OUTSMARTING BUSINESS SHARKS
Outsmarting Business Sharks: Chart Your Path to Sustainable Excellence demystifies how to achieve organizational excellence by bringing to life tools and techniques to build a culture of commitment rather than compliance. It applies to any organization and purposely avoids typical industry jargon to keep the reader focused on application instead of labels.
The book achieves its goals in an innovative setting, on a fishing trip aboard the custom charter boat, the Dolphin Sea. The Captain aboard the Dolphin Sea shares the consequences of shark like vs. dolphin like behaviors.
In this book that reads more like a novel, the reader can easily follow the implementation of the tools. While many of these tools are used in lean and culture change, the authors introduce several new tools gained over their sixty years of combined experience. To help the reader personalize and implement changes in their organization, chapter summaries, key points and implementation checklists are included. Readers are left with the message that synergy between organization culture, structure, tools, and leadership are required to achieve and sustain excellence.
Editorial Reviews
"This is a must-read for every leader that has chosen the path of significant sustainable improvement or transformation of their company/organization. Rascoe and Buda are masterful in their presentation of the fundamental approach to building in lasting changes to organizations both large and small. While culture is understood to be important, the authors make a compelling case for first developing the right cultural foundation before operational and structural improvements are made. Without using the traditional lean language of continuous improvement, they educate the reader through a delightful story of a management team that believes they are going on a simple fishing trip only to find the adventure may well be the most important milestone in their professional careers as leaders. This book informs, challenges, and provides the roadmap for sustainable transformation—and yes, it's entertaining and enjoyable as well. Indulge in the journey." — Lavon R Winkler, Retired President and CEO of FLEXcon Company and Milbank Manufacturing
"A great read for anyone interested in changing organizational culture with the objective of creating an environment for sustainable operational excellence. The book reads more like a novel than a textbook so it will be easy to prescribe as required reading for your team. Tools and key principles are introduced without specific industry jargon and the analogy to fishing is easy to follow without any fishing experience. The overall message of the power of teamwork when supported by the correct structure and measures will resonate in any industry." — Steve Weiss, Executive Vice President, Manufacturing & Supply Chain, Freshpet, Inc.
"Organizational change is tough. Resistance is real. Rascoe and Buda's book is a thoughtful guide for students of organizational effectiveness who want to understand what leaders need to do to leap-frog their competitors. As a bonus, the authors included tools that only well-experienced consultants could develop. Yet, they present these tools in an easy-to-understand format. Tools, insights, and practical wisdom are the foundation of this team-building adventure on a fishing charter trip. In this brief story, students and leaders can understand how to reduce resistance and sail onto a successful change initiative." — Linda Moran, Ed.D, Department Chair, Hillyer College, University of Hartford
"This book provides a phenomenal foundation for any business leader embarking on a Lean journey. Rascoe and Buda vividly illustrate how operational excellence transcends the implementation of tools and delves into the intersection of culture. It reads like a novel while weaving in foundational principles of Lean adoption from tools to mindset to culture to managing change. The book is salient for any operations leader including in a service delivery environment where the product is intangible. Through delightful storytelling, the authors share hard-earned lessons gleaned over decades of doing this work. Adopting tools is the easy part. The hard work comes in changing habits, minds, and culture. A must read for any operations leader." — Eric Wellman, Former NPR Host, founder of Renrock Consulting
"Having been a charter boat captain for many years I found this book to be the first of its kind as it combines realistic fishing experiences and techniques with ideas on how to make the trip more enjoyable for my guests as well as more efficient for me. Perhaps more importantly it has increased my awareness of paying close attention to all the details of trip planning, preparation, actual fishing time and activities after my guests depart." — Matt King, Captain, Hula Charters, Block Island, RI
Gary Rascoe, MBA, is a results-oriented, process-driven change agent and mentor for lean, operational, and organizational excellence. Gary is passionate about influencing positive transformation and has helped improve organizations worldwide for over 30 years. He is active in community service and a member of his county’s Economic Development Association. He is the author of the Whitetop Gazette which currently reaches three different communities.
Gary was a ship’s mate, a commercial rod and reel fisherman, and enjoys fly fishing.
For more information on Gary Rascoe's Consulting Services Click HERE
Joe Buda’s career spans from being an Installation Mechanic on the first Sikorsky Aircraft production Black Hawk helicopter to Otis Elevator’s Director of Global Leadership & Development.
Currently, Joe is the author of multiple books. works with not-for-profit organizations on organizational effectiveness and enjoys life surrounded by the ocean on what some call the “Bermuda of the North.” Outsmarting Business Sharks: Chart Your Path to Sustainable Excellence.