the centre of Stockholm. Staff routinely averages more than fifty ideas per year each. They have been trained to look for problems, and for opportunities to improve. While Sweden was feeling the impact of the global recession, the authors reported that they could not get rooms at the Clarion. The hotel was fully booked for most of the next nine months.
Based on their extensive experience, Robinson and Schroeder estimate that “some 80 percent of an organization’s potential for improvement lies in front-line ideas.” Even if they are only half right, this book deserves your immediate attention.
Readability Light -+--- Serious
Insights High -+--- Low
Practical High +---- Low
Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy and is the author of Strategy that Works
The knee-jerk answer is to grow the bottom line by cutting costs, which usually means cutting jobs and squeezing suppliers further. However, as Tom Peters famously pointed out in 1997, “You can’t shrink your way to greatness.” You could not then, and you cannot now.
Clearly, if your strategy is flawed, nothing will help until that is problem is resolved. However, your strategy is essentially sound, the ideas driven organization could well be the full answer to your problems, or at least a substantial part of it. Let me repeat that: The central idea of this book could well be the full answer to your problems, or at least a substantial part of it.
The authors, Robinson and Schroeder are consultants, and lecturers. Between them, they have advised hundreds of organizations in more than twenty -five countries on how to improve their innovativeness and performance.
Their solution involves the very people that bear much of the burden of the problem – frontline employees. These people see many problems and opportunities that their managers do not, but organizations have very successfully suppressed their ideas rather than promoting them.
If managers were able to implement twenty, fifty, or even a hundred ideas per person per year, everything would change. If this sounds fantastical, it is not. Organization that have implemented processes to garner frontline employee’s ideas and then implement the best ones have shown spectacular growth, even in difficult trading conditions.
Dave Brailsford, director of British Cycling and manager of cycling’s Team Sky, was asked how the team managed to win seven out of a possible ten gold medals at the 2012 Olympics. He explained that it was not one critical thing that did it, rather it was “the aggregation of marginal gains,” – doing many things, just a little bit better.
This is true for business as well.
Traditionally, organizations have been directed and driven from the top. To achieve today, in this difficult environment, they need to be directed from the top, but are driven by ideas from the bottom.
You probably have a “Suggestion Box” somewhere, and most probably, it has yielded little. Perhaps you have held an organization wide contest for brilliant ideas with a fabulous prize or two that, similarly, yielded little.
As the authors point out, these idea-gathering processes are deeply flawed and rarely yield more than an implementable idea or two. There are many reasons for this. Gathering “suggestions” is simply that, suggestions which “the adults” will review decide on. It is based on the presumption that someone in head office is better able to decide on what is best for customers he has never met that is the deliveryman.
Additionally, the deliveryman is most unlikely to offer a suggestion to his superiors, many of whom would not take advice gracefully from a corporate inferior. Of course, many of the ideas that come from the front-line in idea forums are simply a waste of time and effort.
To garner many quality ideas requires the implementation of a well thought through process that addresses this multifaceted challenge.
In organizations where management lacks the humility to realise that their superior education and elevated positions do not make them experts on everything, failure is guaranteed. This is why there is a training element necessary if the organization is to be driven by ideas from the vast majority of staff who are not in head offices.
Irrelevant ideas that cannot be implemented are a very quick way of burying this initiative. There needs to be unequivocal clarity regarding what is being sought: Customer retention; increased margin; and increased turnover. This will have to be translated into relevant goals for each participating department.
For our deliveryman, this translates into finding ways to make the customers you deliver to happier. It means finding ways to save costs in delivery such as not wasting fuel and organizing your routes better. It entails looking for products the companies you deliver to could be buying from us.
When ideas come in, they need to be dealt with rapidly. There are few ways to demotivate a staff member faster than not having suggestions acted on.
The value of this book lies in two areas. The first is the description of idea-systems from organizations ranging from hospitality to hospitals, from services to manufacturing, and even from government. The second is the prescription for implementing this process in your organization. This is not a “paint-by-numbers” prescription, rather the steps in the process you will need to customise to your company.
If you have any doubts about the efficacy of this approach consider the results in one of many examples in the book. The Clarion-Stockholm is a four-star hotel in the centre of Stockholm. Staff routinely averages more than fifty ideas per year each. They have been trained to look for problems, and for opportunities to improve. While Sweden was feeling the impact of the global recession, the authors reported that they could not get rooms at the Clarion. The hotel was fully booked for most of the next nine months.
Based on their extensive experience, Robinson and Schroeder estimate that “some 80 percent of an organization’s potential for improvement lies in front-line ideas.” Even if they are only half right, this book deserves your immediate attention.
Readability Light -+--- Serious
Insights High -+--- Low
Practical High +---- Low
Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy and is the author of Strategy that Works
Top critical review
One person found this helpful
3.0 out of 5 starsI really wanted to like this book more
ByMLelandon January 7, 2016
I really wanted to like this book more, and I was hoping for more specific steps to take to get more ideas from employees. But, the book was geared toward much larger companies, and there weren't many specific suggestions to help get more ideas.
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ByIan Mannon April 11, 2017
Conversations I have with business leaders rapidly move to one common problem: The current business environment is brutal, and shareholders are not satisfied with anything less than growth.
The knee-jerk answer is to grow the bottom line by cutting costs, which usually means cutting jobs and squeezing suppliers further. However, as Tom Peters famously pointed out in 1997, “You can’t shrink your way to greatness.” You could not then, and you cannot now.
Clearly, if your strategy is flawed, nothing will help until that is problem is resolved. However, your strategy is essentially sound, the ideas driven organization could well be the full answer to your problems, or at least a substantial part of it. Let me repeat that: The central idea of this book could well be the full answer to your problems, or at least a substantial part of it.
The authors, Robinson and Schroeder are consultants, and lecturers. Between them, they have advised hundreds of organizations in more than twenty -five countries on how to improve their innovativeness and performance.
Their solution involves the very people that bear much of the burden of the problem – frontline employees. These people see many problems and opportunities that their managers do not, but organizations have very successfully suppressed their ideas rather than promoting them.
If managers were able to implement twenty, fifty, or even a hundred ideas per person per year, everything would change. If this sounds fantastical, it is not. Organization that have implemented processes to garner frontline employee’s ideas and then implement the best ones have shown spectacular growth, even in difficult trading conditions.
Dave Brailsford, director of British Cycling and manager of cycling’s Team Sky, was asked how the team managed to win seven out of a possible ten gold medals at the 2012 Olympics. He explained that it was not one critical thing that did it, rather it was “the aggregation of marginal gains,” – doing many things, just a little bit better.
This is true for business as well.
Traditionally, organizations have been directed and driven from the top. To achieve today, in this difficult environment, they need to be directed from the top, but are driven by ideas from the bottom.
You probably have a “Suggestion Box” somewhere, and most probably, it has yielded little. Perhaps you have held an organization wide contest for brilliant ideas with a fabulous prize or two that, similarly, yielded little.
As the authors point out, these idea-gathering processes are deeply flawed and rarely yield more than an implementable idea or two. There are many reasons for this. Gathering “suggestions” is simply that, suggestions which “the adults” will review decide on. It is based on the presumption that someone in head office is better able to decide on what is best for customers he has never met that is the deliveryman.
Additionally, the deliveryman is most unlikely to offer a suggestion to his superiors, many of whom would not take advice gracefully from a corporate inferior. Of course, many of the ideas that come from the front-line in idea forums are simply a waste of time and effort.
To garner many quality ideas requires the implementation of a well thought through process that addresses this multifaceted challenge.
In organizations where management lacks the humility to realise that their superior education and elevated positions do not make them experts on everything, failure is guaranteed. This is why there is a training element necessary if the organization is to be driven by ideas from the vast majority of staff who are not in head offices.
Irrelevant ideas that cannot be implemented are a very quick way of burying this initiative. There needs to be unequivocal clarity regarding what is being sought: Customer retention; increased margin; and increased turnover. This will have to be translated into relevant goals for each participating department.
For our deliveryman, this translates into finding ways to make the customers you deliver to happier. It means finding ways to save costs in delivery such as not wasting fuel and organizing your routes better. It entails looking for products the companies you deliver to could be buying from us.
When ideas come in, they need to be dealt with rapidly. There are few ways to demotivate a staff member faster than not having suggestions acted on.
The value of this book lies in two areas. The first is the description of idea-systems from organizations ranging from hospitality to hospitals, from services to manufacturing, and even from government. The second is the prescription for implementing this process in your organization. This is not a “paint-by-numbers” prescription, rather the steps in the process you will need to customise to your company.
If you have any doubts about the efficacy of this approach consider the results in one of many examples in the book. The Clarion-Stockholm is a four-star hotel in the centre of Stockholm. Staff routinely averages more than fifty ideas per year each. They have been trained to look for problems, and for opportunities to improve. While Sweden was feeling the impact of the global recession, the authors reported that they could not get rooms at the Clarion. The hotel was fully booked for most of the next nine months.
Based on their extensive experience, Robinson and Schroeder estimate that “some 80 percent of an organization’s potential for improvement lies in front-line ideas.” Even if they are only half right, this book deserves your immediate attention.
Readability Light -+--- Serious
Insights High -+--- Low
Practical High +---- Low
Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy and is the author of Strategy that Works
The knee-jerk answer is to grow the bottom line by cutting costs, which usually means cutting jobs and squeezing suppliers further. However, as Tom Peters famously pointed out in 1997, “You can’t shrink your way to greatness.” You could not then, and you cannot now.
Clearly, if your strategy is flawed, nothing will help until that is problem is resolved. However, your strategy is essentially sound, the ideas driven organization could well be the full answer to your problems, or at least a substantial part of it. Let me repeat that: The central idea of this book could well be the full answer to your problems, or at least a substantial part of it.
The authors, Robinson and Schroeder are consultants, and lecturers. Between them, they have advised hundreds of organizations in more than twenty -five countries on how to improve their innovativeness and performance.
Their solution involves the very people that bear much of the burden of the problem – frontline employees. These people see many problems and opportunities that their managers do not, but organizations have very successfully suppressed their ideas rather than promoting them.
If managers were able to implement twenty, fifty, or even a hundred ideas per person per year, everything would change. If this sounds fantastical, it is not. Organization that have implemented processes to garner frontline employee’s ideas and then implement the best ones have shown spectacular growth, even in difficult trading conditions.
Dave Brailsford, director of British Cycling and manager of cycling’s Team Sky, was asked how the team managed to win seven out of a possible ten gold medals at the 2012 Olympics. He explained that it was not one critical thing that did it, rather it was “the aggregation of marginal gains,” – doing many things, just a little bit better.
This is true for business as well.
Traditionally, organizations have been directed and driven from the top. To achieve today, in this difficult environment, they need to be directed from the top, but are driven by ideas from the bottom.
You probably have a “Suggestion Box” somewhere, and most probably, it has yielded little. Perhaps you have held an organization wide contest for brilliant ideas with a fabulous prize or two that, similarly, yielded little.
As the authors point out, these idea-gathering processes are deeply flawed and rarely yield more than an implementable idea or two. There are many reasons for this. Gathering “suggestions” is simply that, suggestions which “the adults” will review decide on. It is based on the presumption that someone in head office is better able to decide on what is best for customers he has never met that is the deliveryman.
Additionally, the deliveryman is most unlikely to offer a suggestion to his superiors, many of whom would not take advice gracefully from a corporate inferior. Of course, many of the ideas that come from the front-line in idea forums are simply a waste of time and effort.
To garner many quality ideas requires the implementation of a well thought through process that addresses this multifaceted challenge.
In organizations where management lacks the humility to realise that their superior education and elevated positions do not make them experts on everything, failure is guaranteed. This is why there is a training element necessary if the organization is to be driven by ideas from the vast majority of staff who are not in head offices.
Irrelevant ideas that cannot be implemented are a very quick way of burying this initiative. There needs to be unequivocal clarity regarding what is being sought: Customer retention; increased margin; and increased turnover. This will have to be translated into relevant goals for each participating department.
For our deliveryman, this translates into finding ways to make the customers you deliver to happier. It means finding ways to save costs in delivery such as not wasting fuel and organizing your routes better. It entails looking for products the companies you deliver to could be buying from us.
When ideas come in, they need to be dealt with rapidly. There are few ways to demotivate a staff member faster than not having suggestions acted on.
The value of this book lies in two areas. The first is the description of idea-systems from organizations ranging from hospitality to hospitals, from services to manufacturing, and even from government. The second is the prescription for implementing this process in your organization. This is not a “paint-by-numbers” prescription, rather the steps in the process you will need to customise to your company.
If you have any doubts about the efficacy of this approach consider the results in one of many examples in the book. The Clarion-Stockholm is a four-star hotel in the centre of Stockholm. Staff routinely averages more than fifty ideas per year each. They have been trained to look for problems, and for opportunities to improve. While Sweden was feeling the impact of the global recession, the authors reported that they could not get rooms at the Clarion. The hotel was fully booked for most of the next nine months.
Based on their extensive experience, Robinson and Schroeder estimate that “some 80 percent of an organization’s potential for improvement lies in front-line ideas.” Even if they are only half right, this book deserves your immediate attention.
Readability Light -+--- Serious
Insights High -+--- Low
Practical High +---- Low
Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy and is the author of Strategy that Works
Helpful
Not Helpful
ByAmazon Customeron August 14, 2014
In un tempo in cui va di gran moda l'innovazione dirompente un libro che parla di innovazione dal basso, fatta da un lavoro costante e sostanzialmente incrementale da chi sta principalmente sull'ultimo miglio e meglio di altri può vedere i problemi (che di per sè costituiscono una fonte importantissima) e individuare soluzioni intelligenti.
Qui sta il bello di questo libro: una nutrita serie di casi che fanno riflettere e ispirano anche qualche idea da applicare.
Gli autori non mancano di criticare alcuni approcci strutturati e costosi (in primis six sigma) ampiamente superati a loro dire dal coinvolgimento dal basso capace di idee geniali che six sigma non è in grado di far emergere (celebre il caso Coca Cola).
Nel complesso un buon contributo a quella parte di innovazione, che spesso non si considera tale.
Restano tuttavia una serie di domande. Una soprattutto. Se, come il libro sostiene, l'organizzazione guidata dalle idee di miglioramento funziona così bene, come mai così poche aziende al mondo la adottano?
Qui sta il bello di questo libro: una nutrita serie di casi che fanno riflettere e ispirano anche qualche idea da applicare.
Gli autori non mancano di criticare alcuni approcci strutturati e costosi (in primis six sigma) ampiamente superati a loro dire dal coinvolgimento dal basso capace di idee geniali che six sigma non è in grado di far emergere (celebre il caso Coca Cola).
Nel complesso un buon contributo a quella parte di innovazione, che spesso non si considera tale.
Restano tuttavia una serie di domande. Una soprattutto. Se, come il libro sostiene, l'organizzazione guidata dalle idee di miglioramento funziona così bene, come mai così poche aziende al mondo la adottano?
ByBoby F.on October 3, 2014
This book introduces an employee idea system that is at a whole new level to any suggestion programs I have ever experienced. The successes of some of the companies implementing similar idea-driven programs are a real eye opener. I was amazed at companies getting more than 50 ideas per employee per year, some even more, and even more impressive is the implementation rates as high as 90% with 75-80% not uncommon. Everything is here including processes, and best practices for implementation.
This is a well-written easy read with a lot of facts and success stories that spark your imagination and desire to be part of an idea-driven organization.
This is a well-written easy read with a lot of facts and success stories that spark your imagination and desire to be part of an idea-driven organization.
ByMLelandon January 7, 2016
I really wanted to like this book more, and I was hoping for more specific steps to take to get more ideas from employees. But, the book was geared toward much larger companies, and there weren't many specific suggestions to help get more ideas.
ByHuy Hoangon July 14, 2018
A true gem if you run a company or a division. The book highlights the benefits of getting ideas from your front line staff to constantly improve your business. MUST READ!
ByRikus Grobleron September 12, 2017
As a practitioner in the field of organisational innovation through front-line employees, I found this book an indispensable resource. The authors' are the undisputed experts in this field and their insights and guidance comes from practical experience. Making innovation happen in any organisation is a challenging endeavor, this book will show you how. A must have for any organisational manager who wants to engage employees and tap into their creative potential.
BySebastian Rojason April 9, 2017
This book is a must for every company who is looking for succeed in the long term. The Frontline is the 80% of your company's secret power, here you will find a great tool to understand and implement a new way of work, for many managers a dangerous new way, but for the good of the shareholders the best way to get a greater company.
ByBeebson June 29, 2014
Dean Schroeder was a professor of mine at Valparaiso University. His values-based, no-easy-answers approach to employee empowerment is fleshed out beautifully here. Many of the lessons in the book are on their way to implementation at my company, one idea at a time.
ByAmazon Customeron August 27, 2016
Very much agreed with the philosophy of the book. Now I wish I could get out CEO to read it! and understand it!
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