Category Archives: Respect

Hire People You Can Trust to Do Their Job

How great companies turn crisis into opportunity The right people don’t need to be managed. The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you’ve made a hiring mistake. The right people don’t think they have a job: They … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Management, Management Articles, Psychology, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Jeff Bezos and Root Cause Analysis

Using quality tools really works. Lots of people don’t use them. Improving is often not any more difficult than just applying tools that have been used for decades. Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Management, Quality tools, Respect | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

A Programmer’s View of the Universe

A few weeks ago I wrote about integrating information technology and business process management. This post from Steve Yegge is interesting and discusses one reason I find that a good strategy. Programmers, by and large, are good, practical systems thinkers … Continue reading

Posted in Creativity, Management, Respect, Software Development | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Cutting Hours Instead of People

When financial and economic realities reach the point that labor costs must be cut I believe a good option to consider is cutting hours (and pay) instead of people. Continue reading

Posted in Career, Creativity, Deming, Innovation, Management, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Managing Passionate Employees

Passion vs. Productive There are actually few organizations that can support passionate employees – even if they say they want them. That’s because the original industrial revolution was designed to support productivity. Productivity means you produce. That’s how you’re measured. … Continue reading

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Creating Customers For Life

Shopping at Trader Joe’s is odd. The workers actually seem like they like that they have customers. Continue reading

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Some Firms Cut Costs Without Resorting to Layoffs

Some Firms Cut Costs Without Resorting to Layoffs Hypertherm Inc. has never laid off a permanent employee in its 40-year history. A 20% downturn in sales in recent months led the closely held maker of metal-cutting equipment to eliminate overtime, … Continue reading

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How Private Equity Strangled Mervyns

I do not like the actions of many in “private equity.” I am a big fan of capitalism. I just object to those that unjustly take from the other stakeholders involved. It is not the specific facts of this case, … Continue reading

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Family Business Gives $6.6 million in Bonuses to Workers

The PEER Bearing Company (a manufacturer of bearings based in Illinois) was bought out by a Swedish company this year. The family that had owned the company gave surprise bonuses of $6.6 million to the 230 employees of the company … Continue reading

Posted in Management, Respect | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Thanksgiving: Micro-financing Entrepreneurs

This is a post from my Curious Cat Investing and Economics Blog. For me, giving back to others is part of my personal financial plan. As I have said most people that are actually able to read this are financially … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Respect | Tagged , , | 3 Comments