What Works: A Decade of Change at Champion International / Edition 1

by Richard Ault, Richard Walton, Mark Childers

Overview

An Inside Account of One Company's Remarkable Transformation

Take a fascinating, decade-long journey to witness the remarkabletransformation of a mediocre company into a team-based topcompetitor. Your guides are a trio of participant/observers, allkey players in achieving this systemic change of classicproportion.

—Jerome M. Rosow, president, Work in America Institute, Inc.

Anyone in a leadership position today, union or management, shouldread this book. It tells the important story of howlabor/management partnerships can make a difference and provideworkable solutions to complex problems presented by today's globaleconomy.

—Boyd Young, international president, United PaperworkersInternational Union

A Cinderella story of perseverance and triumph, What Works is aninstructive guide to achieving success through cooperation,teamwork, and courage. It tells the tale of how ChampionInternational—one of America's oldest and largest industrial papercompanies—transformed itself from an underachieving,tradition-bound organization into a thriving Wall Street winnerover the course of eleven years. In answering the question of how acompany can change successfully over time while remaining bothhumane and profitable, this brisk, brutally honest, insiders'account offers a number of hard-won lessons and practical tools tomanagers and visionaries faced with the same daunting challenges.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780787941819
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	08/18/1998
Series:	Business and Management Series
Edition description:	1 ED
Pages:	212
Product dimensions:	6.36(w) x 9.63(h) x 0.71(d)

About the Author

RICHARD AULT was the senior consultant to Champion throughout most of the decade chronicled in the book and still works closely with the company. He is an indepandent consultant who lives in Navarre, Florida. RICHARD WALTON teaches at the Harvard Business School and was formerly a consultant to Champion where he remains a member of the board of directors. He lives near Boston, Massachusetts. MARK CHILDERS is Champion's senior vice president of organizational development and human resources. He lives in Stamford, Connecticut.

Table of Contents

Foreward: A Remarkable Journey
1. Dogged Persistence And Unjustified Optimism: An Overview
2. Aligning the Organization: Strategy, Technology, andValues
3. Building Capabilities: Competence, Commitment, andCooperation
4. Letting Go: Style, Structure, and Systems
Appendix A: Research Methodology
Appendix B: The Champion Way Statements
Appendix C: Gainsharing

Editorial Reviews

"Take a fascinating, decade-long journey to witness the remarkabletransformation of a mediocre company into a team-based topcompetitor. Your guides are a trio of participant/observers, allkey players in achieving this systemic change of classicproportions." —Jerome M. Rosow, president, Work in AmericaInstitute, Inc.

"What Works makes a very important contribution by challengingconventional wisdom. The story of Champion International's decadeof change illustrates that a fundamental and permanenttransformation in corporate culture and performance depands on anevolutionary, bottoms-up organizational learning process led bymany managers at all levels." —Michael Beer, Cahners-RabbProfessor of Business Administration, Harvard Univesity

"Anyone in a leadership position today, union or management, shouldread this book. It tells the important story of howlabor/management partnerships can make a difference and provideworkable solutions to complex problems presented by today's globaleconomy." —Boyd Young, international president, UnitedPaperworkers International Union

From the Publisher

Recounts the transformation of Champion International from a struggling company to a Wall Street winner. Three of the company's leaders during the change tell about the company-wide commitment to sustained, progressive change in the face of considerable criticism and setbacks. They detail how Champion managed its sweeping change effort, analyze its enormous success, and provide a set of principles that can be applied to other companies at all organizational levels. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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