Category Archives: Customer focus

Akio Toyoda’s Message Shows Real Leadership

Posted on July 26, 2009 by John Hunter

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 and enrich people’s lives.” And second, “to take root in the communities we serve by creating jobs, earning profits and paying taxes, thereby enriching the local economies where we operate.” … Toyota has overcome many challenges during its seven decades … Continue reading →

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

Zappos and Amazon Sitting in a Tree…

Posted on July 23, 2009 by John Hunter

Amazon is acquiring the unique company – Zappos: we have written about Zappos previously: Paying New Employees to Quit. Jeff Bezos uses the webcast above to talk to the employees of Zappos. Excellent job. The letter from Tony Hsieh, the Zappo’s CEO, to employees is fantastic. This is a CEO that respects employees. These are leaders I would follow and invest in (and in fact I am glad I do own Amazon stock). First, I want to apologize for the … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Customer focus, Deming, Fun, Innovation, Investing, Management, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged Amazon, Bezos, Customer focus, customer service, Innovation, Investing, long term thinking, respect for people | 7 Comments

United Breaks Guitars

Posted on July 7, 2009 by John Hunter

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 (or Singapore Airlines or Cathay Pacific). Unfortunately sometimes you need to travel somewhere that no airline that cares about customer service flies. Then just hope somehow the broken system you must trust to get you someplace somehow doesn’t fail you … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Management, webcast | Tagged bad customer service, customer service, management, webcast | 2 Comments

Computer Network Operations Center Failures

Posted on July 3, 2009 by John Hunter

Obviously many businesses are now dependent on computer Network Operations Centers (NOC). Some of these data centers can cause millions of dollars in lost sales each minute if they fail. So sound engineering, including off-site redundancy is critical. Authorize.net is a recent example of such a failure, Authorize.net Goes Down, E-Commerce Vendors Left Hanging Payment gateway service provider Authorize.net has been down and out for several hours… That has big implications: since the service is used by tens of thousands … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Economics, IT, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged customer service, engineering, IT, Systems thinking

Google Innovates Again with Google Wave

Posted on June 25, 2009 by John Hunter

Google Wave is a new tool for communication and collaboration on the web, coming later this year. They are developing this as an open access project. The creative team is lead by the creators for Google Maps (brothers Lars and Jens Rasmussen). A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more. You really have to watch to understand what it is. This is a long webcast … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Customer focus, Google, IT, Management, Process improvement, Software Development, webcast | Tagged Creativity, Google, Innovation, internet, IT, Software Development | 1 Comment

Community Medical Care Successes

Posted on June 18, 2009 by John Hunter

The Cost Conundrum by Atul Gawande, New Yorker (The Power of a Checklist was published there in 2007 by the same author) For example, Rochester, Minnesota, where the Mayo Clinic dominates the scene, has fantastically high levels of technological capability and quality, but its Medicare spending is in the lowest fifteen per cent of the country—$6,688 per enrollee in 2006, which is eight thousand dollars less than the figure for McAllen. Two economists working at Dartmouth, Katherine Baicker and Amitabh … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Economics, Health care, Systems thinking | Tagged Deming, Health care, health care system, Systems thinking | 1 Comment

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

Posted on May 26, 2009 by John Hunter

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 way customers asked for them. Some of the customer favorites became popular and were eventually adopted as the restaurant chain’s “secret menu.” By listening to their customers, In-N-Out created menu choices other stores couldn’t duplicate. … Treat Employees Well — … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Customer focus, Management, Respect | Tagged Books, Customer focus, management, managing people, respect for people | 1 Comment

Joel Spolsky Webcast on Creating Social Web Resources

Posted on May 4, 2009 by John Hunter

Joel Spolsky webcast on creating Stack Overflow (with the goal of providing answers to professional programmers) using ideas from anthropology. Once again he provides great information. This is particularly interesting for software development but also just a good presentation for understanding the importance of customer focus and systems thinking. What they focused on and did: Voting – Reddit… (see our management Reddit) Tags – lets you see what you want and to block tags you don’t want to see. Editing … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, IT, Software Development, Systems thinking, webcast | Tagged Customer focus, internet, Joel Spolsky, Software Development, usability, webcast | 2 Comments

Building a Great Workforce

Posted on April 13, 2009 by John Hunter

How P&G Finds and Keeps a Prized Workforce by Roger O. Crockett “We actually recruit for values,” says Chief Operating Officer Robert McDonald. “If you are not inspired to improve lives, this isn’t the company you want to work for.” … The P&G strategy starts on college campuses. The Cincinnati company dispatches line managers rather than human resource staffers to do much of its recruiting. … For the few who get hired, their work life becomes a career-long development process. … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Customer focus, Deming, Innovation, Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged Career, coaching, Customer focus, ethics, Innovation, management, respect for people | 1 Comment

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 Amazon, Bezos, gemba, leadership, management, Process improvement | 5 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 Books, Deming, Innovation

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 Customer focus, internet, usability

Newspaper Innovation In Kansas

Posted on January 29, 2009 by John Hunter

The newspaper industry is facing challenging times. One success story is the Lawrence Journal-World in Lawrence, Kansas. I first heard about their efforts years ago: Watchful Eyes on Kansas Media Innovations, NPR, 2005 Many media companies hoped that convergence — combining television, print and online resources — would help them survive. Instead, many companies have lost money on online journalism. In Lawrence, Kan., Dolph Simons’ Journal-World newspaper has taken ambitious news-gathering approaches to local issues. The Newspaper of the Future, … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Customer focus, Deming, Innovation, IT | Tagged Creativity, Customer focus, Deming, Innovation, internet, IT | 1 Comment

Lame Move by Google

Posted on November 2, 2008 by John Hunter

Google does great things and makes good decisions most often. However a recent move on their part has ended very lamely. As part of what their 10th anniversary celebration they provided a search of the 2001 index (the oldest index they could find to search now). This was extremely cool. Now if you go to find it so you can try it out you will be disappointed. Search for it on Google you will find a link to Google Search … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Google, IT | Tagged Creativity, Customer focus, engineering, Google, internet, usability

Making Life Difficult for Customers

Posted on September 27, 2008 by John Hunter

Companies seem to think technology is an excuse to provide bad service. Or maybe they don’t need any excuse at all to do so, based on how often they provide bad service. My latest experience with lame pointy haired boss technology came while looking to watch a football game online. Years ago you could listen to any Wisconsin Badger game over the internet – very simple, no special software (just the simple free Real Audio plugin). In subsequent years (just … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, IT, Management, Software Development | Tagged bad customer service, internet, Madison, Software Development, usability, Wisconsin | 5 Comments

Future Directions for Agile Management

Posted on August 25, 2008 by John Hunter

Agile management (agile software development specifically) is something that makes a big difference in my work life. David Anderson consistently provides great ideas on agile management and he does so again in this 90 minute presentation on the future directions for agile. As I learned about agile software development, what I saw was a great implementation of management improvement practices focused on software development that was very compatible with Deming’s management philosophy and lean thinking practices. The Agile manifesto: Individuals … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Innovation, IT, Lean thinking, Management, quote, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged agile management, Manufacturing, Software Development, webcast | 6 Comments