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Less is More

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Less is More

How Great Companies Use Productivity As a Competitive Tool in Business

Portfolio,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Text available

What's inside?

Want to be world-class? The world’s most productive companies focus on purpose, worker security and plain old honesty.

Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Applicable
  • For Beginners
  • Engaging

Recommendation

Jason Jennings, a business author with an eye for the compelling paradox, offers a breakdown of the secrets of somewhat obscure but great companies. The principles that Jennings propounds are familiar enough, but the general reader will find most of his examples surprising. That is no drawback. Although some of these companies are less well known, they all achieved great business success – if not fame – by applying  the most tried, true and proven axioms of management. Jennings lists these as: Treat people with respect, pay them for performance and focus on one clear and understandable mission. As he points out, there is nothing new about these principles, but they keep proving their efficacy in the unlikeliest places. Jennings provides frustratingly scant background information about the companies he cites. But those seeking a handbook of solid if venerable management advice will not go wrong with his compelling group of examples.

Summary

The Companies

The world’s most productive companies aren’t necessarily the most famous. They include:

  • World Savings — The branch operating costs of this San Francisco-based savings and loan are half those of its peers and it receives twice as many deposits per branch.
  • Yellow Roadway Corporation — In seven years, this Kansas City trucking company went from the brink of extinction to being one of Fortune’s most admired companies.
  • Nucor Corporation — This nimble steel company based in Charlotte, NC, is apparently recession-proof and immune to the cycles that plague the rest of its industry. Nucor has paid quarterly dividends for 123 successive quarters. It increases revenue and profits by double-digit rates even in the depths of recessions.
  • Ryanair — This no-nonsense, Irish discount airline beat America’s Southwest on important operating metrics.
  • The Warehouse Group, Ltd. — This New Zealand-based retailer has a higher return on equity than Wal-Mart.
  • IKEA — Although this furniture retailer has shops all over the world, its Scandinavian...

About the Author

Founder of the media consulting firm, Jennings-McGlothlin & Co., Jason Jennings is a business lecturer whose books, including It’s Not the Big That Eat the Small, It’s the Fast That Eat the Slow, have been translated into 23 languages.

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