As a manager who wants to attain, maintain, or reclaim a competitive position in the hotly contested and ever-changing marketplace, your goal is clear. Terrified of being the "hunted" -- in peril of being destroyed or devoured by your competitors you want to know how to once again become a "hunter." But the myriad improvement strategies that sound great in theory don't always work in practice, and they don't take into account the realities of your workplace.

Through an unusual and provocative blend of fact and fiction, Jim Swartz puts you inside the transformation process itself - inside the heads of those who, finding themselves among the hunted, realize they must change the fundamental way they do business. He makes it clear why reorganization, decentralization, de-layering, continuous improvement, benchmarking, and participative management are helpful tools but fall short of tackling the real enemy.

In this engaging business novel, you'll travel with Marcus, the "Master Guardian" who has been helping businesses in trouble for 1400 years, as he trains two guardian recruits: Lou, a tough steel company manager long on experience with the old ways, and Laura, a Harvard MBA with a global view and no industrial experience. Come along as they visit great business hunters past and present and become aware of the fatal corporate mindsets, mental models, and measures that doom many companies to a life of retreat and restructuring. By visiting turnaround companies, you'll learn new business process models that dramatically reduced costs, improved performance and product quality, and made these companies the fastest responding suppliers in the world.

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I recommend reading "Lean Thinking" instead. You'll get all of the same important concepts without the need for literary corn-husking.

3 of 4 found the following review helpful:

Do you like to hunt, or be hunted?Sep 25, 2000
By Guillermo Vellenaweth
This book is just amazing, since it explains how American companies thought of themselves to be the best of the best, and saw no competition on the asian companies. Later on, in the late seventies and early eighties, american companies began a desperate rush to improve. It is written in a way that may remind you of Ellie GOldratt's "The goal". This book tells you what to do, but not how to, which I found to be one of it's biggest assets, because there is no better way to learn something, than doing it by yourself. It is a must to read by anyone who is on the upper levels of managemnet in a company, it will help you develop a new vision of what is the purpose of having a mangement on an agressive company.

An education in basic business and breakthrough solutionsDec 01, 2004
By Alan
Read this on the recommendation of an exceptional Materials Manager. While the format does take a little longer to get to the heart of non-linear solutions, the author provides a sense of what really separates good business practices from poor business practices, exceptional people from average people and the hunters from the hunted. The history that is included puts into perspective not just what you do to improve the business, but how to go about it (or how others have gone about it). Another important piece of information for the reader is that, what have been historic breakthroughs were arrived at through a combination of progressive thinking, and trial and error. It's not because a brilliant light just appeared. Highly recommend this book.