Featured Clients: Niklas Modig & Pär Åhlström
Featured Clients & Their Books:
This Is Lean: Resolving the Efficiency Paradox, by Niklas Modig & Pär Åhlström
When Dr. Pär Åhlström (Chair of the Business Administration department at the Stockholm School of Economics) approached me requesting Edit911’s book editing services on This is Lean, I was excited by the prospect of working with him and his co-author Dr. Niklas Modig. Already the #1 best-selling management book in Sweden, This is Lean had rapidly earned the reputation as the definitive, cutting-edge authority on not only management in general, but the healthcare industry, social welfare, organizational structure, and corporate leadership as well. This is Lean is used by companies such as Scania and Ericsson, all major hospitals, the social insurance agency and many others as a key part of their transformation efforts. It has become a tool for organization development, as it helps organizations create a common mindset and shared understanding.
So why would such successful authorities in their field—such highly praised and accomplished professionals with the #1 best-selling book in its genre—come to Edit911 for editing services? Because they wanted to reprint the book for a wider European audience and perceived a need for yet another round of careful editing, customized toward assuring that all the language complied with the rules of UK English.
After consulting with Dr. Åhlström in numerous emails, we came to fully understand his goals and objectives for our book editing: “ A first challenge,” Dr. Åhlström explains, “was the fact that we worked under intense time pressure. Yet, Edit911 managed to deliver very fast service and with a very high quality and attention to detail.”
“Even more important than the speed,” Dr. Åhlström continues, “the key challenge was to help us reach our goal of making the text really readable. We wanted the language to be more ‘charming’ than ’formal’. We wanted a personal tone and active language. Even though the book is based on sound academic thinking and theories, we did not want it to have an academic tone and style. We wanted it as far away as possible from the traditional academic tone and style. We also did not mind, and indeed encouraged, a personal touch. We did not want a passive voice in the text. We also tried to build in humor in the text. Edit911 achieved—indeed exceeded—all of our expectations and objectives with their extraordinary editing.”
Once we completed our rounds of editing, Dr. Åhlström said this about our work: “We are exceedingly happy with your editing services, and will no doubt come back with more (and also recommend your editing service to colleagues here at the department).”
You may read more about and order This is Lean at www.thisislean.com
You may contact Dr. Åhlström directly at: par.ahlstrom at gmail dot com
