Learning to See and Execution

Learning to See: Value Stream Mapping to Add Value and Eliminate MUDA

Author: Mike Rother

When John Shook worked at Toyota he noticed that the senior experts on the Toyota Production System often drew simple maps when on the shop floor. These maps showed the current physical flow of a product family and the information flow for that product family as they wound through a complex facility making many products.

Table of Contents:

Foreword by Jim Womack & Dan Jones
Introduction
Part I: Getting Started
What is Value Stream Mapping?
Material and Information Flow
Selecting a Product Family
The Value Stream Manager
Using the Mapping Tool

Part II: The Current-State Map
Drawing the Current-State Map
Your Turn

Part III: What Makes a Value Stream Lean?
Overproduction
Characteristics of a Lean Value Stream

Part IV: The Future-State Map
Drawing the Future-State Map
Your Turn

Part V: Achieving the Future State
Breaking Implementation Into Steps
The Value Stream Plan
Value Stream Improvement is Management's Job
Appendix A: Mapping Icons (also inside back cover)
Appendix B: Current-State Map For TWI Industries
Appendix C: Future-State Map For TWI Industries

Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

Author: Larry Bossidy

The book that shows how to get the job done and deliver results . . . whether you're running an entire company or in your first management job

Larry Bossidy is one of the world's most acclaimed CEOs, a man with few peers who has a track record for delivering results. Ram Charan is a legendary advisor to senior executives and boards of directors, a man with unparalleled insight into why some companies are successful and others are not. Together they've pooled their knowledge and experience into the one book on how to close the gap between results promised and results delivered that people in business need today.

After a long, stellar career with General Electric, Larry Bossidy transformed AlliedSignal into one of the world's most admired companies and was named CEO of the year in 1998 by Chief Executive magazine. Accomplishments such as 31 consecutive quarters of earnings-per-share growth of 13 percent or more didn't just happen; they resulted from the consistent practice of the discipline of execution: understanding how to link together people, strategy, and operations, the three core processes of every business.

Leading these processes is the real job of running a business, not formulating a "vision" and leaving the work of carrying it out to others. Bossidy and Charan show the importance of being deeply and passionately engaged in an organization and why robust dialogues about people, strategy, and operations result in a business based on intellectual honesty and realism.

The leader's most important job—selecting and appraising people—is one that should never be delegated. As a CEO, Larry Bossidy personally makes the calls to check references for key hires. Why? With the right people in the right jobs, there's a leadership gene pool that conceives and selects strategies that can be executed. People then work together to create a strategy building block by building block, a strategy in sync with the realities of the marketplace, the economy, and the competition. Once the right people and strategy are in place, they are then linked to an operating process that results in the implementation of specific programs and actions and that assigns accountability. This kind of effective operating process goes way beyond the typical budget exercise that looks into a rearview mirror to set its goals. It puts reality behind the numbers and is where the rubber meets the road.

Putting an execution culture in place is hard, but losing it is easy. In July 2001 Larry Bossidy was asked by the board of directors of Honeywell International (it had merged with AlliedSignal) to return and get the company back on track. He's been putting the ideas he writes about in Execution to work in real time.

Library Journal

Bossidy, an award-winning executive at General Electric and Allied Signal, came out of retirement to tend to Honeywell (and bring it back to prominence) after it failed to merge with General Electric. Charan has taught at Harvard and Kellogg Business Schools. Collaborating with editor and writer Burck, they present the viewpoint that execution (that is, linking a company's people, strategy, and operations) is what will determine success in today's business world. Bossidy and Charan aver that execution is a discipline integral to strategy, that it is the major job of any business leader hoping not just to be a success but to dominate a market, and that it is a core element of corporate culture. Details of both successful and unsuccessful executions at corporations such as Dell, Johnson & Johnson, and Xerox, to name a few, support not only their how-to method for bringing execution to the forefront but also the need for it. Each aut hor addresses specific topics in paragraphs that begin with either "Larry" or "Ram," and this easy style adds to the appeal of a very readable book. Recommended for academic and public libraries.-Steven J. Mayover, Philadelphia Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Soundview Executive Book Summaries

Execution is the discipline of getting things done, and according to CEO extraordinaire Larry Bossidy, it is the leader's most important job. He explains that, in order to turn AlliedSignal around from a disconnected company with no productivity culture to one with a ninefold return for shareholders, he needed to create a discipline of execution. Together with Ram Charan, a Harvard professor and respected business author, he turns his ample experience into a plan that links people, strategy and operations.

According to the authors, execution is built on three basic blocks. The first block is composed of seven essential leadership behaviors. These are:

1. Know your people and your business.
2. Insist on realism.
3. Set clear goals and priorities.
4. Follow through.
5. Reward the doers.
6. Expand people's capabilities.
7. Know yourself.

The next building block of execut ion involves creating the framework for cultural change within an organization. A culture is a group of people who share the same values, beliefs, and norms of behavior. The authors write that values need to be reinforced by the people at the highest levels of the company. People's beliefs are conditioned by training, experience, what they hear inside and outside about the company's prospects, and their perceptions of what leaders are saying and doing. The authors explain that beliefs can only be changed when new evidence persuades them that they are false. Behaviors are beliefs turned into action, and are what deliver results.

A company's competitive advantage depends on the behavioral norms of how people work together. To improve how people work together, and to change other behaviors, the authors write, rewards must be linked to performance. They write that a business's culture defines what gets appreciated, respected and rewarded. The authors explain that if a com pany wants to create a culture of change, it must reward and promote people for execution.

The authors write that the third building block of execution is based on the job that no leader should delegate. This is the task of finding the right people and putting them in the right places. The authors explain that this depends on being systematic and consistent when interviewing applicants, appraising employees, and developing employees by providing useful feedback.

Once these three building blocks are in place, a solid foundation has been build on which core processes can be operated and managed efficiently. The authors write that the most important of these core processes is the people process. Since the people in an organization make judgments about markets, create strategies based on those judgments, and translate those strategies into operations, if the right people are not in place, the potential of a business will never be realized. The authors write that th e key to finding the right people lies in whether individuals can handle the jobs of the future. Expertise in appraising and choosing the right people is developed through consistency of practice.

The next core process explored by the authors is the strategy process. This process is based on linking people with operations so customer preference can be won, sustainable competitive advantage can be created, and shareholders can get paid. According to the authors, a strategic plan should define a business's direction and position the organization to move in that direction. The authors write that this plan must start with identifying and defining the critical issues behind the strategy, and linking this strategy to people will add realism to it. The authors devote a chapter of Execution to the details of conducting a strategic review.

The operations process makes the link between strategy and people. The authors explain that an operating plan provides the path on w hich people can take the business where it wants to go. This process breaks long-term output into short-term targets. To meet these targets, the authors add, people must make decisions and integrate them across the organization, putting reality behind the numbers. The authors write that the leader is primarily responsible for overseeing the seamless transition from strategy to operations, setting operational goals, and leading operating reviews that bring people together around the operating plan.

Why Soundview Likes This Book
The authors of Execution get to the heart of a new theory of leadership and organization and provide crucial advice about how to improve the links between people, strategy and operations. By offering leaders ways with which they can improve individual processes, the authors create a detailed roadmap by which leaders can master the discipline of execution. Breaking down their ideas into succinct and vital components, and using r elevant examples from years of experience, they reveal many facets of operational excellence that can be applied to any business to create a clearer path to improved performance. Copyright (c) 2002 Soundview Executive Book Summaries

What People Are Saying

Michael Dell
If you want to be a CEO -- or if you are a CEO and want to keep your job -- read Execution and put its principles to work.
— Chairman and CEO, Dell Computer Corp.

Richard Schroeder
Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan define the true meaning of leadership from an implementation point of view. Larry is the expert on productivity in the world of business, and this book demonstrates how leadership is the key to achieving ongoing financial success.
— Co-founder of Six Sigma Academy

Ivan Seidenberg
Larry Bossidy recognizes how execution in a business defines the true greatness of a company. He captures a lifetime of building winning formulas and puts them in a simple and practical context for executives at any level. Read it!
— President and Co-CEO, Verizon

Michael Useem
For those managers who have struggled to make it happen, fix a problem, get it done -- or otherwise transform winning strategies into genuine results -- here's the missing medicine from two who know from long experience what works and what doesn't. Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan offer a compelling leadership prescription, and it comes down to realism, discipline, and above all, great execution.
— Professor of Management, Wharton School, U. of Pennsylvania

Ralph S. Larsen
The best thought-out plans in the world aren't worth the paper they're written on if you can't pull them off. And that's what this book is all about. Execution is well written and gives sound, practical advice about how to make things happen. It is well worth the reading.
—Chairman and CEO, Johnson & Johnson

R. L. Raymond
Good practical insight and advice on managing for results at firms of any size. Execution is key, and this book clearly explains what it means and how it brings together the critical elements of any organization -- its people, strategies, and operations.
— Chairman and CEO, Exxon Mobil

Jack Welch
A great practitioner and an insightful theorist join forces to write a compelling business story of 'how to get it done

Table of Contents:

	Introduction	1
Pt. I	Why Execution is Needed
1	The Gap Nobody Knows	13
2	The Execution Difference	35
Pt. II	The Building Blocks of Execution
3	Building Block One: The Leader's Seven Essential Behaviors	57
4	Building Block Two: Creating the Framework for Cultural Change	85
5	Building Block Three: The Job No Leader Should Delegate - Having the Right People in the Right Place	109
Pt. III	The Three Core Processes of Execution
6	The People Process: Making the Link with Strategy and Operations	141
7	The Strategy Process: Making the Link with People and Operations	178
8	How to Conduct a Strategy Review	207
9	The Operations Process: Making the Link with Strategy and People	226
	Conclusion: Letter to a New Leader	265
	Index	271