As a manager who wants to attain, maintain, or reclaim a competitive position in the hotly contested and ever-changing marketplace, your goal is clear. Terrified of being the hunted -- in peril of being destroyed or devoured by your competitors you want to know how to once again become a hunter. But the myriad improvement strategies that sound great in theory don't always work in practice, and they don't take into account the realities of your workplace.

Through an unusual and provocative blend of fact and fiction, Jim Swartz puts you inside the transformation process itself - inside the heads of those who, finding themselves among the hunted, realize they must change the fundamental way they do business. He makes it clear why reorganization, decentralization, de-layering, continuous improvement, benchmarking, and participative management are helpful tools but fall short of tackling the real enemy.

In this engaging business novel, you'll travel with Marcus, the Master Guardian who has been helping businesses in trouble for 1400 years, as he trains two guardian recruits: Lou, a tough steel company manager long on experience with the old ways, and Laura, a Harvard MBA with a global view and no industrial experience. Come along as they visit great business hunters past and present and become aware of the fatal corporate mindsets, mental models, and measures that doom many companies to a life of retreat and restructuring. By visiting turnaround companies, you'll learn new business process models that dramatically reduced costs, improved performance and product quality, and made these companies the fastest responding suppliers in the world.