Out of the Present Crisis: Rediscovering Improvement in the New Economy

Today, organizations have achieved an overall failure rate above 80 percent with Lean, Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma, and continuous improvement in general. This is certainly not due to a shortage of books, consultants, and other online resources about the methodologies and tools, or the success stories of Toyota and others. However, it is due to a shortage of knowledge and practice about the most critical success factors of improvement: leadership, sustaining infrastructure, behavioral and cultural transformation, and now emerging technology. These factors produce 90 percent of the success with continuous and sustainable improvement; the methodologies and tools represent an irrelevant 10 percent. For decades, most organizations have focused on this quick and easy, irrelevant 10 percent through an endless series of fad, in-vogue improvement programs as they attempt to mimic the best-in-class practices of the most successful organizations.

Out of the Present Crisis: Rediscovering Improvement in the New Economy is the contemporary version of Deming’s famous 1982 book, "Out of the Crisis." The author builds a solid case for organizations to aggressively pursue the next generation of systematic and sustainable improvement through a combined strategy of Deming’s back-to-basics, innovation and breakthrough thinking, integration of emerging and enabling technology, and adaptive improvement across diverse environments and industries. The book’s practical, pragmatic style is backed up by many real world examples and personal experiences.

If you're looking for another book about Lean or Six Sigma "tools" this is not it. But it is a book about how to achieve lasting success by making improvement the cultural standard of excellence and living code of conduct in organizations. This popular book provides executives with an up-to-date and proven reference guide for rediscovering successful systematic and sustainable improvement in today’s economy. The author demonstrates the importance of viewing improvement as a continuous manageable "process" and covers the most critical success factors of leadership, sustaining infrastructure, behavioral and cultural transformation, and emerging technology in a practical, no-nonsense, "how-to-do" style. The book provides specific guidance for all industries including public and private corporations, hospitals, financial services, airlines, municipalities, and federal, state, and local governments.

Terence T. Burton is president and chief executive officer of The Center for Excellence in Operations, Incorporated (CEO), a management consulting firm headquartered in Bedford, New Hampshire, with offices in Munich, Germany. Terry’s background includes extensive leadership and executive operations experience with Atlantic Richfield, Polaroid Corporation, and Wang Laboratories. Previously, he also held senior practice leadership positions with two large international consulting firms, KPMG and Pittiglio, Rabin, Todd, & McGrath (PRTM).

Since founding his own management consultancy in 1991, Terry has led international management consulting assignments with over 300 manufacturing, healthcare, and service clients, implementing thousands of strategic improvement initiatives in the Americas and Europe. In the firm’s 20 years of existence, CEO’s clients have accumulated billions of dollars in documented benefits through various strategic improvement initiatives, such as Lean Six Sigma. He is an industry-recognized thought leader, implementation expert, keynote speaker, and author of seven previous books and hundreds of articles on improvement and industrial engineering topics such as Kaizen, Lean, Six Sigma, outsourcing, acquisitions, global quality, supply chain management, new product and services development, change management, and other strategic improvement initiatives.

Terry holds an MBA from Boston University and a BSIE and an MSIE/OR from the University of New Haven and is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. Terry is best known for his "hands-on" approach to consulting, his personable and approachable style, and his executive leadership savvy in transforming organizations.