The Power of LEO: The Revolutionary Process for Achieving Extraordinary Results

Excellent book for those who want to learn and are serious about making real and lasting process improvements. This book understands the real problem with process improvement; a lack of understanding and committment from Corporate executives and senior management.

As the market place continues to become more and more competitive and crowded, everyone seems to be looking for different ways to improve their product/services. There seems to be constant pressure to improve quality and at the same time cut costs. There are lots of different programs tailored to individual companies or industries, but these are generally too specific to apply across a wide range of company sizes, products and processes. LEO is a simple process which can be adapted to any size company in any industry or service.Subir Chowdhury, the author, has written and interesting and informative introduction to LEO - the process which stands for Listen - observe and understand the what is happening currently; Enrich - explore and discover new and better solutions; and Optimize - improve and perfect.The book is well written and easy to read. The layout, format of the book is extremely reader friendly, making it possible to read the entire book in a couple of hours.Mr. Chowdhury shows how LEO can be used to put out fires - solve problems which are causing immediate problems, to fixing the flow - improving the process, to defining the future - creating new products. He then goes into detail using case studies to show each separate function of the LEO model. He shows how to Listen hard, how to enrich the product/process and finally how to optimize.Finally he walks the reader through an all-out process where one company engaged in an 18 month implementation of the LEO method and gives a good overview of how the work was carried out.As with any change process, he stresses that without buy-in and continual support from the CEO, the process will be doomed to fail. He takes great care to talk about the natural dissenters to any change process and how to effectively deal with them.While this process will work for any business, this book is not a how-to manual. This book gives you a good understanding of the power of LEO - what it can do. You will learn some skills and techniques that make LEO work. But if you wish to implement LEO in your organization, you are going to need some outside help. There is a standard LEO program which Mr. Chowdhury's company starts with and then modifies for each specific assignment.The final chapter of the book talks about how LEO - the quest for continual improvement can and should be adopt by individuals. "We have a choice. We can simply accept what's happening and spend our energy groaning and criticizing, or we can, as individuals, try to make a difference.I believe we would all do a better job if we were to listen more carefully, look for better ways to do things and constantly optimize whatever we are doing in our lives - either work or personal.The book offers lots of examples of how LEO has been applied to a very wide range of companies and problems. If your company is operating at less than peak, you certainly should consider using The Power of LEO to improve your results.

The acronym makes it easy to remember. From the Publishers' web site:"L is for Listen. Observe and Understand - To obtain a deep understanding of the issue at hand, assumptions must be put aside and interaction with all relevant parties - including customers, suppliers, and employees - is critical. "You must get up close and personal and go to the source," explains Chowdhury. That could be the factory floor, a call center, or a customer's home. And listening is not only about asking questions, but about observing -- whether that means watching a worker perform a task or a customer use a product.E is for Engage. Explore (JE - I prefer to call this explore) and Discover - Once the real nature of the problem is uncovered, the next phase is about searching for the best solution. Chowdhury advocates a special type of brainstorming session that encourages people to relax and try to come up with numerous ideas, no matter how far-fetched they may seem. An informal environment where every idea receives a full and respectful hearing is key. "To get the most out of the Enrich process, you need to embrace change and the idea that what you have now, and what you have done up to this point, simply isn't good enough," the author writes.O is for Optimize - Improve and Perfect - During this phase, participants review the solutions that have already been proposed. They look for flaws and find ways to improve the solutions, making them even more effective. This is a step that some organizations think they can skip. But it is essential, because good-enough no longer works, contends Chowdhury. Everyone needs to strive for the highest quality possible. "If you want to turn out the kind of products or services that will truly delight your customers and attract new ones, you need to keep raising the bar on quality," he writes. Once the Optimize stage is complete, and only then, can the solutions be implemented."The book is full of examples which as I noted in other reviews keeps things interesting.I liked the final chapter that talks about continuous improvement in general and how it not only applies to companies - it applies to individuals. This is one concept that I totally buy in to.

Chowdhury is the master of writing Management books. This one is a must read so inspirational.