Management is failing to educate workers on the workings and benefits

Example: “if employees were to save $50,000.00 per year by correcting a recurring shipping problem, the saving would go directly to the bottom line.  If their company was retaining 10% of its total revenue (after expenses), that $ 50, 000.00 contribution represents $500,000 that does not have to be sold.  In a tight economy how many jobs might...

Prosperity depends on survival.  To survive and prosper, companies and

employees must accept that doing more with less is the new normal.  Marginal performers not only fail to carry a fair share of the load, they eat up an inordinate amount of resources because of needless waste and rework.  More importantly, marginal performers inhibit the generation...

structure a business with a scalable model that can accommodate the inevitable

I began my role as senior VP international operations, by reviewing the performance of offshore sites around the world.  Most were profitable, but a few existed only to serve large international clients who demanded  global capacity from their suppliers. The UK office employed a skeleton staff with  expenses cut to the bone.   Five people with...

Remaining competitive while coping with a never ending stream of financial

, regulatory, legal, and operational issues, presents business owners with an unprecedented array of challenges.  Pursuing tomorrow’s opportunities, while at the same time resolving today’s problems, will demand higher and higher levels of performance excellence—particularly...

Unbeknownst to most of us, we walk around in an altered state almost all

We perform our act to get people to believe us; or trust us, or follow us, or respect us, etc. without them or us  realizing what our hidden agenda is about. To make it work, we bring to bear all the skills, characteristics and qualities we have developed over the years and put them in the service of our default purpose. For 99% of the world’s population...

The difference between ’changing’ and ’transforming’ is that change

Transformationt more closely resembles the true meaning of education: from its Latin root e-ducare, to draw out…as in drawing water from a well. Think of the transformation described herein  as drawing new water out of your old well by going deeper than you have ever dipped before. The way to get a bucket deeper into your well is by addressing powerful...

Eli Goldratt, a world-class physicist, used his scientific prowess to

study a failing manufacturing plant owned by his brother. Findings turned the business around and inspired Eli to write a best-selling book called The Goal where he introduced his “Theory of Key .Constraint.”  Unfortunately,  rigid organizational structures and chain...

Effective companies manage by process-discipline--the equivelant of writing

In the music world, composers remain aloof from the inner workings of orchestras.  They remain process not execution oriented—they focus on what could be (if delivered properly). The job of the conductor and section leaders (management and supervision) is to select scores, attract and develop talent that can read music (rather than play by ear)...

Should the owners of small to midsize businesses be worried about the

...

Businesses that survived our prolonged recession deserve respect—but

To prosper in recovery, CEOs may have to shake off “hunker down” behaviors that helped them survive.  Success will depend on a company’s capacity to quickly, assess, decide, initiate, and eliminate.  Futurist David Houle calls this era the “shift-age”. He suggests that the ground will continue to move under our feet. Only...