James Swartz

In 1976, Jim Swartz became manager of an electronics manufacturing plant. Faced with intense competition, he and his management team conducted a worldwide study of the manufacturing and engineering practices of the world’s best manufacturing operations. They then adopted the best manufacturing practices available at the time including JIT and TQC. Working with unions and employees, they aggressively cut costs and improved customer satisfaction. The rate of improvement was dramatic - tenfold improvements in quality and cycle time and 30 - 40% improvement in productivity in less than six months. Many operations originally slated to move to Singapore and Mexico were improved at such high rates they were kept in the US.

This impressed Swartz on what could be done when people have the expertise and willingly commit to nearly impossible objectives.

For the next ten years, he continued to lead aggressive lean manufacturing initiatives that dramatically improve manufacturing operations. In 1986, he turned his attention to helping companies find and seize new product or market opportunities and to redesign their product development and engineering processes to reduce time to market and improve the productivity of engineering operations.

He has made it his life work to help organizations find and seize opportunities to be great. To do this, he has researched the basic technical and strategic principles, drivers, mind changes, and methods that lead to rapid dramatic improvements. He has also studied and applied what it takes to develop and sustain aggressive improvement cultures.

He is current president of the University of Illinois Physics Alumni Association.

He is also the founder of Cygnus Systems Inc., a computer imaging design and manufacturing operation. He founded Competitive Action in 1987, and is the current chairman. He is the author of the bestseller The Hunters and the Hunted. published by Productivity Press, New York, NY. The book provides a systematic approach to transforming businesses by creating and implementing dramatic, non-linear improvements.