High-Velocity Edge: How Market Leaders Leverage Operational Excellence to Beat the Competition: Essays and Reviews

Auch wieder,wie bei anderen, der weisse Film, wie Kreide im Gesicht.

It has been hard to find a book about leading in a lean environment that was actually worth is weight, but this really hit the spot. No gimmicks, no quick-fix tools that come and go, just simple, straightforward principles to live by. I really appreciate the grounded nature of the writing. The book is full of credible examples which make it easy to apply to any organization in any industry wanting to become higher performing.

I have been studying ways to improve organisations for a long time and the ideas provided in High-Velocity Edge just tied up all the loose ends for me. This book should provide the missing piece of the puzzle for Lean practitioners who understand that the tools aren't what make Toyota great (and they also won't keep any organisation ahead of the pack). The ideas are stunningly simple and effective yet worlds away from how most organisations choose to operate.4 capabilities of high velocity organisations are presented, brought to life with stories and examples from a number of organisations. It is a deep dive into what the 4 capabilities mean and look like and how they add up to extraordinary results for the rare organisations that have embraced them. I found this book inspirational.

Having read the majority of this book and the conclusions, and some reviews, I thought the High Velocity Edge was well written and is a useful tool for management personnel to guide their organizations. Here is my detailed feedback to explain what I liked about it and explain what I would have liked to see in this book:Things I liked:1: This book provides good examples of organizations that have had to reevaluate the way they execute work. As such I think this is a very good book for demonstrating that it is in fact possible to make higher volumes of product at a higher quality with little drawback or a low amount of investment from management.2: I liked that Steven J. Spear layed out his four capabilites at the beginning in a very organized manner and how they were each discussed in detail Chapters 6-9.Here are some things I would have liked to see:1: Having also read books by Frederick Winslow Taylor and Lillian Gilbreth (e.g. Principles of Scientific Management [which the author references], the Psychology of Management, Eliminating Waste in Teaching), his criticism of scientific management from the early 20th century is sound, however I would have liked a critique in more detail to explain exactly where Taylorism went wrong.For example, fast food restaurants such as McDonalds designed their work system using a scientific management approach so that their workers can perform work efficiently. This means that McDonalds can hire less skilled workers to support their business, which results in McDonalds being able to support their goal of providing fast service at low cost compared to a regular bar and grill.While you could argue that comparing McDonalds and Toyota is completely wrong, Steven J. Spear makes the argument that the principles that he discovered apply to making cars, making submarines, producing aluminum and even healthcare. So couldn't they also work for flipping burgers or some other low skill work or mundane tasks?2: I would have liked to see either in an epilogue or a foreword examples where Steven J. Spear went into detail on his experiences following authorship of this book. To be a little more specific, here are the questions I would have liked answered:1. Are these results repeatable, and if so, who in industry has been able to successfully implement these 4 capabilities using the High Velocity Edge alone?; and2: For those who were unsuccessful, why are they unsuccessful? I realize that every case is going to have a different approach, however it sounds like (having just finished this book) what's being sold by this book is that just having the skill or ability to develop the 4 capabilities in the HVE is good enough to benefit any organization outright. I mean the book has been out for over ten years in a couple of different editions, I would like to see a case study where the results noted by Alcoa in the editorial reviews are repeated by other people, or even just an endorsement from Toyota.On another note, some of the more negative reviews are funny and note that this is the same book as "Chasing the Rabbit" which is actually edition 1 of the HVE.Anyways thanks for coming to my TED talk.

Required reading in the category of Lean and DevOps but note that this is the same book as Chasing the Rabbit. Buy one or the other.