{"product_id":"bigger-isnt-necessarily-better-9780739172896","title":"Bigger Isnt Necessarily Better","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn these challenging times, in order to be successful, a home builder needs to excel at land assembly, marketing, on-site operations and customer satisfaction. The Harvard home builder study lays out very clearly what national builders have done well, and where they could benefit from improvements. This book provides a roadmap to improve competitiveness in today’s demanding economic environment while increasing productivity as the market recovers. -- Dan Fulton, President and CEO of Weyerhaeuser Company\u003cbr\u003eThis book is filled with descriptive institutional detail and analytical insight.  It looks at the industry from a range of perspectives, and it is ultimately positive in its outlook. It is hard to find this kind of balance today. -- Karl E. Case, Professor of Economics Emeritus at Wellesley College\u003cbr\u003eThe implosion in home building is a wakeup call to modernize this important industry.  The authors make a persuasive case that home builders have much to learn from other industries that have successfully balanced innovation and scale leading to greater efficiencies. -- Nicolas P. Retsinas, Senior Lecturer in Real Estate at the Harvard Business School and former Assistant Secretary for Housing-Federal Housing Commissioner at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development\u003cbr\u003eScale offers significant opportunities in the homebuilding business. However, as in any business, execution is the key. Bigger Isn't Necessarily Better provides a thorough analysis of where home builders have been able to leverage their competitive advantages, where they have not, and therefore how they can become more efficient as market conditions dictate. This is a landmark study of the industry on an important topic. -- Eric S. Belsky, Managing Director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University\u003cbr\u003eBigger Isn’t Necessarily Better: Lessons Learned from the Harvard Home Builder Study analyzes the eponymous study of the practices of big (more than 50,000 houses\/year) home builders that came into being through consolidation and acquisition of smaller companies....As the book cover illustrates, the authors hit the nail on the head with their analysis. The study and its presentation flow nicely and avoid the propensity of this type of tome to sink into the gravity of its material. The authors deliver on the promise in their book’s title: through a lucid, well-ordered presentation of graphics and prose, they discern, explain, and share the lessons learned from the workings of the large home builders during of the last housing boom. Now it’s our turn—to study and apply these lessons so that we can do our share within the building industry to contribute to softer landings for all during future market downturns. * ReadInform.com *\u003cbr\u003eToday I had the chance to sit in on a conference call with the authors of Bigger Isn't Necessarily Better (Lexington Books, November 30, 2011) a book based on the Harvard Builder Study comparing the performance and operations of mid- to large US homebuilders during the great building boom of the early 2000s. The book examines the operational side of the industry instead of financial performance, and provides a revealing look at how little progress mid- to large homebuilders made in improving their jobsite coordination and control, despite the rise of hugely profitable national companies, the kind you would expect to implement the most advanced operational systems, like automakers and large retailers have. To facilitate useful comparisons the authors narrowed their analysis to entry-level home divisions, avoiding comparisons between various price points. * FineHomebuilding.com *\u003cbr\u003eYou can feel the touch of four different hands in the presentation of the material through nuances of style and emphasis. This is a good thing for this work, as the four different kinds of expertise are unified into one theory: it adds texture and personality to the narrative. The authors also offer a generous spread of graphic materials to help the reader grasp the large amount of data presented in the book. ... As the book cover illustrates, the authors hit the nail on the head with their analysis. The study and its presentation flow nicely and avoid the propensity of this type of tome to sink into the gravity of its material. The authors deliver on the promise in their book’s title: through a lucid, well-ordered presentation of graphics and prose, they discern, explain, and share the lessons learned from the workings of the large home builders during of the last housing boom. Now it’s our turn—to study and apply these lessons so that we can do our share within the building industry to contribute to softer landings for all during future market downturns. * Inform *\u003cbr\u003eExplores industry trends in residential construction during the late 1990s and early 2000s and their relationship to the housing boom and bust, based on data from the Harvard Home Builder Survey. * Journal of Economic Literature *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface Chapter 1 Home Building—Is Bigger Better?  The Home Building Boom  The Seeds of Consolidation  The Growing Dominance of Big Builders  Conventional Wisdom about Scale  The Virtuous Circle Hypothesis  Organization of the Book  Chapter 2 Studying the Home Building Industry  Building the Machine for Living  Focus on Entry-Level Homes  Measuring Local Market Competition  Survey Coverage and Content  Structure of the Survey  Chapter 3 Big Builders at the Corporate Level  Builder Performance during the Boom  Securing Capital for Expansion  Land Assembly Strategies  Corporate Branding and Customer Satisfaction  Conclusion  Chapter 4 Labor and Subcontracting Practices  The Construction Manager Model  Benefits and Costs of Improved Coordination  Coordinating On-Site Activities  Performance at the Construction Site  Conclusion Chapter 5 Advanced Operational Practices  Emergence of the Third Supply Channel  Shifting Builder Priorities  Implementation of Advanced Practices  The Role of Local Market Conditions  Market Characteristics and Builder Performance  Conclusion  Chapter 6 Information and Communication Technology  ICT Background  Communicating with Customers  Home Builders and Technology Use in the Back Office  Home Builders and Technology Use on the Site  Using Technology to Estimate Costs  Using Technology to Coordinate with Subcontractors and Suppliers  The Importance of Sharing  Factors Discouraging Greater Use of Technology  Conclusion  Chapter 7 Lessons about Builder Scale and Performance  Challenges of Improving Operational Performance  The Importance of Local Markets Revisited  Disentangling the Effects of Size and Location  Can Bigger Get Better?  Chapter 8 Gaining Advantage from Scale  Improve Subcontractor Coordination and Workforce Quality  Increase Standardization and Preassembly of Components  Leverage the Power of Information Technology  Streamline Supply Chain Management and Logistics  Managing Risk in the Twenty-First Century  Appendix A Joint Center Advisory Panel for the Harvard Home Builder Study  Appendix B Survey Responses to ICT Questions  References   Index","brand":"Rlpg\/Galleys","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51037513253207,"sku":"9780739172896","price":39.6,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780739172896.jpg?v=1750936044","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/bigger-isnt-necessarily-better-9780739172896","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}