A team at McKinsey & Company set out to discover why some companies were able to change and to on to higher performance levels while most others got bogged down. Their extensive research came to a surprising conclusion: the make-or-break factor is not top management, but a new breed in the middle - real change leaders. They're middle managers and business professionals who are breaking the mould of good management with a unique combination of tough performance standards and a fresh sense of how to inspire and motivate the workforce - skills uniquely in touch with the needs of today's marketplace and company growth plans. For a change effort to be successful, people throughout the organization need to learn new skills and behaviours. This book tells the story of how this is taking place through the eyes of the people who made it happen - middle managers on the front lines, responsible for doing things like increasing revenues, developing new products, changing the ways customers are served, and improving financial performance. Examples include: how Compaq's operation in Scotland brought the price of a computer down by two-thirds, and redefined every aspect of manufacturing, from the workplace to the role of the supervisor; how real change leaders at General Electric Motors set the basis for increasing return on total capital from zero to over 20 per cent in three years; how UNOCAL's Los Angeles plant reduced total operating expenses by 20 per cent, while making layoffs out of bounds; how New York City Transit Authority wiped out graffiti, cut crime by 60 per cent, turned around basic operations, and began the long climb to becoming a customer-focused organization in what may be the toughest operating environment for a service business. These and other examples provide results which show what can happen when middle managers become real change leaders and are given free rein to do real work. Instead of the stereotypical report writers and information transmitters reviled in the business press, they assume a new role: the energizing linchpin between customers, employees and senior executives.