Category Archives: Deming

Cutting Hours Instead of People

When financial and economic realities reach the point that labor costs must be cut I believe a good option to consider is cutting hours (and pay) instead of people. Continue reading

Posted in Career, Creativity, Deming, Innovation, Management, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Looting: Bankruptcy for Profit

Looting: The Economic Underworld of Bankruptcy for Profit by George Akerlof, University of California, Berkeley; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and Paul Romer, Stanford Graduate School of Business; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). George Akerlof was awarded the … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Economics, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Some Firms Cut Costs Without Resorting to Layoffs

Some Firms Cut Costs Without Resorting to Layoffs Hypertherm Inc. has never laid off a permanent employee in its 40-year history. A 20% downturn in sales in recent months led the closely held maker of metal-cutting equipment to eliminate overtime, … Continue reading

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How Private Equity Strangled Mervyns

I do not like the actions of many in “private equity.” I am a big fan of capitalism. I just object to those that unjustly take from the other stakeholders involved. It is not the specific facts of this case, … Continue reading

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Honda has Never had Layoffs and has been Profitable Every Year

Engineers Rule, 2006 Longtime auto analyst John Casesa, who now runs a consulting company, says, “There’s not a company on earth that better understands the culture of engineering.” The strategy has worked thus far. Honda has never had an unprofitable … Continue reading

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What’s the Value of a Big Bonus?

What’s the Value of a Big Bonus? by Dan Ariely To look at this question, three colleagues and I conducted an experiment. We presented 87 participants with an array of tasks that demanded attention, memory, concentration and creativity. We asked … Continue reading

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6 Leadership Competencies

At the recent Annual W. Edwards Deming Institute Annual conference (this year held in Madison, Wisconsin) Peter Scholtes gave an excellent speech on the 6 Leadership Competencies from his book: The Leader’s Handbook. Those competencies are: The ability to think … Continue reading

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Righter Incentivization

Incentive schemes to get people “motivated” often backfire. Why can’t we figure out how to incentivize the behavior we desire and have it not backfire on us? What is the righter way to dangle incentives in front of our employees … Continue reading

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Get Rid of the Performance Review

Get Rid of the Performance Review! by Samuel Culbert To make my case, I offer seven reasons why I find performance reviews ill-advised and bogus. … Inevitably reviews are political and subjective, and create schisms in boss-employee relationships. The link … Continue reading

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National Medal of Technology and Innovation

Armand V. Feigenbaum received the 2007 National Medal of and Technology and Innovation for his leadership in the development of the economic relationship of quality costs, productivity improvement, and profitability, and for his pioneering application of economics, general systems theory … Continue reading

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