Author Archives: John Hunter

Poor Service from Amazon

Posted on January 11, 2008 by John Hunter

I like using Amazon, most of the time. But their decision to erect barriers for communication I find extremely annoying. Any time anything goes wrong you might as well be dealing with some organization in the middle of nowhere without … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Customer focus, Management, Process improvement | 6 Comments

Prediction Markets with Google Employees

Posted on January 10, 2008 by John Hunter

Another interesting experiment from Google: Using Prediction Markets to Track Information Flows: Evidence from Google In Google’s terminology, a market asks a question (e.g., “how many users will Gmail have?”) that has 2”5 possible mutually exclusive and completely exhaustive answers … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Data, Economics, Google, Psychology, Statistics, Systems thinking | Comments Off on Prediction Markets with Google Employees

Management Improvement Carnival #27

Posted on January 9, 2008 by John Hunter

The Management Improvement Carnival #27 (Best of 2007) has been posted by Ron Pereira. Highlights include: 10 Common Misconceptions About Lean Manufacturing: 1. Lean production = volume production. In Taiichi Ohno’s Workplace Management he suggested that the Toyota system was … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Comments Off on Management Improvement Carnival #27

Measuring the Health of Nations

Posted on January 8, 2008 by John Hunter

Measuring the Health of Nations: Updating an Earlier Analysis In a Commonwealth Fund-supported study comparing preventable deaths in 19 industrialized countries, researchers found that the United States placed last. While the other nations improved dramatically between the two study periods … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Health care, UK | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

IT Talent Shortage, or Management Failure?

Posted on January 7, 2008 by John Hunter

IT talent shortage, or management failure? [the broken link was removed] Is there a talent shortage? Only because employers have created it. The real shortage is in good management. Without proper seeding, feeding and cultivating, the IT community withers like … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, IT, Management, Software Development | Tagged | 7 Comments

Stratification and Systemic Thinking

Posted on January 6, 2008 by John Hunter

I am reading a fascinating book by Jessica Snyder Sachs: Good Germs, Bad Germs. From page 108: At New York Hospital, Eichenwald and infectious disease specialist Henry Shinefield conceived and developed a controversial program that entailed deliberately inoculating a newborn’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Data, Deming, Health care, Innovation, Management, Quality tools, Science, Statistics, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Six Sigma In New York Local Government

Posted on January 3, 2008 by John Hunter

New Erie County Government Executive, Chris Collins, discusses the director of six sigma position that will drive their new six sigma efforts. Related: Six Sigma for Erie County Government – Public Sector Management Improvement Site – Posts on improving management … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Public Sector, Six sigma, webcast | 2 Comments

It Just Works

Posted on January 2, 2008 by John Hunter

Does Your Product Or Service “Just Work”? By Jim Kukral That’s it. It’s the highest compliment you can get. “It just works” is a very powerful phrase in this day and age There is truth to that statement. I think … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Management, Quality tools | 2 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #26

Posted on January 1, 2008 by John Hunter

Please submit your favorite management posts to the carnival. Read the previous management carnivals. Lean and waiting by Aza Badurdeen – “Carefully mapping and identifying the value stream will make it possible to identify wastes in the office (or in … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Comments Off on Management Improvement Carnival #26

Communicating Change

Posted on December 29, 2007 by John Hunter

Response to: Sales Compensation Plan Changes [the broken link has been removed] I believe the best way to communicate such changes is to explain how they tie into the long term vision of the organization. This requires that such a … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments