Lean & Six sigma sustain each other.
Lean is at its core a management system, a holistic way of looking at the way an enterprise manages itself through a culture tuned to improvement, group and personal responsability, while six sigma is a quantitative process of managing in quality by getting it right...
Management and power
Being in a position of senior management offers the opportunity for the exercise of power, and as we know, power corrupts. But why should it be so, and how can we protect ourselves, and our colleagues from the adverse impacts of power poorly exercised? It seems that...
Australia Day reconsidered.
Amidst all the public utterances on Australia Day by elected representatives keen to be seen for a moment on the tele, in print, or lauded in the blogosphere, calling for a wiser, more compassionate, considerate, and outward thinking Australia, ….. (add your own...
Successful on-line communities require a promise
Linux started with a promise, one that formed the basis of what has become a major player in the server operating system market, with a current share somewhere around 45%. Linus Torvalds back in 1991 posted the following message on a discussion board inhabited by...
Lean operations undermine “offshoring?”.
Some time ago I mused that perhaps the worm was slowing if not turning, in relation to local manufacturing, rather than buying in from China as the default option. The crisis in the US, far worse than anything in this country, had to lead to structural change in the...
Creativity and Innovation.
Often these two terms are used interchangeably, as synonyms, but that are not. Creativity is a part of the process of innovation, an integral and key part, but nevertheless, just a part. It is, as Sir Ken Robinson so memorably said in his great TED talk, "Creativity...
Marketing & Demand Chain Transparency
The retailer Patagonia has as a part of its corporate values a reverence for the environment, it is a core part of their corporate values, and highly relevant to their target market. They wear their hearts on their electronic sleeves by opening up their demand chain...
Search Engine Optimisation paradox
There are lots of people flogging various digitally sophisticated SEO techniques, and they appear to be making a living. However, it seems to me that after all this time most key words worth having, have been taken, registered, and everyone is following similar SEO...
Social media coming of age
Social media to many "50 something's" who run most of our large businesses, is just code for wasting time that should be spent productively, but the reality is that social media is rapidly evolving into a potent business tool in several pretty fundamental ways. As we...
Drivers of Innovation
Pixar is amongst the great "innovation factories" of recent decades, along with PARC, 3M, Apple, and a very few others. Part of what makes Pixar so effective is a question answered in this McKinsey interview with Brad Bird, the director who won two Oscars with...