Category Archives: Data

Steve Jobs Discussing Customer Focus at NeXT

Posted on September 8, 2011 by John Hunter

Video from 1991 when Steve Jobs was at NeXT. Even with the customer focus however, NeXT failed. But this does show the difficulty in how to truly apply customer focus. You have to be creative. You have examine data. You … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Data, IT, Software Development | Tagged Customer focus, Data, engineering, IT, management, management webcast, marketing, Software Development

One factor at a time (OFAT) Versus Factorial Designs

Posted on May 25, 2011 by John Hunter

Guest post by Bradley Jones Almost a hundred years ago R. A. Fisher‘s boss published an article espousing OFAT (one factor at a time). Fisher responded with an article of his own laying out his justification for factorial design. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Design of Experiments, Popular, Quality tools, Science, Six sigma, Statistics | Tagged Design of Experiments, guest post, Popular, Quality tools, Science, Six sigma, Statistics | 6 Comments

Warren Buffett’s 2010 Letter to Shareholders

Posted on March 3, 2011 by John Hunter

Warren Buffett has published his always excellent annual shareholder letter. His letters, provide excellent investing insight and good management ideas. Yearly figures, it should be noted, are neither to be ignored nor viewed as all-important. The pace of the earth’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Investing, Management | Tagged evidence based management, Investing, management, Psychology, Systems thinking, Warren Buffett | 1 Comment

Actionable Metrics

Posted on July 22, 2010 by John Hunter

Metrics are valuable when they are actionable. Think about what will be done if certain results are shown by the data. If you can’t think of actions you would take, it may be that metric is not worth tracking. Metrics … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Statistics | Tagged curiouscat, Data, Deming, evidence based management, management, Statistics, tips | 4 Comments

Incentivizing Behavior Doesn’t Improve Results

Posted on May 28, 2010 by John Hunter

In the webcast Dan Pink shares research results exploring human motivation and ideas on how to manage organization given the scientific research on motivation. “once a task called for even rudimentary cognitive skill a larger reward led to poorer performance” … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Data, Deming, Management, Psychology, quote, Respect, Science | Tagged extrinsic motivation, management research, management webcast, managing people, motivation, Psychology, purpose | 3 Comments

Taxes per Person by Country

Posted on April 7, 2010 by John Hunter

I think that the idea that data lies is false, and that such a notion is commonly held a sign of lazy intellect. You can present data in different ways to focus on different aspects of a system. And you … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Economics, Management | Tagged Data, economic data, management, Statistics | 1 Comment

Prophet Unheard: Dr. W. Edwards Deming – 1992

Posted on January 25, 2010 by John Hunter

[embedded webcast links removed because they have been removed from YouTube. To see video with W. Edwards Deming see the Deming Institute YouTube channel.] This is an interesting video on Deming and American management (by the BBC in 1992): Prophet … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Manufacturing, Quality tools, Respect | Tagged Data, Deming, Japan, Management, management history, managing people, Quality tools, respect for people | 1 Comment

The Biggest Manufacturing Countries in 2008 with Historical Data

Posted on December 7, 2009 by John Hunter

Once again the USA was the leading country in manufacturing for 2008. And once again China grew their manufacturing output amazingly. In a change with recent trends Japan grew output significantly. Of course, the 2009 data is going to show … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Economics, Manufacturing | Tagged charts, curiouscat, Data, economic data, Economics, John Hunter, Manufacturing, quote | 5 Comments

Highlights from Recent George Box Speech

Posted on November 16, 2009 by John Hunter

The JMP blog has posted some highlights from George Box’s presentation at Discovery 2009 [the broken link was removed] Infusing his entire presentation with humor and fascinating tales of his memories, Box focused on sequential design of experiments. He attributed … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Design of Experiments, Six sigma, Statistics | Tagged Bill Hunter, Data, Design of Experiments, Fun, George Box, John Hunter, Madison, Six sigma, Statistics | 6 Comments

Deming: There is No True Value

Posted on November 5, 2009 by John Hunter

There is no true value of anything: data has meaning based on the operational definition used to calculate the data. Walter Shewhart’s Statistical Method from the Viewpoint of Quality Control, forward by W. Edwards Deming: There is no true value … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming | Tagged Data, Deming, theory of knowledge | 9 Comments