"He who stops getting better has stopped being good. " Hans Schneider, General Manager of the Siemens Amberg Electronics Factory, Industrial Excellence Award overall winner 2007 There is a general perception that inflexible labor markets and high labor costs are contributing to a massive displacement of manufacturing jobs and investment from Western Europe to Eastern Europe and Asia. The debate in Western Europe is highly charged, but sometimes ill-informed. It is true that some low-skilled jobs are moving into low labor cost countries. On the other hand, many more highly skilled jobs are actually being created in the highly developed countries. The total impact on Western economies is much more complicated, and there is some evidence of important benefits. In this book, we showcase examples of excellent industrial management that has managed to create substantial job growth in manufacturing. This book is based on 14 years' observation of the Industrial Excellence Award (IEA) in Germany and France, the first ten years of which we summarized in our previous book, Industrial Excellence (Springer 2003), and on an additional five years of obser- tion between 2002 and 2007. We have seen that management's first and noble responsibility to society is to achieve competitiveness. Competitive organizations create growth and jobs, even in Western Europe. Competitiveness requires clearly articulated strategic positioning, together with excellent execution, and mobili- tion of all employees to apply their abilities and to pull in one direction.

The Challenge

Management Quality and Strategic Positioning
Management Quality, Innovation, and Services
Rational: Innovation and Game-Changing Products
Imaje: From Products to Services Through Innovation
BuS: "We Do What No One Else Does"
Networked Strategy
VARTA Microbattery: Producing at the Right Place
Hewlett Packard Herrenberg: Partnership Solutions
Fujitsu Siemens Computers: Outsourcing and Supply Chain Mastery
RDME: Re-Importing Jobs from Brazil
What Does this Mean? Implications of the Industrial Excellence Examples
Offshoring and Jobs: Zyme, Dyson, and Some General Lessons
Accountability for Competitiveness, Collaboration for Jobs.