State of Readiness

“Joseph F. Paris’ State of Readiness offers an engaging and provocative look at effective strategies to prepare businesses for the harsh realities of the twenty-first century. He artfully challenges the core belief that eliminating waste and optimizing processes are still the main factors of operational excellence, as they were in the last century. Paris shows how companies now also require quick decision-making processes, effective communications, and a thorough understanding of cultural differences (both internal and external to the corporation) in order to survive and then to thrive. High-performing companies will be those that use operational excellence in a proactive manner, who don’t wait until the next crisis is already knocking at the door. They will need to develop the capability to identify and react to challenges quicker than ever before. Whether a C-Suite executive or an operations manager, State of Readiness is a great way to help determine if your company is ready to face the new business climate that lies ahead.”
—Robert J. Szczerba, senior fellow emeritus at Lockheed Martin

“State of Readiness looks beyond the traditional Lean process improvement to enterprise-wide strategy in system performance. This is next-level thinking, moving from isolated standards and abnormalities, to creating a proactive organization that is developing predictive-outcome systems. With the Fourth Industrial Revolution upon us, Joseph Paris has taken operational excellence to a new level, and leaders who are serious about competitive advantage need to do more than smart manufacturing and create a State of Readiness in their company.”
—Jonathan Taurman, director of global Lean/ops excellence at GE Healthcare

“Want your company to be a high achiever, nimble enough to handle new opportunities or threats? Or are you that high performing nimble company now? If you need to improve, State of Readiness will help climb to the top. If you're at the top, it provides a thought-provoking check to ensure you retain your pinnacle of performance.”
—Bob Summers, brigadier general (retired) in the US Air Force, former deputy director of operations of Air Force Space Command

“State of Readiness is a must-read for any serious continuous improvement professional involved in the deployment of operational excellence! Joseph Paris questions why so many experts in operations management tend to ‘glorify the supposedly unmatched performance of Japanese companies and their management techniques’ and provides compelling evidence and a fresh perspective as to why this might not be as true as generally believed. In doing so, he explores the lessons learned from the past and how organizations of today need to go beyond what is known toward designing and building world-class operational excellence programs in order to truly become a high-performance organization in the twenty-first century—providing a template and roadmap for organizations to evolve beyond the traditional emphasis on processes to an emphasis on systems thinking.”
—Paul O’Brien, director of business excellence at eBay

“Joseph Paris is your operational excellence Sherpa, and his book State of Readiness will passionately inform and challenge you as it seeks to help you guide your organization’s transformation from disjointed pockets of processes to an integrated sea of systems. Timely yet timeless, it is a thought-provoking read and will often challenge what you think you know. Paris does not set goals that are lofty and theoretical states that are intangible and largely unattainable. Rather, he explains why a state of readiness is vital to an organization and offers visionary insights, balanced with pragmatic approaches—with ample storytelling and often light-hearted content that will keep your attention. For some, it will serve as an introduction to operational excellence and its importance; for others, it will be a how-to book, and still others will find it a regular reference as you endeavor to transform your organization to face the challenges in the twenty-first century. Whether you are in operations or an executive of a global conglomerate, this book hits the mark and will appeal to a diversity of readers—and providing this book to key team members will certainly derive beneficial results.”
—Donna O’Leary, chief information officer of the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services

“Joseph Paris’s State of Readiness is an entertaining and educational book that creates a path to understanding what is necessary to become a high-performance organization. There are many examples drawn from personal and professional perspectives that help make the insights inside the book tangible, vivid, and a real guide to creating a business operating system. Throughout the book, Paris clearly demonstrates that the whole of an organization is greater than the sum of its parts: customers, employees, associates, suppliers, partners, society, and shareholders. And if the organization knows and hones its capabilities and capacity—if all these parts are synchronized and aligned across the business smokestacks toward a clearly communicated vision—there will exist a state of readiness that is a requirement to becoming a high-performance organization. You got the right things right, Mr. Paris. In the end, as Shakespeare put it in Hamlet, ‘The readiness is all.’”
—Jonathan Escobar Marin, director and global head of Lean management at HARTMANN GROUP

“From beginning to end, State of Readiness educates and entertains through a lively narrative. Joseph clearly differentiates operational excellence from continuous improvement, yet aligns both toward establishing a state of readiness in an organization as it pursues its vision. Whether you are a wizened expert or just beginning your professional journey, this book is a must-have for your professional library. You could wait until tomorrow to get started, but as JP challenges, ‘How many tomorrows do you have?’”
—Jeff Naglestad, director of operational excellence at Sanofi

“In State of Readiness, Joseph Paris skillfully shares his experiences and wisdom in enterprise transformation and leadership. His uncommonly visual language conjures vivid mental images and makes the book such a tangible and rewarding experience for the reader. Threaded throughout are many examples and anecdotes that are common sense but, at the same time, demonstrate that, as Voltaire said so many years ago, “Common sense is not so common.” The book strikes a perfect balance between enterprise-wide and line-of-business, and every reader will come away blessed with a vision of what operational excellence is and the indelible and positive impact it can have on a business and those who work there. It is a must-read for every executive and manager who aspires to sustainably change the operational performance of their company."
—Donald Kuk, vice president of global business transformation at AIG

“Joseph Paris clarifies and defines what operational excellence means in the real world. His book State of Readiness is a good read and resource for those striving to understand their business as a single system based on a common culture and the use of methods and goal alignment. Sometimes amusing and sometimes blunt, JP pulls no punches in offering a solid review of concepts and tools for performance improvement. He includes many anecdotes and historical examples of companies that were ready for change and others that were not. If you want your business to be ready and able to meet future challenges successfully, then this book is for you.”
—Helmut Welke, material flow design manager at Deere and Company (retired)

“An exceptional book encompassing all areas of the OPEX discipline, this is a great starting place for leaders when embarking on their OPEX journey. From Lean Six Sigma to Hashin Kanri, Paris provides an excellent and comprehensive OPEX guidebook for all types of organizations. State of Readiness is a must-read for leaders who want to become true OPEX practitioners and leaders of high-performance teams.”
—Jamie “Jay” Guttenberg, PhD (ABD), director of operational excellence at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota

"State of Readiness describes in an exact—but also an easy to read—way what is meant by the term operational excellence. It will be obvious for anyone who reads Paris’s book that achieving operational excellence is not about following one set of tools or considering one single improvement approach as a bible for achieving substantial improvements in an organization. In reality, achieving operational excellence is as about the joint focus on creating a culture of leadership, processes, people, technologies, and behavioral change—and using the appropriate tools and methods from Kaizen via Lean Management to Six Sigma as warranted—but always with a mindset of building capacity and capabilities to create readiness. JP offers excellent examples of what happens to a company if it is following one way of achieving improvements but is not ready for (or willing to) change. They simply fail.”
—Carsten Hurth, global director of operational excellence at Gerresheimer

“Joe Paris has produced a kind of atlas of operational excellence thinking, infused with his own characteristic humorous, insightful, and enthusiastic style. It gives a solid and grounded overview of the history and current state of the field, taking in everything from individual responses to change to historic comparisons between nations. And it adds JP’s own sometimes surprising sayings, reflections, and inspiration. I recommend this to any established or aspiring manager or change expert; it’s like having a wise and friendly old uncle, full of energy and mischief, as your personal adviser and consultant.”
—Benjamin Taylor, chief executive at the Public Service Transformation Academy

“Reinvigorating the industry's view of operational efficiency with a witty and charming narrative, State of Readiness outlines key components that should be addressed to become a high-performing organization. The reader will also come away with a ton of business analogies that will help in their communication of complex ideas and hold court in any professional environment.”
—Pavle Sabic, global financial risk manager for Fortune 500 companies

“Joseph Paris is the first to define what operational excellence means—not only in theory but also in practice—in his book State of Readiness. This well-structured and accessible read offers layman and expert alike an insight into the positive impact that embracing operational excellence can have for your business. The many examples contained in the book make it easy for the reader to connect how to effectively implement the various concepts into their everyday life. More importantly, you will understand what it takes and learn how to execute change inside an organization, which for me, is the key to any successful endeavor. JP’s wit will keep you engaged and put a smile on your face when you least expect it. An excellent read, with keen insights, is waiting in store for you.”
—Patrick Veenhoff, sales performance coach at Swisscom

“We read daily about spectacular strategic organizational blunders. We never read about the small execution failures filling our everyday lives. Yet businesses with perfect strategies blunder into oblivion from continuous execution failures, lacking a steadfast commitment to operational excellence. In his book State of Readiness, Joseph Paris demonstrates, with the repetitive nature of the unreasonable man who cares, that this is not an issue of missing standards but an issue of missing leadership to define and assure operations standards. Clearly, JP traveled the marathon journey, surmounting ‘Mt. Stupid,’ leading beyond the resistance, making vision become reality. If you are a leader who recognizes the need to improve but don’t know how to make it happen, this book is the best place to start."
—David K. Schneider, president of David K. Schneider & Company, LLC

“Joseph Paris is a strategic thinker and process improvement expert extraordinaire, and his State of Readiness is nothing short of groundbreaking. In this well-researched guide, JP questions the wisdom of all-things-process and offers keen insights into the achievement of true operational excellence.”
—David Deutsch, president of David N. Deutsch & Company

“State of Readiness is a timely and powerful book. It both defines today’s challenges and provides pragmatic solutions. It’s well written and well researched. Every reader will find ideas and actions of value within its covers.”
—Steven Stanton, New York Times best-selling author, managing partner at FCB Partners