Over the past two decades, the American business and academic community has produced hundreds, perhaps thousands, of management-type business books prodding and showing Americans how they can work smarter, get better results, and compete with those wily Asians ... By and large they all urge companies and managers to aspire to greatness by listening to their customers, championing innovation, fostering empowerment and leadership, and ratcheting up quality. Many companies have done very well following the advice contained in these books. Others have faltered. Such inconsistency is a result of two apparent flaws with many of these best-selling tomes. The books, with few exceptions, are mostly geared for managers and mostly preach using techniques on task-driven thinking, not critical thinking.