Adapt or Die ¿ Preparing Business For The New Economic Order America¿s economic situation was obviously unsustainable. The financial collapse and its impact on business were predictable. The precise timing was not. The economy spiraled slowly into chaos as the sledgehammers pounded on the pillars of wealth generation for two decades. 1. Over forty percent of our manufacturing, based on GDP, was sent offshore. Greater then three million jobs were lost to outsourcing and productivity increases. The destruction of our production-based economy produced a consumer-based system. 2. Consumers tried to carry the load but it was obviously too heavy. They bought houses they could not afford, gas-guzzling vehicles and spent more than they made. 3. Our trade deficient drained the economy. Since 1992, nearly 6.6 trillion dollars have flooded out of the American economy. 4. High-energy prices transferred greater than a trillion dollars to mid-eastern counties that intensely dislike America and in the process emptied consumer pockets. The systems finally fractured and public anger turned out the old government. America and the rest of the world will restructure their governance processes and financial systems, searching for order. There will be an iterative process of change as the private sector reacts and adjusts. Private enterprise must change to meet new realities. They can chose to wait and see what the new model will be or get into prime shape for the fight required to compete in the new economy. The goal: restructure and build an adaptive enterprise in direct response to new external forces. ¿To achieve adaptability means to enable business systems to react with controlled velocity to essential change in internal and external business conditions ¿ having the ability to change the focus of the business assets to achieve the mission.¿ During periods of prosperity, companies get out of shape. Lean programs and systems are often broken. As long as profits and stockholder equity are acceptable, inefficiencies are tolerated. In the new order, these problems must be fixed. The Pathway to Adaptability was written to focus on solutions that drive up productivity and help the enterprise become highly adaptive and agile. Pathway to Adaptability is divided into core components. ¿ The lean concepts are put into executive terms and applied to governance and systems to construct the operating principles. ¿ Systems concepts are applied to enterprise business and software systems. This establishes the foundation for the integrated convergence of markets, systems, processes, and products. ¿ The eight-step approach builds on the lean and information structure to summarize the process any company ¿ manufacturing, distribution, or other, travels to build adaptability. Step 3 is a business assessment, included to help you determine if your systems and lean program are working and how far you are on the Pathway to Adaptability. This book is must reading for those who need to understand how to build an adaptive enterprise. It is short, providing a fast read while summarizing a significant amount of information. To order: Pathwaytoadaptability.com