Relevance regained
Subtitle: from top-down control to bottom-up empowerment
By: H. Thomas Johnson.
Publisher: Free Press; Maxwell Macmillan Canada; Maxwell Macmillan International
Published: 1992
Place of publication: New York; Toronto; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 228
Subjects: Industrial management.; Industrial management -- Data processing.; Management information systems.; Customer relations -- Data processing.; Total quality management -- Data processing.; Suggestion systems.; Managerial accounting.; Competition.
Description: "Building on his pathbreaking, award-winning bestseller, Relevance Lost, H. Thomas Johnson presents a devastating critique of the top-down hierarchical accounting systems that have dominated American corporations since the 1950s. Johnson shows exactly how "managing by remote control" through results-oriented accounting information has obscured and obstructed the real business objective: to reduce process variation and lead times for the purpose of obtaining and keeping satisfied customers. The failure of most American businesses to be competitive and profitable in recent years, he contends, is their reliance on management accounting information to control people's actions and productivity." "Cost-focused imperatives from on high must be replaced, Johnson asserts, with information systems that link actions with imperatives of global competition.

Past practices of manipulating processes to achieve accounting cost targets dictated by "top-down" command and control information must he replaced by "bottom-up" empowerment. Self-managing work teams, according to Johnson, must own problem-solving information to reduce variation, delays, and excess in processes." "Johnson prescribes the necessary changes in management principles that must replace the outdated style associated with the industrial revolution. Responsiveness to customers--not accounting costs--and flexibility--reducing lead times and removing constraints--are necessary for sustained competitive excellence and long-term profitability." "Johnson discusses the radical overhauls of companies, such as General Electric's work-outs/"best practices" program, Eastman Kodak's process control costing, and Harley-Davidson's work simplification programs, and shows how these strong commitments to new strategies maximize a company's most important assets: people and time.

To be globally competitive, he claims, a company's work must be directed toward selling to customers, not just selling products. Transaction- or product-oriented companies, according to Johnson, ultimately will lose out to responsive, customer-oriented ones."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 207-216) and index.
Table of contents: title: Information, action, and business performance; title: Remote-control management in the Dark Age of relevance lost; title: Consequences of remote-control management; title: Imperatives of competition; title: past and present; title: Becoming responsive by building long-term customer relationships; title: Becoming flexible by empowering workers to remove constraints; title: Management information for competitive excellence; title: Activity-based cost management : relevance lost déjà vu; title: Putting an improvement process in place; title: New frontiers for business education; title: The information revolution revisited; title: Appendix: Where to turn for help.