Intelligent Manufacturing € September € 1996 € Vol. 2 € No. 9

Manufacturer's Library

The Second Curve: Managing the Velocity of Change, by Ian Morrison, Ballantine Books, 272 pages, $25, ISBN 0-345-40541-2

Every few years business leaders are exhorted to master change and are given tools to do it: Search for excellence. Reengineer your corporation. Learn the disciplines of market leaders. Downsize. Maximize. However, unless management is prepared, massive changes in the marketplace can erode the company they've built.

In this book, the author describes a new business model that can be used no matter what the market upheaval. His theory is as follows: You must ride the first curve -- a company's traditional business carried out in a familiar corporate climate -- to the all-important second curve. The second curve is the future -- of new technologies, new consumers and new markets that will combine to bring about a sweeping and irrevocable alteration in the way every business must organize and function (see chart).

The author draws on his own work as a consultant to explore how the two-curve concept works in the real world. He analyzes a wide spectrum of business triumphs and turnarounds, among them how Volvo jumped on the second curve by boosting itself into global markets in both car and truck sales; how Nestle has developed a culture of global aggressiveness; and how Applied Materials built its growth on a determination to be as fast or faster than its customers in delivering products. At these and other companies, according to this book, leaders have learned to master both the first and second curves; to anticipate the rate and pace of change; to know when and how to jump from the first curve to the second; and whether and when to play both. This book sets forth the strategies necessary to cope with the second curve, and explains how businesses can apply them to rapidly changing situations.

Morrison is president of The Institute for the Future (Menlo Park, Calif.).

From the 1st Curve to the 2nd Curve
Market
1st	2nd
Capital	Knowledge
Producer	Consumer
Atlantic	Pacific
Japan	China
International Trade	Electronic Commerce
Computers	Internet
Money	People

Organization
Mechanistic	Organic
Engineering	Ecology
Corporations	Individuals & Networks
Horiz. & Vert. Integration	Virtual Integration
Business Processes	Culture

The Individual
Hard Work	Hypereffectiveness
Security	Uncertainty
Current Career	Future Career
Faith	Hope
Loyalty	Courage

Beyond Reengineering: How the Process-Centered Organization is Changing, by Michael Hammer, Harper Business, 285 pages, $25, ISBN 0-88730-729-9

Business process reengineering (BPR) began as an effort to improve performance but quickly evolved into a complete rethinking of all aspects of business, from the jobs that people have to the ways in which companies are structured. This book offers insights into the consequences of the BPR revolution and how it is changing the business world.

To succeed -- or even to survive -- in today's global economy, companies must refocus and reorganize themselves around their processes: the end-to-end sequences of tasks that create customer value. The process-centered organization represents a complete break with the past, the author believes. It means the end of narrow jobs, rigid hierarchies, supervisory management, and traditional career paths. It ushers in a world of professionals and coaches, process owners and results-based pay, boundary-less organizations and an institutionalized capacity for change. This book examines the experiences of organizations such as General Electric, General Motors and IBM that have already made this transition.

Hammer is president of Hammer & Co. (Cambridge, Mass.).

Click here to return to Table of Contents for the Intelligent Manufacturing September issue.