High performance systems are a source of major competitive advantage and a sure path to increased market share. The advantage consistently goes to the nation, the army, the team that discovers an organization design that gives it an edge in competition. Like much invention, the discovery of a high performance organization design is most likely to come about through trial and error under competitive pressure. At the threshold of the twenty-first century, critical analysis of the history of high performance offers a rich fund of historical information and insight into the course of high performance systems evolution. This book offers a beginning into a better understanding of how high performance systems develop and are superseded by ever newer and more advanced systems.

From history, social science research and the lessons of present-day global operations strategy, those elements that seem fundamental to past and future high performance management are identified in this timely critique. It concludes with suggested directions for exploration in the reinvention of tomorrow's high performance systems.