Lessons from NUMMI
Whilst we observe the rather sudden tarnishing of Toyota's quality aura, it is easy to lose sight of the enormous value Toyota has given to our understanding of efficient and flexible manufacturing. The lessons are everywhere, there would not be a manufacturing...
To collaborate or not to collaborate
It seems that everywhere there is a drive to collaborate, without any real regard to the challenges of collaboration, the behavioral and cultural changes necessary for success. Collaboration has become an end in itself, rather than a strategy that has the potential to...
“iownership” of ipod IP
A while ago, I blogged about the ownership of IP, the individual Vs the employer, and quoted the case of a designer who left Mattel for their competitor, MGA Entertainment, created a competitor to "Barbie" and ended up in court over IP ownership, and lost. Now one of...
Social networking from work.
How do companies harness the power of social networking to the benefit of their businesses?. It is simply a fact that employees will go into facebook, twitter, and so on, using company time and resources, rather than trying to stop them, which King Canute found hard...
Supermarkets greening?
Trader Joes in the US is not a huge chain, but they are one of the ones to watch to see what the others will be doing in the future. Joes has a rich history of being different, and their customers love it. The latest move is to announce that they will be rapidly...
Web site optimisation
There are lots of web site optimisation tools around, including the free ones from Google which do a pretty good job, and there are many people around who will promise you the world by next Sunday. However, the tools are best used in selectively, conjunction with the...
Tour de brand
Building a brand is a "one bit at a time" exercise. Most aspiring brand managers look at Coke, Google, Microsoft, the local leader in their market, and think about how they can take them on, and win. The process is useful, but the reality is that you can't do it in...
Know your competitor
The only way to win is to attack, you can prevent being beaten by defense, but as any football coach knows, defense will not win. Same in business, you need to understand your strengths and weaknesses compared to the opposition, and exploit the strengths, whilst...
Busy is not the same as important
As a young bloke, I was given a "XY" graph that had "urgent, not urgent, important, not important" on the axes as a personal management tool. I was advised to concentrate my effort on the "Important, not urgent" quadrant, as those are the things that will make the...
Sclerosis of policy
Listening to the PM and Opposition leader the other day, "debating" the future of health care in this country, I felt a bit woozy. One of the biggest items in the budget, and certainly the item of huge interest to most Australians, and what do we get, nothing but more...