"An inspiring case study for the next generation of start- ups by the unconventional founders of Method. Founded ten years ago by childhood pals Eric Ryan and Adam Lowry, Method has been making headlines and profits with a revolutionary blend of culture and commerce, style and substance. Today, Method's ecofriendly soaps, detergents, and cleaners are ubiquitous in stores, capturing valuable shelf space long dominated by the tired old products of giants P&G and Unilever. Ryan and Lowry obsess over seven principles at the heart of Method's business philosophy, including: Kick Ass at Fast: Use small size to your advantage; by bringing innovations to market faster, you can stay out in front of larger rivals. Inspire Advocates: Rather than getting caught up in costly battles for market share, foster deeper relationships with fewer customers in pursuit of greater wallet share. Win on Product Experience : Beyond satisfying your customers' rational needs, design experiences for them. The Method Method is an irreverent, candid, firsthand case study. Readers will learn how today's consumers behave, how today's companies compete, and how both groups are acting together to drive profound global change"--

As the economy moves toward a services orientation, companies are struggling with how to improve their offerings. Process management is a key component of the services that companies provide. This book has three main parts: mapping, improvement, and error-proofing and metrics. In the first part--mapping--the reader will learn how to map a process so that the map is immediately understandable for identifying the roles, work steps, and automation support used in process delivery. The second part--improvement--provides a series of techniques for defining, prioritizing, and analyzing problems from several perspectives. The first perspective is called "leaning," and its purpose is to remove waste from an existing process. The second perspective is "cleaning," during which the remaining steps following leaning are analyzed for possible improvement. The third perspective is "greening," which explores opportunities and trade-offs for outsourcing, coproduction, and environmental improvements related to the process. The final third of the book--error-proofing and metrics--presents several techniques for ensuring risk mitigation for the new process and for measuring changes that define their impacts, and illustrates a method for proposing changes to executives in a "case for change." Overall, the book provides a blueprint of how to develop a discipline for process management that applies to any type of work.