Cambridge Business Association
The Power of LEO
Book

The Power of LEO

The Revolutionary Process for Achieving Extraordinary Results

Subir Chowdhury
McGraw-Hill, 2011
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

Management consultant Subir Chowdhury details how an organization can employ the simple but appealing LEO process – “Listen, Enrich, Optimize” – to make continuous quality improvement the most important element of its culture and to enhance its performance. He provides numerous instructive case histories in which large and small companies deploy LEO tactics and strategies to deliver maximum quality improvement. As quality-program books go, this manual seems clearer than most and potentially more useful. It sets up three basic management concepts: LEO itself; the “four cornerstones” of responsibility, ability, respect and quality; and the “fire-flow-future” metaphor for handling problems that flare up, the pacing of normal business and the long-range view. The rest, as always, is execution. getAbstract recommends Chowdhury’s informative manual to managers seeking an accessible way to pursue quality.

Summary

Reverse Engineering

In 1973, US technology manufacturer Motorola introduced the first handheld mobile phone. The massive phone weighed 2.2 pounds [1 kilogram] and contained a battery that lasted only 20 minutes. Short battery life did not bother users, because the phone was too heavy to hold for extended periods of time. Regardless of its initial limitations, Motorola’s mobile phone was a new, exciting product.

Thanks to this notable innovation, Motorola was the leading cellphone company for years. However, non-US firms like Nokia and Samsung – relying on superior high-tech, digital devices – came to dominate Motorola, which continued to employ its archaic analog system far too long.

This story continues to repeat itself for US manufacturers. They develop first-of-a-kind products that no other companies can match. Then, foreign competitors reverse-engineer the products and bring out similar devices with enhanced quality and lower prices. These opportunistic foreign competitors’ updated products quickly become the bestsellers. This happened with microwave ovens, solar panels, windshield wipers, pocket-size calculators and television sets, to name a few.

About the Author

Subir Chowdhury is chairman and CEO of ASI Consulting Group and the author of several books, including the bestseller The Power of Six Sigma.

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