Monthly Archives: May 2009

Pixar Movie Management Magic

Image of Wall-e, from the Pixar film of the same name. Pixar’s secrets on display in ‘Up’ “I think it comes down to two basic things: one is that we’re run by artists. … John Lasseter is a film director, … Continue reading

Posted in Management, Management Articles, Respect | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

CEOs Want Health-Care Reform

Decades ago Dr. Deming emphasized the deadly disease of excessive health care costs in the USA. Since then, year after year, the situation has become worse (reaching $2.2 trillion in spending in 2007 – 16.2% of GDP). During that time … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Economics, Health care | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

In-N-Out Burger’s Six Secrets for Success

In-N-Out Burger’s six secrets for out-and-out success [the broken link was removed] Listen to Your Customers — One of the company’s mottos is “Our customer is everything.” Applying that belief led to the company policy of preparing burgers just the … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Customer focus, Management, Respect | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Google’s Innovative Use of Economics

Secret of Googlenomics: Data-Fueled Recipe Brews Profitability Google depends on economic principles to hone what has become the search engine of choice for more than 60 percent of all Internet surfers, and the company uses auction theory to grease the … Continue reading

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Management Improvement Carnival #64

Mike Wroblewski is hosting the Management Improvement Carnival #64 on the Got Boondoggle? blog, highlights include: Daily Scrum against the Board by Xavier Quesada Allue-“A good way to know if your team is using their taskboard to really manage their … Continue reading

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Warren Buffett Answers Shareholder’s Questions – 2009

Each year Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger answer questions in front of crowds of tens of thousands of Berkshire Hathaway shareholders in Omaha, Nebraska. The question and answer sessions provide great wisdom on economics, investing and management. Here are some … Continue reading

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Revealed Preference

Revealed Preference: the preference consumers display by their action, in contrast to what they may say they prefer. While surveys may be useful people often say they will do one thing and actually when given the choice to do so, … Continue reading

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Psychology, Statistics | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Dr. Russell Ackoff Webcast on Systems Thinking

Dr. Ackoff is one of two management thinkers that any manager, that is serious about improving management results in their organization, should study (the other is Dr. Deming). There are plenty of others that are also great resources. From part … Continue reading

Posted in Creativity, Deming, Management, quote, Science, Systems thinking, webcast | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #63

Also visit the Curious Cat Management Library for online management improvement articles. What You Can Learn Zappos by Robert Scoble – “6. Train, train and train some more. Zappos has a whole department that puts together classes. Your pay goes … Continue reading

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Toyota Posts Loss of $6.9 Billion in Last Quarter

Toyota Posts Loss of $6.9 Billion in Last Quarter For January-March, Toyota booked a $6.9 billion loss, in line with consensus estimates, and cut its annual dividend nearly 30 percent — the first cut since at least 1994, when it … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Investing, Management, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment