The Profit Potential: Taking High Performance to the Bottom Line

Front Cover
John Wiley & Sons, 1994 - Business & Economics - 246 pages
Advance Praise for The Profit Potential
"The Profit Potential breaks away from the stale nostrun served up in scores of 'new' cost management books in recent years. A leading cost management authority, McNair presents a refreshing new perspective on work, measurement, and profitability. Highly recommended for nonfinancial executives, financial managers, and students." ?Tom Johnson Retzlaff Professor of Quality Management Portland State University

"A masterful work. At last, a real breakthrough in re-defining the role of accounting systems in increasing profitability. C. J. McNair demonstrates, simply and elegantly, that changing both focus and measurement leads to accounting taking its rightful place as a driver for positive change in an organization." ?Matther H. Booth Vice President of Quality Scudder, Stevens and Clark

"McNair offers penetrating insights into the complexity and causes of waste that permeate the business structures of most companies.... This book should be a primer for those who are serious about purging the insidious monster of waste from their business..." ?Lou Jones Cost Management and Business Services Manager Caterpillar, Inc.

"If you?ve been having a tough time making gains in your improvement efforts, The Profit Potential shows why you may be fighting an uphill battle against your financial system ? McNair makes you ask?is your company?s financial system adding value that the customer will pay for (take a look at your bottom line) ? if not, you better ask why not (and read this book)." ?Brian Hettrick Director of Financial Services GOAL/QPC

"The Profit Potential brings into sharp relief an important and overlooked restraining force that limits organizational effectiveness. McNair balances the emphasis placed on the driving forces of success and shows how they can be made stronger by focusing on the waste part of the equation. This book should be required reading for every manager. Their competency will be incomplete without it. ?Gary D. Robinson, Ph. D. Manager for Human Resource Initiatives The Boeing Company

From inside the book

Contents

The Profit Potential
3
1 The Profit Squeeze
7
3 Putting Waste Where It Belongs
17
Defining
19
1 When Waste Takes Its Toll
23
3 Statistical Process Control
34
The Efficiency Mirage
41
1 Efficiency Versus Effectiveness
44
4 Balancing Design and Value Creation
83
Truth or Consequences
91
1 Measuring New Asset Impacts
96
2 Building Waste Through Incremental Budgeting
103
Idle Equipment Idle Minds
115
1 Definitions of Capacity
117
Assets That Arent and Other
143
The Hidden Costs of Quality
165

3 Putting Effectiveness to Work
51
5 Straw Man Models and Effectiveness
59
Getting It Rightthe First Time
65
1 Costing Out the Product Life Cycle
68
2 The Product Profit Squeeze
77
Making Waste Visible
213
Notes
233
Index
239
Copyright

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About the author (1994)

C. J. MCNAIR is a professor of accounting at Babson College, Massachusetts, and author of World Class Accounting and Finance, and co-author of Benchmarking: A Tool for Continuous Improvement and Crossroads: A JIT Success Story. She lectures extensively on state-of-the-art management accounting systems, performance measurement, and continuous improvement for organizations such as The National Association of Accountants, The American Production and Inventory Control Society, and the Financial Executive Institute. McNair also consults for organizations such as Digital, Polaroid, and Caterpillar.

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