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True or false? "America is falling behind in world competition". The surprise answer is "false". Recent research on industrialized nations shows that American workers outproduce workers in Germany and France by 20 percent, workers in Britain by over 30 percent, and Japanese workers by over 60 percent. The reason has nothing to do with technology, worker attitude, or worker skill. In this incisive, anecdotal book Robert H. Waterman, Jr., looks at some of the best American firms and concludes that the key to strategic advantage is organization: they are organized to focus on the things that motivate their own people, and organized to anticipate customer needs. Waterman's crisp case studies give us an insider's view of why these firms are so good. For example, we'll see how Procter & Gamble gets a productivity advantage of 30-40 percent through a work force that's essentially self-managing. (Procter & Gamble developed this system over thirty years ago and considered it so strategic that they wouldn't talk about it until now.) We'll see how a set of strongly held, shared values - not strategy - built the AES Corporation from a start-up eleven years ago to a company whose market value today is close to $1.7 billion. Waterman also gives us an in-depth look at how companies such as Merck and Rubbermaid maintain a strategic edge through raw innovation. In 1993 Rubbermaid invented 365 new products, one for every day of the year. How did they manage it? Waterman's argument is firmly grounded in specific details and in firsthand observation. But his message about American competitiveness transcends any particular case history or industry. All of us can learn from the example of these firms that inone way or another strike out into new frontiers of excellence.

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Library Journal Review

Waterman's purpose here is to examine and understand how and why certain American firms have fared so well over the years, organizationally and structurally. The companies he studied include Procter & Gamble, Motorola, Federal Express, Levi Strauss, Rubbermaid, and Merck. Waterman (coauthor, with Tom Peters, of In Search of Excellence , LJ 2/15/83) believes that these corporations share a commitment to organizing in ways that treat employees and customers fairly. He acknowledges the similarity between the theme of this book and his earlier ones, but he does succeed in providing a more detailed profile of each company than he did previously. The book is readable, and Waterman's decision to interview employees from all levels of an organization and to include comments from dissenters is a definite strength. Recommended for public libraries.-- Mark McCullough, Heterick Lib., Ohio Northern Univ., Ada (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Waterman, coauthor of In Search of Excellence , here illuminates ``why a handful of widely admired American firms do so well'' and why ``some giant companies . . . stumble badly.'' He argues that firms excel by building coherent, clearly defined cultures. A successful company creates ``shared values that give its people a sense of purpose,'' while eschewing bureaucratic organizational charts, job descriptions, written policies and other strictures that might restrain employee initiative. The author relies heavily on case studies of company strategies that he defines as great, including Federal Express's people-first philosophy, Merck's investment in intellectual capital and other guideposts from Levi Strauss, Proctor & Gamble, Rubbermaid and Motorola. Waterman's anecdotal lessons from the best methodologies is outstanding, like the rest of this book. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

CHOICE Review

One of the nation's best-known management authors, Waterman illustrates his key recommendations with many actual case examples. The organizations examined in the cases represent a variety of American firms and include small, lesser-known ones as well as the usual large company examples. Based on these studies, Waterman concludes that strategic advantage can best be achieved by organizing to anticipate and meet customer needs and to focus on the motivation of people within the organization. In his view, the command-and-control view of management is not only pass'e; it simply is not effective anymore. The examples are written in a lively, engaging style that is understandable and transferable to managers' decisions. A necessary addition to corporate and public libraries, and a useful addition to academic collections as well. Upper-division undergraduate through professional. L. J. Cumbo; Emory and Henry College

Booklist Review

Just over 10 years ago, Waterman coauthored with Torn Peters the tremendously successful In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies (1982). In this similar work, he pursues a main theme of the earlier one: American companies will prevail in the global economy because the best of them know the importance of putting people (both employees and customers) first. Here, instead of using examples from a number of companies as he and Peters did earlier, he provides in-depth profiles of Proctor & Gamble, Federal Express, Motorola, Merck, Rubbermaid, Levi Strauss, Applied Energy Services, a public school in the Bronx, and a surgical clinic in Vail, Colorado. Waterman shows how each of them has been uniquely successful by organizing in order to recognize, understand, and meet the needs of its people. Although this idea is not new--for example, Charles Garfield says the same thing in Second to None: How Our Smartest Companies Put People First (1992)--Waterman's association with Torn Peters, his detailed portraits, and his "feel good" title should create demand. ~--David Rouse