Tag Archives: management

YouTube Uses Multivariate Experiment To Improve Sign-ups 15%

Google does a great job of using statistical and engineering principles to improve. It is amazing how slow we are to adopt new ideas but because we are it provides big advantages to companies like Google that use concepts like … Continue reading

Posted in Customer focus, Data, Design of Experiments, Google, IT, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools, quote, Science, Software Development, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Bogus Theories, Bad for Business

The Wall Street Journal has a book review of The Management Myth by Matthew Stewart. The book flushes out the ideas Matthew Stewert explored in a previous article in the Atlantic about the failure of management to mature as a … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Science | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Bogus Theories, Bad for Business

When Performance-related Pay Backfires

When Economic Incentives Backfire by Samuel Bowles, Sante Fe Institute Dozens of recent experiments show that rewarding self-interest with Economic incentives can backfire when they undermine what Adam Smith called “the moral sentiments.” Punished by Rewards, by Alfie Kohn, is … Continue reading

Posted in Competition, Data, Deming, Economics, Management, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, quote, Statistics, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Akio Toyoda’s Message Shows Real Leadership

Speech by Akio Toyoda Since the birth of Toyota, the company’s philosophy has always been to “contribute to society.” … “Contributing to society” at Toyota means two things. First, it means, “to manufacture automobiles that meet the needs of society … Continue reading

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Manufacturing, quote, Systems thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Peter Scholtes

Peter Scholtes died peacefully this morning [11 July 2009] in Madison, Wisconsin. His family was with him. My father wrote about the First Street Garage project in W. Edwards Deming’s Out of the Crisis (pages 245-247). Peter (who was working … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Management, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 34 Comments

Management By IT Crowd Bosses

The IT Crowd is a great BBC show on an IT support office in a large organization. The IT staff are knowledgeable and tired of dealing with foolish users of IT. And you wouldn’t want to watch for any customer … Continue reading

Posted in IT, Management, Psychology, Respect | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

United Breaks Guitars

Unfortunately companies like United have created cultures where people take pride in doing their job poorly. And the continued long term customer hostility companies take shows no sign of letting up. My suggestion is to take Southwest or Jet Blue … Continue reading

Posted in Customer focus, Management, webcast | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

The Trouble with Performance Reviews by Jeffrey Pfeffer

The Trouble with Performance Reviews [the broken link was removed] by Jeffrey Pfeffer Managers don’t like giving appraisals, and employees don’t like getting them. Perhaps they’re not liked because both parties suspect what the evidence has proved for decades: Traditional … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Performance Appraisal, Respect, Systems thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Top 10 Reasons Why Employees Leave in IT

Some of the problems expressed in the post linked to are specific to IT, and some are more important in software development (where as I have said before employees have higher expectations of management than most employees do), but many … Continue reading

Posted in IT, Management, Software Development | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

If Your Staff Doesn’t Bring You Problems That is a Bad Sign

The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership. … Continue reading

Posted in Management, Process improvement | Tagged , | 5 Comments