Tyranical Division of Labor The Good Jobs Strategy by Zeynep Ton

The Good Jobs Strategy by Zeynep Ton

END OF THE TYRANNICAL DIVISION OF LABOR



Almost one in four American working adults has a job that pays less
than a living wage. Conven­tional wisdom says that’s how the world has
to work. Bad jobs with low wages, minimal benefits, little training, and
chaotic schedules are the only way companies can keep costs down and
prices low. If companies were to offer better jobs, cus­tomers would
have to pay more or companies would have to make less.


But in The Good Jobs Strategy, Zeynep Ton, a professor at the
MIT Sloan School of Management, makes the compelling case that even in
low-cost settings, leaving employees behind—with bad jobs—is a choice,
not a necessity. Drawing on more than a decade of research, Ton shows
how operational excellence enables companies to of­fer the lowest prices
to customers while ensuring good jobs for their employees and superior
results for their investors.


Ton describes the elements of the good jobs strategy in a variety of
successful companies around the world, including Southwest Airlines,
UPS, Toyota, Zappos, and In-N-Out Burger. She focuses on four model
retailers—Costco, Merca­dona, Trader Joe’s, and QuikTrip—to demonstrate
the good jobs strategy at work and reveals four choices that have
transformed these compa­nies’ high investment in workers into lower
costs, higher profits, and greater customer sat­isfaction.


Full of surprising, counterintuitive insights, the book answers
questions such as: How can offering fewer products increase customer
sat­isfaction? Why would having more employees than you need reduce
costs and boost profits? How can companies simultaneously standardize
work and empower employees?


The Good Jobs Strategy outlines an invaluable blueprint for
any organization that wants to pur­sue a sustainable competitive
strategy in which everyone—employees, customers, and investors—wins.