The 2,000 Percent Solution

by Donald Mitchell, Carol Coles, Robert Metz

BOOKNEWS "Argues that ingrained habits in organizations, often masquerading as efficient procedures, actually stall growth, and shows how to recognize typical stalls and overcome them. Uses unorthodox examples, ranging from the Titanic to da Vinci's bicycles, to examine common stalls, and gives direction for dealing with these causes of organizational inertia and inefficiency." -- BookNews

COMPUTERWORLD, February 1, 1999 "The authors tackle 'stalled' thinking . . . Tradition, Disbelief, Misconception, Unattractiveness, Bureaucratic, Communication and Procrastination. Any information technology manager is likely to recognize all of these. Chapters 9 through 16 identify 'stallbusters' -- seven steps for overcoming these problems. Chapter 9 is an excellent source for overcoming one's own 'stalls.' The book is enlivened with brief vignettes incorporating historical examples." -- ComputerWorld, February 1, 1999

Donald Frey (former Chairman and CEO of Bell & Howell) in DIRECTORS & BOARDS, Volume 23 #2 Winter 1999 "THE 2,000 PERCENT SOLUTION is a brightly written, well organized, enjoyable and instructive book on how to revive companies that have 'stalled out' (not growing, with shrinking market share and profits). The title refers to the exponential improvement that can be gained by getting companies out of a stall . . . I strongly recommend the book. Any managerial, and many non-managerial, members of large companies will identify with much of the book. Their world will be mirrored in any number of its pages. I hope that reading the book will motivate such people in our too-many stalled companies 'to stop the slow leaks'. . . ." -- Donald Frey

THE WASHINGTON TIMES, March 29, 1999 "Are you procrastinating? . . . The authors . . . have a handle on the issue of complacency . . . [The authors] provide a clear and concise look at the many road blocks that good ideas must overcome in most companies. By identifying and offering other directions, they show how companies can avoid these blocks and find some other roads to travel." -- The Washington Times, March 29, 1999

Thomas Brown (Editor) MANAGEMENT GENERAL, August 1, 1999 "This book is nominated to be one of the 10 best business books of 1999. 'Stretch goals!' How many times have you either heard or spoken those words? The phrase is so often spoken that it has unfortunately become a clich. Along come three authors who obviously not only believe in stretch goals but have built a kind of science around them. They begin their book by suggesting that a great number of us are in "a stall," which is a polite way of saying 'stuck in the status quo.' No argument there, from perhaps just about all readers; few people believe their organizations are driving at 100% throttle, let alone 2000%! So, quickly, the authors assert that you, personally, can do something about this: 'Shoot for the Moon When It Counts' is their advice. Then they go, chapter by chapter, enumerating those myriad places where individuals (just like you) and teams (just like yours) get stuck: in traditions, in disbelief, in misconception, in communications, in bureaucracy, in procrastination. Less kind reviewers might say, "Yawn!" to such a list of basics; yet, taken as a whole, this book is verbal dynamite. The authors' repeated insistence that there isn't even one area of organizational life that can't be turbocharged by upping the gain on the goals' amplifier makes for a great book. Their last paragraph is worthy of framing; it says, in part: 'We must each evolve into self-actualized individuals, who can recognize stalls and the stall mind-set, both personal and corporate, and then guide companies and organizations to overcome specific stalls to become self-actualized.

Genres: Business

282 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.
For the British author on music, see https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Reviews

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are two forms of courage in business. That which enables you to mentally put aside the old ways of doing things and think of new ways and the greater courage that you put to use when you execute the new strategies. Both are hard, and it all starts with learning ways to think differently. That is the primary point of this book, and the advice is solid and of great value.
The primary learning strategy is to identify what the authors refer to as “stalls”. They are business strategies that somehow limit what can be accomplished. Most of the stalls are very simple. One of the simplest was a hotel where the room service delivery time for breakfasts was unacceptable. More people were added to cook and deliver the breakfasts without a significant reduction in the delivery time. Upon further investigation, they learned that housekeeping was changing the sheets at this time and the housekeepers were stopping the elevators to load and unload the carts. By changing the times when the sheets were changed, the breakfast delivery time was reduced to an acceptable one with a smaller staff. The tale is very illustrative, in that the “obvious” solution to a problem did not correct it. A more detailed analysis of the problem was necessary to solve it.
The advice offered in this book will not help unless it is implanted in a mind that is willing to think broadly and occasionally with some imagination. However, diligence is often more important than imagination. Most of the problems are ones where the solutions are obvious in retrospect. Nevertheless, even simple solutions can require the leaping of the reluctance to try new things hurdle, and that is where the courage of the second type is necessary.
While the book occasionally reads as a motivational pep talk, it does not happen often enough to overshadow the fundamental message. It is always possible to improve your business practices, and there are few businesses that will fail to find something of value in this book.

This review also appears on Amazon

[Aaron Bolin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The "2,000 Percent Solution" is an interesting and useful read, but I am a little surprised by the overwhelmingly positive reviews it has received on Amazon. At its core, the book is a simple collection of management parables that illustrate the central theme - change is hard to accomplish in the real world. The advice offered to help readers overcome resistance to change consists of a surface-level hodge-podge of one-line prescriptions that is loosely held together by a process improvement framework.

It was a good and useful read, though it was a little boring in parts. As an overall assessment, I would give it three and a half stars, but I don't have the option of giving half stars.