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Monthly Archives: January 2010
One at a time.
Scientific method calls for experimentation where you vary one variable at a time, observe the effect, making further changes only after consideration of the cause and effect relationships in the first experiment are understood. Unfortunately, this is the opposite approach … Continue reading
Posted in Change, Management, OE, Operations
Tagged change management, lean, Operations
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The school scorecard.
The Australian Government has finally grasped the nettle and created a web site that is supposed to keep “score” on the performance of Australian schools, much too the chagrin of the rent seekers in the education sector, primarily the teachers … Continue reading
Product brief is not a Design brief
Product development is most often a process that in its early stages is dominated by technical considerations after the initial idea is articulated. It is about the dimensions, performance characteristics, functionality, features, technology platform, and so on. Typically the product … Continue reading
Art is risk
Good art is never boring, it always “says” something new, irrespective of weather it is a drawing, a poem, a piece of music, a hairstyle, or anything else, it is never safe, predictable, and attractive to everyone. Defenders of the … Continue reading
Posted in Change, Innovation, Leadership
Tagged Change, communication, Innovation, Marketing
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Google does it again.
The Google phone, perhaps “G-phone” is another transformational innovation in this industry driven by the most consistent innovator of the last decade. The standard business model in the mobile phone industry has been to effectively give the phones away in … Continue reading
Henry was not the first.
It is generally accepted that Henry Ford was the first to automate production along a line, dramatically increasing productivity and reducing costs as a result. Not the case. There were remarkable instances of mass production much earlier, the most interesting … Continue reading
Parable of the bungled baggage.
Customers remember the best and the worst. When you absolutely “nail” it, they remember, and when you absolutely “stuff” it, they also remember, but guess which one they remember when you do both. The parable of the bungled baggage, and … Continue reading
Machine utilisation & efficiency, only half the story.
Machine utilisation and machine efficiency are probably the most commonly used KPI’s used to measure the performance of factory management. Both serve a purpose, but they do not by any means describe the “whole”. The factor that completes the … Continue reading
Green is now mainstream
Like it or not, “Green” is now mainstream, and the market, not the motley bunch of politicians, bureaucrats, activists, and assorted hangers-on who showed up to the failed Copenhagen party, will determine what happens. Make no mistake, this is a … Continue reading
The siren song of services.
Manufacturing is fundamentally important to a thriving, vibrant economy, and the notion that the economy can evolve and grow based on services alone is nonsense. If we ever needed evidence, just look at the impact of the GFC on the … Continue reading
Risk and reward of social media.
I wonder at the success of social media, the apparent contradiction between the convention driven and often stilted behavior that occurs face to face, and the lack of inhibition displayed on social media. Perhaps this is because the social media … Continue reading
What is a brand?
A brand is the expression of consumers equity in a product offering. This offering is a mix of tangible and intangible factors, a bundle of benefits, each being inter-related to the others in ways that may vary depending on the … Continue reading
Responsiveness and responsibility go together.
In a small business, every action has someone responsible for it, whereas in a large organisation , or worse, a public bureaucracy, nobody has responsibility for the dumb things they do, they just become an automatically imposed “rule” that carries the … Continue reading
Posted in Management, Marketing, Small business
Tagged change management, Marketing, SME
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Successful alliances manage the dissimilarities.
Alliances form because organizations have similarities, and commonalities that promise synergy. However, most alliances fail because they fail to manage the areas if dissimilarity. Leo Tolstoy remarked that happy marriages were the result of the manner in which partners dealt … Continue reading
Posted in Demand chains, Management, Strategy
Tagged Alliance management, demand chain, Management, Value chain
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A tiger of an opportunity
Ironic isn’t it, Tiger Woods has had his squeeky clean image trashed, and in the process has dropped hundreds of millions in endorsements, but his profile has never been higher. Gossip columns, serious discussion in the business pages, piles of … Continue reading
Resilience is a requirement for demand chains.
Evolving a demand chain requires great resilience from all parties involved, it is new territory every time it is addressed because all situations are different, and developing a set of rules for implementation has not yet been done well, … Continue reading
Breadth of kaizen
Over many years, the best marketers I have come across have been trained as scientists, in a wide range of disciplines, many had no formal marketing training. Took me a long time to figure it out, the scientifically trained people … Continue reading
Posted in Change, Management, OE, Operations
Tagged change management, Management, Operations
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So, a new decade.
Is it just a date, or does it signify a new beginning? A bit of both I suspect, and forecasting the future should be left to the ladies in tents at the circus, but a couple of things we know … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Management, Strategy
Tagged Management, Personal Rant, Strategy
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