Book of the month May 2018 ’90 Days To Profit’

’90 Days To Profit’ by Erlend Bakke and Steve Shoulder

90 Days To Profit Book coverWow, when I started reading this book I found it hard to put down! What an interesting and entertainingly written book about my specialist area ‘Business Transformation’. It’s more about transforming the mechanical systems of a  business (in 90 days) rather than transforming leadership and culture, however, these 3 key elements overlap and are interdependent so there are elements of leadership and the personal transformation for the key individuals in this story.
It presents a wonderful approach to turning around ‘a manufacturing business’ using a ‘real example’.  From personal experience I can state that many of the principles in this book are applicable to any business, whilst not directly addressing the key issues of leadership and culture, the Business turnaround story that is central to this book is of a business (Milikan) that already has exceptionally strong leadership and culture (something I have  rarely found in a struggling business). However, the great thing about using such an example is that it lays bare the importance of ‘system transformation’, even with outstanding leadership and culture inefficient or ineffective systems will kill a business.

7 Steps to profit from book 90 Days to ProfitThe clever, contextual acronym ‘PROFITS’ represents the 7 step process set out in the book. ‘P’ is for ‘problem’. ‘R’ is for Review. ‘O’ is for Opportunity. ‘F’ is for Fine-tune. ‘I’ is for Implement & Test. ‘T’ is for Tracking. ‘S’ is for Shape up and roll out.

In fact when you read of the books hero ‘Ralph’ who’s very first opportunity as to work as a ‘Transformation Consultant’ is in one of the most revolutionary manufacturing business of the last 50 years.

This superbly engaging story adopts a bizarre and entertaining approach to anonymity… The hero of our story ‘Ralph’ appears to be one of the 2 authors ‘Steve Shoulder’. For some bizarre reason, they change the names of every character in the book, but do so without concealing their true identity!**!! For example the client that ‘Ralph / Steve’ works for throughout the book is a large manufacturer of electric cars called Millikan whose CEO is a chap called ‘Leon Muskett’ , which of course in the real world can only be Tesla and their world famous CEO ‘Elon Musk’ – do you get it Elon Musk is Leon Musket – hilarious! Perhaps after working for Tesla Steve Shoulder agreed to change the names of all people in ‘the real story’.
The personal journey of the stories hero is a real ‘hero’s journey’ and his journey of personal transformation in his struggles with relationships, health and money are laced throughout the story.