Category Archives: Books

Ackoff’s New Book: Management f-Laws

Posted on February 9, 2007 by John Hunter

Russell Ackoff is in London promoting his new book: Management f-Laws (see previous post: Ackoff’s F-laws: Common Sins of Management). A BBC article captures some of some of the great ideas from one of his talks (more articles… by Ackoff). How to avoid the fatal F-Laws by Peter Day: “Companies and organisations get things wrong most of the time,” he said. “The average life of a US corporation is only 11-and-a-half years, the rate of bankruptcy is increasing very year. … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Deming, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #3

Posted on January 16, 2007 by John Hunter

More links to interesting management improvement blog posts. Lean IT – what comes first, technology or waste reduction? by Kent Blumberg – “rather than pushing technology on people and processes (the traditional top-down approach), Toyota looks to the people and processes to pull the technology they need to support their decision making.” Who Is GM’s Customer? by Dan Markovitz – “The average car buyer can’t calculate the cost of GM’s excess inventory, of course, but they don’t need to. That … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Carnival, IT, Management | 2 Comments

Breakthrough Thinking the Toyota Way

Posted on January 9, 2007 by John Hunter

The Elegant Solution: Breakthrough Thinking the Toyota Way (pdf) by Matthew May: One Million. That’s how many ideas Toyota implements each year. Do the math: 3000 ideas a day. That number, more than anything else, explains why Toyota appears to be in a league all their own, playing offense on a field of innovation, while their competitors remain caught in a crossfire of cost-cutting. Here’s the thing: it’s not about the cars. It’s about ideas. And the people with those … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Creativity, Innovation, Management, Management Articles, Toyota Production System (TPS)

Create Your Own Book

Posted on December 26, 2006 by John Hunter

I received a custom made photo book from my brother. It is amazing. It is a hardcover book, full of photos. The quality is amazing. The book is printed by blurb. Looking on their web site the pricing is surprisingly cheap: 150 page full color hardcover book – $39.95 (for 1 copy! – 10% discount at 25 copies…), as little as $18.95 for a full color softcover book up to 40 pages. The site says books are normally printed in … Continue reading →

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Workplace Management by Taiichi Ohno

Posted on December 14, 2006 by John Hunter

Workplace Management [the broken link was removed] by Taiichi Ohno, translated by Jon Miller. This classic work by the founding father of the Toyota Production System returns to print in a new translation. Ohno delivers timeless lessons on how to effectively manage the gemba – actual place or work. He relates stories from across his nearly 40 years of struggle to establish the Toyota Production System as both a mindset and supporting behaviors of constant improvement. In the book’s 37 … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Lean thinking, Management | Tagged , , , ,

Not Innovation but Still Interesting

Posted on October 5, 2006 by John Hunter

10 years of the most innovative ideas in business in not packed with ideas on innovation: it was obviously titled by someone hoping to catch the interest of those following the innovation fad. Still it has interesting stories originally published in Fast Company, including: How to Give Good Feedback [the broken link was removed] by Seth Godin The Accidental Guru (on Malcolm Gladwell) by Danielle Sacks Built to Flip [the broken link was removed] by Jim Collins A Design for … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Innovation, Management | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

More Lean Manufacturing Podcasts

Posted on September 2, 2006 by John Hunter

Another resource is providing worthwhile lean manufacturing podcasts. The first of an eight video podcast series by Gary Conner [the broken link was removed] is available now. He is author of Lean Manufacturing for the Small Shop (Shingo Prize – winner [the broken link was removed]) is a good introduction to lean manufacturing ideas. Related: blog posts on management improvement webcasts – Google Videocasts on Customer Focus – Lean Podcast: Bodek – Lean Blog: Liker Gary Conner also wrote Six … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Lean thinking, Management Articles, webcast | Tagged

Permanent Innovation

Posted on August 31, 2006 by John Hunter

Langdon Morris has written a new book: Permanent Innovation [the broken link was removed]. There is a blog [the broken link was removed] and web site too. The book builds upon his article, Business Model Warfare: Furthermore, the core of the innovation value proposition need not be built around a technology per se. In the examples cited above – Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Nike, Visa, Dell, Fedex, Home Depot, Southwest Airlines, and Ford (in the early days) – proprietary technologies play … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Innovation, Systems thinking

Graban Interviews Liker

Posted on August 31, 2006 by John Hunter

Another excellent podcast from the Lean Blog: Dr. Jeffrey Liker. Dr. Liker discusses the subtleties of doing actually doing lean versus talking about doing lean. Dr. Liker has authored: The Toyota Way, The Toyota Way Fieldbook and The Toyota Product Development System: Integrating People, Process And Technology. His consulting firm is: Optiprise. True lean management is not instant pudding. The more knowledgeable people are about lean practices the less they focus on quick fixes and the more they talk about … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Toyota Production System (TPS), webcast

Gladwell (and Drucker) on Pensions

Posted on August 21, 2006 by John Hunter

The Risk Poolhttps://management.curiouscatblog.net/2006/08/21/gladwell-and-drucker-on-pensions/ by Malcolm Gladwell (author of The Tipping Point and Blink): The most influential management theorist of the twentieth century was Peter Drucker, who, in 1950, wrote an extraordinarily prescient article for Harper’s entitled “The Mirage of Pensions.” It ought to be reprinted for every steelworker, airline mechanic, and autoworker who is worried about his retirement. Drucker simply couldn’t see how the pension plans on the table at companies like G.M. could ever work. “For such a plan … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Economics, Health care, Investing, Management, Popular, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Ackoff, Idealized Design and Bell Labs

Posted on August 20, 2006 by John Hunter

Excerpt from Idealized Design: How to Dissolve Tomorrow’s Crisis…Today by Russell L. Ackoff, Jason Magidson and Herbert J. Addison: How Bell Labs Imagined — and Created — the Telephone System of the Future in the 1950s. Great stuff and another example showing the obsession with “new” ideas is wasteful. Idealized design is a way of thinking about change that is deceptively simple to state: In solving problems of virtually any kind, the way to get the best outcome is to … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Creativity, Deming, Innovation, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Eliminate Slogans

Posted on August 13, 2006 by John Hunter

This poster may do a better job, than my posts, of showing why posters and slogan are not an effective management strategy. Text from the poster: “If a pretty poster and a cute saying are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy job. The kind robots will be doing soon.” Despair (link to the motivation poster shown here), offers many such de-motivational posters and note cards – well done satire, in my opinion, but they … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Deming, Management, Popular, Psychology, quote, Respect | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Interviews with Innovators

Posted on August 9, 2006 by John Hunter

Founders at Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days by Jessica Livingston is an interesting looking book to be published in a few months. The book consists of interviews with founders of technology companies exploring the initial efforts to create a new company. Interviews include: David Heinemeier Hansson [the broken link was removed] (who many of our readers may not have heard of but who has recently done a great web development framework [Ruby on Rails] and development philosophy very compatible … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Creativity, Innovation, IT, Management, Management Articles, Software Development | Tagged , , , ,

The Long Tail

Posted on July 12, 2006 by John Hunter

The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More by Chris Anderson is now available. This books explores the huge market for goods outside of the mass market. The few popular items that dominate the media coverage in any market are not the majority of the market. In total the huge number of “unknown” items exceed the volume of the most popular items. The internet provides great opportunities to reach the long tail. In The Long … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Creativity, Management

Edward Tufte’s new book: Beautiful Evidence

Posted on June 21, 2006 by John Hunter

Beautiful Evidence by Edward Tufte is now available. Beautiful is the right word. Tufte’s books are an example of what can be created when someone truly loves what they do and takes pride in every detail of their work. His books are excellent. Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Data, Management | 3 Comments

Leading Six Sigma

Posted on February 8, 2006 by John Hunter

Leading Six Sigma [the broken link was removed]: Launching the Initiative by Roger W. Hoerl and Ronald D. Snee. An excerpt, of a chapter of their book, Leading Six Sigma: A Step-by-Step Guide Based on Experience with GE and Other Six Sigma Companies discussing the deployment process for Six Sigma. The project must be tied to the bottom line in some way. The project scope should be for improvements that are attainable in the four to six month time frame. … Continue reading →

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