Monthly Archives: March 2009

Out of the Crisis Seminar

Posted on March 31, 2009 by John Hunter

I will be co-presenting an Out of the Crisis seminar for the W. Edwards Deming Institute next month, April 20-22, in Philadelphia. Companies around the world are on the brink of destruction. When they get bailed out, or economies improve, they won’t survive if they continue to make products and provide services the same way as before, with the same style of management. They need to change. It was the ideas of an American, W. Edwards Deming, that transformed Japanese … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Deming, Management | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Management Blog Posts From December 2005

Posted on March 30, 2009 by John Hunter

One of my long time campaigns is to raise awareness of the huge problems caused by massively excessive executive pay. As I said in my December 2005 post: The executive pay excesses are so great now they will force companies to choose to: take huge risks to justify such pay and then go bankrupt when such risks fail (and some will succeed making it appear that the pay was deserved rather than just the random chance of taking a large … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Management Articles | Tagged , ,

Jeff Bezos Spends a Week Working in Amazon’s Kentucky Distribution Center

Posted on March 28, 2009 by John Hunter

Photo of Jeff Bezos during the 2005 O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference by James Duncan. Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO, is working for a week in Amazon’s Kentucky distribution center. I hope, and based on his past, I believe, that he is going to the gemba (Genchi Genbutsu) to learn more about how Amazon operates. That would be great. He worked on wall street and understands the fake constraints they attempt to put companies (you must focus on short term profits, you … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Creativity, Customer focus, Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Process improvement, Psychology, quote, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Combinatorial Testing for Software

Posted on March 26, 2009 by John Hunter

Combinatorial testing of software is very similar to the design of experiments work my father was involved in, and which I have a special interest in. Combinatorial testing looks at binary interaction effects (success or failure), since it is seeking to find bugs in software, while design of experiments captures the magnitude of interaction effects on performance. In the last several years my brother, Justin Hunter, has been working on using combinatorial testing to improve software development practices. He visited … Continue reading →

Posted in Design of Experiments, Process improvement, Quality tools, Software Development | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

How to Create a Control Chart for Seasonal or Trending Data

Posted on March 25, 2009 by John Hunter

Lynda Finn, President of Statistical Insight, has written an article on how to create a control chart for seasonal or trending data (where there is an underlying structural variation in the data). Essentially you need to account for the structural variation to create the control limits for the control chart. She also provides a Minitab project file. Both are available for download from the Curious Cat Management Improvement Library. Related: Control Charts in Health Care – Common Cause Variation – … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools, Science, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Knowledge, Imagination, Innovation and Risk

Posted on March 23, 2009 by John Hunter

A consumer can seldom say today what new product or new service would be desirable and useful to him three years from now, or a decade from now. New product and new types of service are generated, not by asking the consumer, but by knowledge, imagination, innovation, risk, trial and error on the part of the producer, backed by enough capital to develop the product or service and to stay in business during the lean months of introduction. W. Edwards … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Creativity, Customer focus, Deming, Innovation, Management | Tagged , ,

Management Improvement Carnival #58

Posted on March 20, 2009 by John Hunter

Submit suggestions for the management improvement carnival. Visit the Curious Cat Management Library for online management improvement articles. No Blame Thinking by Mike Wroblewski – “It’s not who’s wrong, it’s what’s wrong. It’s not who’s right, it’s what’s right. All other thinking leads to hiding the truth, distorting the information and covering up the problem” Three Sigma Bubble? Nonsense! by Marc Hersch – “Grantham’s argument is fallacious. The assumption underlying the use of three-sigma limits is that the system being … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged , ,

Customer Friendly Terms of Use Language

Posted on March 19, 2009 by John Hunter

The Aviary web site provides a very nice example of customer focus. They provide the legalese version of the terms of use and then explain what this actually mean in is simple terms. Good job. Legalese example 2. SITE CONTENT. The Site and its contents are intended solely for the use of Aviary Users and may only be used in accordance with the terms of this Agreement. All materials displayed or performed on the Site, other than content developed or … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Psychology | Tagged , ,

NCAA Basketball Challenge 2009

Posted on March 17, 2009 by John Hunter

Once again I have created a group on the ESPN NCAA Basketball Tournament Challenge for curiouscat college basketball fans. To participate, go to the curiouscat ESPN group and make your picks. I also created a second challenge, using Sportsline, that rewards picking upsets. The password for this one is cat. Those readers that enjoy the tournament, please join the fun. Go Badgers,

Posted in Fun

USA Spent $2.2 Trillion or $7,421 Per Person on Health Care in 2007

Posted on March 16, 2009 by John Hunter

Health spending in the United States grew 6.1 percent in 2007, to $2.2 trillion or $7,421 per person. For comparison the total GDP per person in China is $6,100. This continues the trend of health care spending taking an every increasing portion of the economic output (the economy grew by 4.8 percent in 2007). This brings health care spending to 16.2% of GDP (which is yet another, in a string of record high percentages of GDP spent on health care). … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Economics, Health care | Tagged , ,

ER Checklist

Posted on March 13, 2009 by John Hunter

The popular ER TV show highlighted the importance of using checklists in surgery yesterday. Such powerful quality tools, like the checklist, are just waiting to be used. But far too many fail to use these simple improvement tools. And in health care those failures are potentially critical. Related: Checklists Save Lives – The Power of a Checklist – management improvement dictionary – Articles on Improving the Health Care System

Posted in Health care, Quality tools, webcast | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Harvard’s Masters of the Apocalypse

Posted on March 11, 2009 by John Hunter

This article makes some good points, even if it is a bit sensationalist, and intentionally so: Harvard’s masters of the apocalypse by Philip Delves Broughton Business schools have shown a remarkable ability to miss the economic catastrophes unfolding before their eyes. In the late 1990s, their faculties rushed to write paeans to Enron, the firm of the future, the new economic paradigm. The admiration was mutual: Enron was stuffed with Harvard Business School alumni, from Jeff Skilling, the chief executive, … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #57

Posted on March 10, 2009 by John Hunter

Submit suggestions for the management improvement carnival. Also see the management Reddit (what is this Reddit thing?). 20 cynical project management tips by Michael Krigsman – “Projects with realistic budgets and timetables don’t get approved… If you don’t know where you’re going, just talk about specifics… A realist is one who’s presciently disappointed in the future.” Giving ERP Systems the Finger by Mike Wroblewski – “Anyone of us in business today that has to deal with ERP systems knows that … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged

Community Banks Ask Why They Must Pay for Wall Street Greed

Posted on March 7, 2009 by John Hunter

Minnesota Bank Asks Why It Pays for Wall Street Greed TCF is among more than 8,300 banks and lenders insured by the FDIC facing increased fees and a one-time “emergency” charge designed to raise $27 billion this year for the agency’s depleted coffers. … Community banks rely more on deposit funding, so they suffer a “much heavier burden” as a result of deposit insurance proportionate to size than peers such as New York-based Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co., … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Friday Fun: Correlation

Posted on March 6, 2009 by John Hunter

From the excellent xkcd comic. Related: Correlation is Not Causation – Does the Data Deluge Make the Scientific Method Obsolete? – Understanding Data – Theory of Knowledge – What Makes Scientists Different 🙂 – Dangers of Forgetting the Proxy Nature of Data – Seeing Patterns Where None Exists

Posted in Data, Fun, Science, Statistics | Tagged , ,

Management Improvement Carnival #56

Posted on March 2, 2009 by John Hunter

Submit suggestions for the management improvement carnival. Can you Buy a Silicon Valley? Maybe. by Paul Graham – “For the price of a football stadium, any town that was decent to live in could make itself one of the biggest startup hubs in the world. What’s more, it wouldn’t take very long. You could probably do it in five years.” [Excellent essay, I wrote about what makes Silicon Valley special on the Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog.] Error Proofing … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged