Vital Factors: The Secret to Transforming Your Business - And Your Life

I was a MAP Senior Consultant for 2-3 years back in the late eighties and didn't totally appreciate the value of the overall MAP system that its' creator, Eric Gillberg, MAP founder had passed along to his colleagues until I rejoined the professional management ranks after my short, but most professionally rewarding experience with that very talented group of consultants. The system is simple, pragmatic and extremely rewarding to those who chose to incorporate it into their company culture and, for that matter, their own personal lives. The heart of the system is learning to identify and focus attention on the Vital Factors of the business, rather than the trivial many that tend to clutter our professional lives. The book will also clearly illustrate how the business owner can significantly enhance business productivity, while empowering and motivating their team to become fully engaged in making the business successfully grow, increase revenues and improve profitability -- I know because it worked for me and a great couple of teams that I had the pleasure of being a member.

Vital Factors is a wonderful promotional piece about the benefits of MAP's business consulting success as told through the stories several of it's clients. The stories are quite inspiring in terms of the dramatic results the individuals and organizations achieved subsequent to the implimentation of the MAP process. However, I found myself wanting for more of a text book understanding of the MAP steps as they are best applied. For example, I would have preferred more of a case analysis of the methodology of MAP's determination of a business' Vital Factors and how those were identified and subsequently measured. I recognize that all improvement comes through a feedback loop where efforts are measured against results and then adjustments to future efforts are made to optimize outcomes. While MAP distills that process down the book doesn't really get into the meat and potatos of their approach, leaving me wanting for something more to learn from. Guess I'll have to call MAP to learn more. Maybe that's what they wanted all along...

Like the human body, each organization has "vital factors" and it is important to know what they are and how to monitor and protect them, especially when attempting to transform any organization from what it is now to what will improve and strengthen it. In this volume, Lee Froschheiser and Paul Chutkow introduce their reader to MAP (Management Action Programs) which they characterize as "a powerful system of business management and personal growth." It consists of six basic functions: Leading, Communication, Planning, Organizing, Staffing, and Controlling. Expect no head-snapping revelations nor do the authors claim to offer any. Rather, the substantial value of their book is derived from understanding and then effectively applying the Vital Factor process which they explain and illustrate with rigorous precision. The authors assert that the best-run companies share a common set of attributes and virtues. These they list on pages 6-7 and are essentially the same as those identified by others such as Jim Collins, Andrew Hargadon, Jason Jennings, and Alfred Marcus as well as by Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman. For example, personal as well as organizational goals are clear, specific, and measurable; people, strategy, operations, and competitive marketplace are in proper alignment; continuous improvement at all levels and in all areas of operation; and decisions are based on "outside-in," customer-centric perspectives. In this volume, Froschheiser and Chutkow cite research conducted by Eric Gillberg and his associates which reveals that "companies are like people: each was unique, each had its own distinctive DNA, each had its own particular set of defining strengths and weaknesses. Moreover [key point] each company had its own unique - but often hidden - set of vital factors, the critical elements that would either hold that company back or propel it to success." In this instance, in terms of alignment, the challenge is recognize the strengths of each individual and then apply them to tasks appropriate to those strengths. In fact, Marcus Buckingham is among those who support this leveraging of talents and skills against work to be done while suggesting, also, that managers should concentrate on increasing strengths rather than wasting time struggling to eliminate weaknesses. Specifically, how to do that successfully? Froschheiser and Chutkow offer the MAP system whose foundation consists of Vital Factors and business fundamentals, "the daily blocking and tackling that winning companies do better than their competitors. MAP is an ongoing process that, when implemented well, produces all those attributes and virtues that [Gillberg's] team found in the best-run companies." As I read this book, I appreciated learning much more about how the transformation of an organization (regardless of size or nature) must occur - and indeed, can only occur -- simultaneously with the transformation of those who are involved in it. Credit Froschheise

Fascinating book! I particularly enjoyed the personal stories of people and organizations who have used the management system described in the book. I have been in senior positions in business for quite some time and it never ceases to amaze me that one can always learn from the experiences of others. A lot of the stories were about people in smaller companies who do not have internal groups responsible for organizational development. I am recommending the book to my son-in-law, who is in just such a position.