Another is an extinction of the traditional business cycle and transformation of the workplace, and a third is the increasing impact of competitive pressures of expanding global markets. The author reveals the key strategies used by those which have achieved marked success in the new economy. Dell and Wal-Mart. By moving certain tasks, such as sales, to the Internet, Dell cut its expenses significantly, providing it with a pretax operating margin that outshone that of Wal-Mart, sometimes by twice as much.
Inventory management reveals the greatest gains.
Dell and Compaq. What s really new here, he writes, is how much productivity has been affected by the manner in which Dell stocks and moves its inventory. Herman Miller and HON Industries. These two furniture makers provide a case study of the effect of transformations in the workplace and employee incentives on productivity. Pretax operating margins doubled for Herman Miller, as they had for Dell, but what was truly remarkable was the effect on inventory turns.