Fast Cycle Time: How to Align Purpose, Strategy, and Structure for Speed

Today, tens of thousands of companies are struggling to become "time-based" competitors, inspired by such corporations as Motorola, General Electric, Citicorp, and a myriad of others who have cut production time in half—or more. But until now, the literature has focused on the theory and philosophy of fast cycle time, rather than the tools and techniques for implementing it. Here, for the first time, Christopher Meyer, an internationally recognized expert in cycle time reduction, presents a step-by-step blueprint for transforming traditional companies into fast cycle competitors. Meyer argues that fast cycle time is achieved not by working faster, but by aligning the organization's purpose, strategy and structure. He demonstrates how the product development cycle must become a learning laboratory in which the four continuous elements "Design, Fabricate, Assemble, and Test" are analyzed with the intent to improve strategy in the next business cycle. Analyzing strategy and core processes enables management to detect and correct problems earlier, and leverage knowledge for improved innovation and increased value for customers. Employing an ongoing case study, Core Products, Inc., throughout the text, Meyer shows how to redesign the organization for manufacturability and assembly, how to implement multifunctional teams that work, how to analyze and map critical cycle time interdependencies such as "co-location," and how to measure the impact of cycle time on business performance. Meyer's practical approach provides a simple methodology for organizations to deliver products to customers rapidly, accurately, and reliably. "Chris Meyer interrelates many pieces that we have all read about in different places into a coherent guide to making it happen. Ironically, as Meyer shows, implementing fast cycle time means almost the opposite of what most American managers are inclined to do...Many years of practical experience have shown Meyer and his colleagues the wisdom of a paradox—that to speed up you often have to slow down." —From the Foreword by Peter M. Senge

Business & Money

Meyer, Christopher

Management & Leadership

Free Press

Christopher Meyer was Ambassador to the United States from 1997 to 2003, during which time he was an eyewitness to and participant in the events following 9/11 and the preparations for the Iraq war. A riveting and candid memoir of life behind the diplomatic scenes, Meyer's book is an honest account of what he saw, what he heard, and how he felt.

DC Confidential: The Controversial Memoirs of Britain's Ambassador to the U.S. at the Time of 9/11 and the Iraq War

Biographies & Memoirs

Leaders & Notable People

Orion Publishing

Over the last five hundred years, Britain's power has waxed and waned: from the puny island nation of the sixteenth century, to the global superpower of the nineteenth century, to the more modest post-imperial status today of a major European power. But in these radically different circumstances, the wisdom of Lord Palmerston's observation has endured. Getting Our Way recounts nine stories from Britain's diplomatic annals over the last five hundred years, in which the diplomats themselves are at the center of the narrative. It is an inside account of their extraordinary experiences, sometimes in the face of physical danger, often at history's hinge. Be it Henry Killigrew's mission to Edinburgh in 1572, Castlereagh at the Congress of Vienna, Our Man in Washington and the Nassau Deal, or the handover of Hong Kong to China, we can see how Britain has viewed its interests in the world and sought to advance them. Some of these dramatic episodes record triumph, some failure, but all of them illustrate how the three pillars of the national interest—security, prosperity, and values—have been the foundation of British foreign policy for half a century. Each story is illuminated by colorful anecdotes and insights drawn from Christopher Meyer's first-hand experience of international relations. Moreover, the book is a salutary reminder that foreign policy (what is to be done) and diplomacy (how it is to be done) begin and end with the national interest. And far from being the preserve of aloof aristocrats, the pursuit of our national interest is replete with intrigue, treachery, espionage, and danger—an extraordinary combination of high principle and low cunning, vice and virtue, all with the specific aim of "getting our way."

Getting Our Way: 500 Years of Adventure and Intrigue: The Inside Story of British Diplomacy

History

Europe

In the new connected global economy, two experts offer a dynamic and insightful blueprint for conducting business and reveal who today's hottest innovators are and what tomorrow's winners will need.

Blur: The Speed of Change in the Connected Economy

Davis, Stan

Economics

Grand Central Publishing

The Achilles heel of every company is creating growth through new products and services -- a herculean challenge that must be met continuously, relentlessly, year in and year out. The antidote to this deficiency, argues high-tech expert Christopher Meyer, is to establish a "growth attitude," as Silicon Valley firms do, by making a sharp distinction between the innovation process and the operating pressures managers face daily. Drawing on fifteen years as an educator, researcher, and consultant in Silicon Valley, the world's oldest, most advanced, and most successful knowledge-based economy, Meyer presents a brilliant model for balancing these challenges based upon the actual strategies of explosive Silicon Valley growth machines. At the same time, he demonstrates how the Silicon Valley approach to growth and innovation has worked in companies far beyond the Valley, such as Procter &amp; Gamble, Honeywell, and Ford Motor Company. Leaders must promote and diffuse the growth attitude throughout their firms, Meyer contends, showing how Valley leaders generate and spread competitive paranoia, get every employee focused externally, flatten and blur organizational boundaries, set "stretch" goals, and above all, find, nurture, and promote bright people with passion and motivate them with "skin". With Meyer's "loose-tight" approach to new product and service development, executives and managers will be able to establish a creative environment without losing sight of risk management and cost control. Unlike other books, Relentless Growth lays out a focused, five-part model for integrating innovation and operations comprising: (1) the role of leadership in creating an organizational attitude for growth, (2) strategic alignment, (3) the innovation process and development paradigm, (4) the application of predictive and balanced metrics, and (5) the people, who are the most important ingredient in any innovation process. By focusing on the role that leadership plays in the innovation process, Meyer paves the way for companies to compete effectively while maintaining a vibrant creative culture.

Relentless Growth: How Silicon Valley Innovation Strategies Can Work in Your Business

Biography & History

Riveting and candid memoir of life behind the scenes as US Ambassador and Prime Minister's Press Secretary - a Sunday Times bestseller
Christopher Meyer was Ambassador to the United States from 1997 to 2003, during which time he was an eyewitness to and participant in the events following 9/11 and the preparations for the Iraq war. Never before has there been such a riveting and candid memoir of life behind the diplomatic scenes. Meyer's is an honest account of what he saw, what he heard and how he felt.
The cast list of characters who feature here includes Margaret Thatcher, Bob Hope, the Clintons, Steven Spielberg, Condoleeza Rice, Alastair Campbell and Jack Straw. The book reveals close encounters with Tony Blair, Robin Cook and Peter Mandelson; KGB honey traps in Russia; a major row with Bill Clinton; inside stories on Number 10 and the Foreign Office; and of course life behind the scenes with Blair and George W. Bush. It was clear that the Prime Minister's office and not the Foreign Office would control relations with Washington, and Meyer shows in close up how he helped facilitate the 'special relationship'.

DC Confidential: The Controversial Memoirs of Britain's Ambassador to the U.S. at the Time of 9/11 and the Run-Up to the Iraq War

Phoenix

Community & Culture

GETTING OUR WAY recounts nine stories from Britain's diplomatic annals over the last five hundred years, in which the diplomats themselves are at the centre of the narrative. It is an inside account of  their extraordinary experiences, sometimes in the face of physical danger, often at history's hinge. Be it  Henry Killigrew's mission to Edinburgh in 1572, Castlereagh at the Congress of Vienna, Our Man in Washington and the Nassau Deal, or the handover of Hong Kong to China, we can see how Britain has viewed its interests in the world and sought to advance them.   Some of these dramatic episodes record triumph, some failure, but all of them illustrate how the three pillars of the national interest - security, prosperity and values - have been the foundation of British foreign policy for half a century. Each story is illuminated by colourful anecdotes and insights drawn from Christopher Meyer's first-hand experience of international relations. Moreover, the book is a salutary reminder that foreign policy and diplomacy begin and end with the national interest.  And far from being the preserve of aloof aristocrats, the pursuit of our national interest is replete with an extraordinary combination of high principle and low cunning, vice and virtue, all with the specific aim of 'getting our way'.

Historical

Today, tens of thousands of companies are struggling to become "time-based" competitors, inspired by such corporations as Motorola, General Electric, Citicorp, and a myriad of others who have cut production time in half—or more. But until now, the literature has focused on the theory and philosophy of fast cycle time, rather than the tools and techniques for implementing it. Here, for the first time, Christopher Meyer, an internationally recognized expert in cycle time reduction, presents a step-by-step blueprint for transforming traditional companies into fast cycle competitors.Meyer argues that fast cycle time is achieved not by working faster, but by aligning the organization's purpose, strategy and structure. He demonstrates how the product development cycle must become a learning laboratory in which the four continuous elements "Design, Fabricate, Assemble, and Test" are analyzed with the intent to improve strategy in the next business cycle. Analyzing strategy and core processes enables management to detect and correct problems earlier, and leverage knowledge for improved innovation and increased value for customers.Employing an ongoing case study, Core Products, Inc., throughout the text, Meyer shows how to redesign the organization for manufacturability and assembly, how to implement multifunctional teams that work, how to analyze and map critical cycle time interdependencies such as "co-location," and how to measure the impact of cycle time on business performance. Meyer's practical approach provides a simple methodology for organizations to deliver products to customers rapidly, accurately, and reliably."Chris Meyer interrelates many pieces that we have all read about in different places into a coherent guide to making it happen. Ironically, as Meyer shows, implementing fast cycle time means almost the opposite of what most American managers are inclined to do...Many years of practical experience have shown Meyer and his colleagues the wisdom of a paradox—that to speed up you often have to slow down."—From the Foreword by Peter M. Senge

For half a century the US has sat at the center of the global economic system, and Western-style capitalism has dominated. Now, it's no secret that the center of gravity is shifting. The advanced economies that in 2000 consumed 75% of the world's output will, by 2050, consume just 32%. Meanwhile, the emerging economies of the world--Brazil, India, China, and others--will surge forward. As these fast-growing, low-income economies mature, will they adopt the practices of the old guard? Or will they make their own way, and create the next prevailing version of capitalism? What new opportunities will that create for firms around the world? Standing on the Sun tackles these questions with fresh ideas and provocative examples. Based on firsthand observations of companies defying capitalism's old rules yet prospering, the authors outline new principles for commercial success. Among them: • The obsession with return on equity gives way to more broad-based measurements of success. • Adam Smith's invisible hand of the market is redeemed by the "invisible handshake" of collaborative networks. • Businesses take ownership of the impacts they now call "externalities." Those who need to understand the emerging shape of global capitalism will benefit from Standing on the Sun.

Standing on the Sun: How the Explosion of Capitalism Abroad Will Change Business Everywhere

Harvard Business Review Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Meyer, Christopher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Meyer, Christopher

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Meyer, Christopher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Fast Cycle Time: How to Align Purpose, Strategy, and Structure for Speed

DC Confidential: The Controversial Memoirs of Britain's Ambassador to the U.S. at the Time of 9/11 and the Iraq War

Getting Our Way: 500 Years of Adventure and Intrigue: The Inside Story of British Diplomacy

Blur: The Speed of Change in the Connected Economy

Relentless Growth: How Silicon Valley Innovation Strategies Can Work in Your Business

DC Confidential: The Controversial Memoirs of Britain's Ambassador to the U.S. at the Time of 9/11 and the Run-Up to the Iraq War

DC Confidential: The Controversial Memoirs of Britain's Ambassador to the U.S. at the Time of 9/11 and the Run-Up to the Iraq War

Getting Our Way: 500 Years of Adventure and Intrigue: The Inside Story of British Diplomacy

Fast Cycle Time: How to Align Purpose, Strategy, and Structure for Speed

Standing on the Sun: How the Explosion of Capitalism Abroad Will Change Business Everywhere