Deengineering the Corporation: Leading Growth from Within

Berger, in his typical style, attacks the issues head on. He cuts through the nonsense and identifies the fundamentals that organizations must address from within in order to get on a growth curve. His concise thinking is reflected in the roadmap for change that is laid out, and the mini case studies provide excellent examples of how real life companies have successfully applied the principles that Berger outlines in the first half of the book.

This book by Lance Berger, Martin Sikora, and Dorothy Berger reminds us that many of the solutions to issues within a business reside within its organization. The job of the CEO is to create a corporate culture and work environment where all employees feel ownership and influence in that part of the business for which they are responsible, and to encourage dialogue between senior management and the people who do the work every day.Today, it is popular to rely on RAICers (reengineering academic industrial consultants complex) to design and implement new business strategies and a new organizational design based on the latest fad or cure-all. The authors caution that getting an outside view has its place, but is not a substitute for tapping the knowledge of your internal resources.The authors present their road map for identifying change triggers which require reassessment of strategy. They also provide a blueprint for building a change responsive organization and developing change responsive people. Most interesting are vignettes of companies and their executives who faced an internal or external change trigger, leading to a major change initiative. I found these vignettes very useful in that they described real situations and how these executives addressed them.

Deengineering The Corporation is a refreshing change from the usual business school texts or the popular "we know how to fix your business" manuals. It is a practical how-to; must reading for corporate executives, as well as those just entering the workplace. It offers simple, easy to understand strategies and presents compelling arguments for why growth is best managed from within. As I prepare to take a one-year sabbatical beginning January, I was especially interested in the sections on developing exit strategies at all levels of the organization. Additionally, the personal vignettes of the featured CEOs/COOs reinforced the book's premise that when companies take charge of and design their own leadership responses, success is more likely to follow.

Whenever there is a management problem/challenge, my fellow consultants rush in with a "sure cure". Unfortunately, the cure is often worse than the disease. Squads of consultants take up residence and turn the company upside down, while emptying the corporate purse.This book exposes the fallacies of many of today's management fads - reengineering, empowerment, broad-banding, de-layering, re-designing the value chain, etc. It correctly directs managers to the task at hand - managing the business.The approach is direct and to the point: (1) identify where you want to go, (2) know what changes are taking place within and without, (3) develop contingency plans for all alternative scenarios, and (4) select and reward those who can and do make the right things happen.Berger, however, says it more eloquently, and in greater detail. Try it, you'll like it - and so will your bottom line!