Posts Tagged ‘ Business strategy ’

So, will culture help me grow my business?

January 23, 2012
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So, will culture help me grow my business?

All business is, to one degree or another, a volume business. The size of a business is determined by its revenues. While nearly every improvement school focuses on lowering costs – do they help to increase revenue? Most businesses will live within a certain margin that is reasonable within the company’s industry. True growth, however, occurs by selling more and increasing the volume of dollars flowing in. So, how can a business see the impact of adopting progressive cultural experiments on total, overall dollars at its disposal? If you had asked me up until a...

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Product Innovation captures the imagination; Process innovation captures markets

January 16, 2012
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Product Innovation captures the imagination; Process innovation captures markets

Is the run that Apple has had on its decline? It could very well be. Although the innovations introduced there have been the stuff of modern-day fables, the sustainability of the business model appears to be suffering in the face of competition that was content to be a second-mover. Straight out of business school textbooks, the second mover has the advantage of watching the first invest heavily in changing the landscape of the market. While Apple has certainly redefined the market over the past decade or two, it seems that its strength is faltering. ...

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It’s not your management, it’s a “labor market mismatch”

January 12, 2012
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It’s not your management, it’s a “labor market mismatch”

What's being done right now to make sure that the workforce they have today will be able to meet the needs of the future, or will we be hearing about this labor market mismatch in the future, too? Are businesses really just hoping that the right graduates come out of college with the necessary skills, or that mid-career pros will be able to utilize existing skills in entirely new ways, or are they providing guidance and resources so that the labor pool stays stocked with talent?

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Shattering the rules: The too hard pile

January 4, 2012
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Shattering the rules: The too hard pile

It is because of fear that we look at change as being too hard. We believe the obstacles insurmountable. The deck is stacked against us, or maybe we just don’t know how – so we fear looking foolish if we fail. So we don’t try. We throw things on the Too Hard pile and forget about them. We throw them there, so we don’t try and we just accept. We accept until we start to believe things are this way for a reason. We believe long enough to start to defend it,...

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$50,000 and time served

November 10, 2011
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There is a company called SIB Development and Consulting in Charleson, SC where, after working there for 5 years, you are rewarded with a $50,000 cash bonus just for your 5 years of service. (See the CNN Money article here.) At first, this might seem like a wonderful incentive program. Unfortunately, the program highlights what might be the greatest problem fcing the business world: the belief that people can be bought, and the alarming number of people who are willing to sell.

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Lean for Life – Value, Overproduction Waste and the Triple Constraint Model at Work

October 19, 2011
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Lean for Life – Value, Overproduction Waste and the Triple Constraint Model at Work

So often we read in management or personal development books that we should look to exceed expectations or to go ‘above and beyond’ for our bosses or customer. But do our customers truly value all the ‘extra’ that you’ve provided if you’re no longer delivering exactly what they asked for?

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Thinking about value: Who’s your most important person?

October 14, 2011
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Thinking about value: Who’s your most important person?

Let's say that an organization is not measured by the ability of those who are in positions of power to control subordinates, but by the value that the organization transfers to its customers. In this sense, order and control are necessary, but they are not sufficient, for a high-performing organization. Also, if seen this way, the management ranks exist only to initiate the transfer of value - they do not create it and they certainly don't place it in the customer's hands.

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6 Quick Lean Leadership Lessons

October 5, 2011
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Today’s manufacturing plants are busy places.  While the factory has always been home to long hours and hard work, it certainly seems like the pressure has been turned up a notch or two over the years.  The Lean Manufacturing journey can and will improve your operation yet time is still a factor.  Training and development often suffer when it’s crunch time. Terry Starbucker notes that time is a hindrance for training in many businesses when he states, “Sometimes it’s hard to get their full attention for 10 minutes, much less the time it would take to do a full-scale...

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Article Review: Supply Chain at the C-level

September 30, 2011
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Article Review: Supply Chain at the C-level

  Michael Koplov over at softwareadvice.com contacted me last week to write a review of his article, Consumer-Driven Technology Creates the Need for a C-Level Supply Chain Focus. The article focuses on the ascension of Tim Cook to the CEO position at Apple, following Steve Jobs’ decision to step down from the position due to health-related issues.  More accurately, Michael discusses Cook’s background in manufacturing and, even more accurately, in supply chain.  He writes: What’s most surprising about Cook’s move up the ladder at places like IBM, Compaq and then Apple, however, isn’t his track record or reputation, it’s...

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Guest Post: Is your business a small business?

August 22, 2011
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Consider hiring generalists rather than specialists…. Too often small businesses focus on hiring individuals with specialist skills early on in the business. I have seen a fair number of small businesses fail because the right folks weren’t in place to help the business get off the ground. First, let’s define the two: Specialists are individuals who have expert knowledge in a particular field – for example, an accountant or CPA or a Java software developer or a divorce attorney. Generalists, on the other hand, have a wide array of knowledge and are not necessarily expert in any one field...

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Site Creator & Author: David M. Kasprzak

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