Revolutionary Way To Think About Business In The 21st Century
The earth will soon be home to seven billion people, all seeking to
share the same water, air, food, and products. While this presents major
challenges to business – and to society in general – it also offers
unique opportunities to the firms that recognize and capitalize on them,
says Dr. Bruce Piasecki, president and founder of AHC Group. Based on
thirty years of experience working with companies throughout the world,
Piasecki’s New York Times and USA Today bestselling book, DOING MORE
WITH LESS: The New Way To Wealth (Wiley; March 2012) offers a
ground-breaking approach to thinking about and doing business in this
new era.
“The businesses that survive this challenging new millennium will be the
ones that find new and lasting ways to answer key social questions about
poverty, mobility, and energy now,” writes Piasecki. Central to this
effort is what he calls “the art of competitive frugality.” This means
returning to the core values of industriousness and frugality that the
great statesman, inventor, and author Benjamin Franklin wrote about so
eloquently two centuries ago. “We must resist the temptation to use
technology for technology’s sake, and instead focus on the creative
solutions scarcity demands,” says Piasecki. Rediscovering the vital link
between frugality and competition will usher in a golden age of higher
efficiencies, more direct results, and smarter competition.
Drawing on Piasecki decades of experience, interviews with visionary
leaders, and such diverse subjects as the passage of health care reform
and the development of mega-cities around the world, DOING MORE WITH
LESS offers potent insights into such critical issues as:
Why doing more with less will offer abundant recompense with less debt
and risk – making companies more adept in the short run and more
adaptive in the long run
How scarcity itself can open up new markets for businesses that are
creative enough to uncover them
How to compete more effectively in terms of innovation while eliminating
the kind of cutthroat business battles that thrive on cost-cutting or
making enemies
How to generate employee loyalty though a commitment to social
responsibility
How to deal with and eliminate the “knuckleheads” who stand in the way
of success and a better future
Fundamentally, Piasecki’s approach demands a return to basic principles
– achieving greater balance by realigning frugality and prosperity. In
particular, he lays out three keys on which he runs his own firm: never
forget the people and the rules in the act of making money; return to
the classic ideal of productive restraint – that is, to being agents for
good in the world by doing more with less; and know that only you (not
your boss, parents, or business school) can find your competitive
advantage for creating wealth.
DOING MORE WITH LESS builds on the author’s extensive work in the area
of social responsibility, offering an original take on the increasing
role that sustainability and energy issues play in competitiveness. As
Gene Miller of the Center for Urban Innovation writes in the book’s
foreword, Piasecki “takes his three decades of learning and travel and
compels us forward through a mix of narrative nonfiction, personal
storytelling, and astute reflections on sports and modern times.”
Never before has the world faced such massive challenges in terms of
resources, space, and rapid growth. Businesses can either step up to
these challenges and play a unique role in solving them, or be crushed
along the way. DOING MORE WITH LESS offers the insights and perspective
leaders need to take the reins in this new environment, transform their
thinking, and find a new road to success.
