"Downsizing" staff in order to cut costs is an effort that is ultimately doomed to fail unless the non-value-added work that created the need for staff is eliminated, too. That's the premise at the heart of activity-based management (ABM). While there are plenty of books out there that discuss ABM approaches in the abstract, here's the first book that actually shows you how to transform your organization from a traditional hierarchical structure to one that is activity-based - thereby enabling your business to operate more productively, more profitably, and more in concert with the tenets of reengineering, TQM, and end-to-end process improvement. Based on methods that have proven highly successful at companies such as AT&T, this hands-on resource provides the detailed guidance you won't find elsewhere on the planning, organizational, and implementation phases of a total ABM program. You'll also benefit from the book's description of the critical factors that form the "chain of success" in an ABM program, its incisive comparison of traditional costing methods versus those of ABM, and more.