Profit Beyond Measure: Extraordinary Results Through Attention to Work and People.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey
• Position: Review

By H. Thomas Johnson and Anders Broms.

Free Press, 256 pages. $30.

Periodically, the business marketplace sees books based on applying the ideas of great leaders -- Lincoln or Alexander the Great, say -- to modern corporate strategy. Now, with Profit Beyond Measure, we have a book arguing that the natural world serves as a model for successful corporations.

We're not talking about survival of the fittest here. Authors Johnson, a professor at Portland State University in Oregon, and Broms, a Swedish consultant, argue that production success comes from three precepts "that guide all living systems: self-organization, interdependence and diversity." As examples, they offer detailed analyses of processes at Japanese carmaker Toyota and Scania, the Swedish...