Transforming the Bottom Line

Presents an agenda for organizational transformation achieved by focusing on seven key imperatives: cutting the workload, not the workforce; managing performance by measuring value-adding work; developing a horizontal team-based organization; aligning performance measures with strategy; selling profitable products and services; finding and retaining profitable customers; and implementing a horizontal information system. By distilling the work of such scholars as C.K. Prahalad, Gary Hamel, and Jeffrey Pfeffer, the book provides managers with a useful synthesis of these important and cutting-edge ideas. In addition, the authors contribute a model of a horizontal information system that provides managers with the "real numbers." Arguing that better management information, more relevant performance measures, and more thoughtful reward systems can change management behavior, support strategy, and transform the bottom line, the authors pose a hypothetical case in which this new horizontal information system is enacted.