Summary

Technology is revolutionizing business practice. As a result, tens of thousands of executives are finding their industries on the verge of earthshaking changes. Now, drawing on four decades of consulting with companies struggling to "reinvent" themselves on the brink of cataclysmic restructuring or even extinction, Roy Harmon constructs a compelling three-pronged "reinvention" model (processes, technology, and people) which, when driven by long-term strategic vision, provides a flexible blueprint from which to spearhead ongoing change.

Using detailed examples from Andersen Consulting's worldwide practice, Harmon reinvents business operations in specific fields including retailing, health care, financial services, and even government, and targets other areas relevant to all industries, from computer technology to office organization. He shows how the most important process improvements (such as reorganizing functionally structured operations into "work cells") can eliminate bureaucratic and other inefficiencies, and how the latest technology, when combined with an energized workforce committed to action, can give teeth to the reinve

Booklist Review

Harmon, founder of Andersen Consulting, has notable credentials: among them books on "reinventing" factory and warehouse operations. He's known for shooting down the conventional wisdom (benchmarking, he argues, is merely playing catch-up) and fairly far-out prognostications. Many will find this volume, which offers suggestions on reinventing functions (the office, production and logistics, computing, education, government) as well as industries (retailing, health care, financial services), a remarkable mix of sense and nonsense. Harmon is a determinist--he sees unlimited potential in technological developments--and an optimist, convinced we'll achieve greater equality and a higher standard of living while reducing most folks' work schedules to a few weeks a year. In some areas, he seems astonishingly naive: he wants new laws and regulations whose goal is "justice" (as if we all agreed on what that means). But in terms of specific business activities, Harmon's visions and strategies are always stimulating and often quite perceptive. Even those who think Harmon's ideas about domed cities belong on the sf shelf will pick up a half-dozen useful insights from his provocative analysis. --Mary Carroll

Choice Review

Reinventing the Business explains in specific, action-oriented terms how to take advantage of new technologies to improve the world. In fact the last chapter of the book is entitled "Reinventing the World." Harmon speaks with an omnipotent voice, telling readers without any doubt what changes will occur in the world of business and beyond. Unfortunately, he provides very little data to back up his edicts. Many of his prognostications concerning industries such as computers, publishing, and manufacturing have some basis in common sense, but information beyond anecdotes would make them more convincing. The author's presentation would have been more successful if it had offered a more reasoned approach and had suggested several possible directions for industry progress rather than state the definitive route. Harmon is clearly most knowledgeable in the field of production management, and this book branches into areas beyond that expertise. A low priority for academic collections. N. Gersony University of New Haven