Book

The High Velocity Edge

How Market Leaders Leverage Operational Experience to Beat the Competition

Foreword by Clayton M. Christensen

How can some companies perform so well that their industry counterparts are competitors in name only? Although they operate in the same industry, serve the same market, and even use the same suppliers, these extraordinary, high-velocity organizations consistently outperform all the competition – and, more importantly, continually widen their leads.

In The High-Velocity Edge, the reissued edition of five-time Shingo Prize winner Steven J. Spear’s critically acclaimed book Chasing the Rabbit, Spear describes what sets market-dominating companies apart and provides a detailed framework organizations can leverage to produce off-the-charts performance.

Spear examines the internal operations of dominant organizations across a wide spectrum of industries, from technology to design and from manufacturing to healthcare. Along the way, he investigates great operational triumphs like top-tier teaching hospitals’ fantastic improvements in quality of care, Pratt & Whitney’s competitive gains in jet engine design, and the U.S. Navy’s breakthroughs in inventing and applying nuclear propulsion. But The High-Velocity Edge is not just about the adoration of success. It also takes a critical look at some of the operational missteps that have humbled even the most reputable and respected of companies and organizations.

Taken together, these multiple perspectives and in-depth case studies show how to:

  1. Build a system of “dynamic discovery” designed to produce ultra-high-speed learning within an organization
  2. Attack and solve problems when and where they occur, converting weaknesses into strengths
  3. Disseminate knowledge gained from solving local problems throughout the company as a whole
  4. Create managers invested in developing everyone’s capacity to continually innovate and improve

Whatever the organization – from technology to finance to healthcare – mastery of these four key capabilities will create a fast track to operational excellence, producing faster, better results and using less capital and fewer resources.

Apply the lessons of Steven J. Spear and gain a high-velocity edge over every competitor in your industry.