Category Archives: Management

Out of the Crisis Seminar

Posted on March 31, 2009 by John Hunter

I will be co-presenting an Out of the Crisis seminar for the W. Edwards Deming Institute next month, April 20-22, in Philadelphia. Companies around the world are on the brink of destruction. When they get bailed out, or economies improve, they won’t survive if they continue to make products and provide services the same way as before, with the same style of management. They need to change. It was the ideas of an American, W. Edwards Deming, that transformed Japanese … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Deming, Management | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Management Blog Posts From December 2005

Posted on March 30, 2009 by John Hunter

One of my long time campaigns is to raise awareness of the huge problems caused by massively excessive executive pay. As I said in my December 2005 post: The executive pay excesses are so great now they will force companies to choose to: take huge risks to justify such pay and then go bankrupt when such risks fail (and some will succeed making it appear that the pay was deserved rather than just the random chance of taking a large … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Management Articles | Tagged , ,

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 , , , , , | 5 Comments

How to Create a Control Chart for Seasonal or Trending Data

Posted on March 25, 2009 by John Hunter

Lynda Finn, President of Statistical Insight, has written an article on how to create a control chart for seasonal or trending data (where there is an underlying structural variation in the data). Essentially you need to account for the structural variation to create the control limits for the control chart. She also provides a Minitab project file. Both are available for download from the Curious Cat Management Improvement Library. Related: Control Charts in Health Care – Common Cause Variation – … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools, Science, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 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 , ,

Management Improvement Carnival #58

Posted on March 20, 2009 by John Hunter

Submit suggestions for the management improvement carnival. Visit the Curious Cat Management Library for online management improvement articles. No Blame Thinking by Mike Wroblewski – “It’s not who’s wrong, it’s what’s wrong. It’s not who’s right, it’s what’s right. All other thinking leads to hiding the truth, distorting the information and covering up the problem” Three Sigma Bubble? Nonsense! by Marc Hersch – “Grantham’s argument is fallacious. The assumption underlying the use of three-sigma limits is that the system being … Continue reading →

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Harvard’s Masters of the Apocalypse

Posted on March 11, 2009 by John Hunter

This article makes some good points, even if it is a bit sensationalist, and intentionally so: Harvard’s masters of the apocalypse by Philip Delves Broughton Business schools have shown a remarkable ability to miss the economic catastrophes unfolding before their eyes. In the late 1990s, their faculties rushed to write paeans to Enron, the firm of the future, the new economic paradigm. The admiration was mutual: Enron was stuffed with Harvard Business School alumni, from Jeff Skilling, the chief executive, … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #57

Posted on March 10, 2009 by John Hunter

Submit suggestions for the management improvement carnival. Also see the management Reddit (what is this Reddit thing?). 20 cynical project management tips by Michael Krigsman – “Projects with realistic budgets and timetables don’t get approved… If you don’t know where you’re going, just talk about specifics… A realist is one who’s presciently disappointed in the future.” Giving ERP Systems the Finger by Mike Wroblewski – “Anyone of us in business today that has to deal with ERP systems knows that … Continue reading →

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Management Improvement Carnival #56

Posted on March 2, 2009 by John Hunter

Submit suggestions for the management improvement carnival. Can you Buy a Silicon Valley? Maybe. by Paul Graham – “For the price of a football stadium, any town that was decent to live in could make itself one of the biggest startup hubs in the world. What’s more, it wouldn’t take very long. You could probably do it in five years.” [Excellent essay, I wrote about what makes Silicon Valley special on the Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog.] Error Proofing … Continue reading →

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Warren Buffett’s Letter to Shareholders 2009

Posted on February 28, 2009 by John Hunter

Warren Buffett published his letter to shareholders yesterday. As usual, it is of great interest to anyone interested in the economic, investing and management ideas. In 1995, MidAmerican became the major provider of electricity in Iowa. By judicious planning and a zeal for efficiency, the company has kept electric prices unchanged since our purchase and has promised to hold them steady through 2013. MidAmerican has maintained this extraordinary price stability while making Iowa number one among all states in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Economics, Investing, Management, Respect | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

NUMMI, and GM’s Failure to Manage Effectively

Posted on February 25, 2009 by John Hunter

Gipsie Ranney recently sent me an article on her thoughts on NUMMI and the current problems with the Big Three car makers to post to the Curious Cat Management Improvement Library. NUMMI is the plant that Toyota and General Motors run together as a joint venture. The article is excellent. The answer to a question asked by someone else on the tour was stunning to me. The person asked what kind of computerized inventory system they had at NUMMI. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Manufacturing, quote, Respect, Systems thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

What Managers can Learn From Open Source Project Management

Posted on February 23, 2009 by John Hunter

What managers can learn from Open Source by Murray Cumming Motivation: People work on open source projects because they enjoy it. These happy developers are productive developers. Managers of open source projects must ensure that the developers feel valued and fulfilled. They must minimise the tedious aspects of the work to ensure that development remains interesting. Otherwise, projects fail. Although money can provide some incentive it does not provide as much. Managers who say that money is the greatest motivator … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, IT, Management, Respect, Software Development | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Management Improvement Carnival #55

Posted on February 20, 2009 by John Hunter

Submit suggestions for the management improvement carnival. visit the Curious Cat Management Library for online management improvement articles. Cut Customer Service? You’ll Lose Customers by Scott D. Anthony – “Companies might think that innovation and survival are discrete choices. They are not. Companies that stop innovating are sowing the seeds of their own destruction.” End Game at Wiremold by Kevin Meyer – “The Wiremold story shows how lean thinking can completely transform a company into a competitive powerhouse… and how … Continue reading →

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Applying Disruptive Thinking to the Healthcare Crisis

Posted on February 19, 2009 by John Hunter

Update: Sadly MIT delete the video. It is a shame educational institutions lose interest in knowledge just a couple years later. Thankfully we didn’t have to rely on the people deleting web content at universities to keep all the historical content we have in books from hundreds of years ago. I think it is a huge lose to what the mission of these schools should be but that attitude doesn’t seem to be shared by the schools. The Innovator’s Prescription: … Continue reading →

Posted in Health care, Innovation, Management, Management Articles, webcast | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Zara Thrives by Ignoring Conventional Wisdom

Posted on February 18, 2009 by John Hunter

Zara Thrives by Breaking All the Rules Many U.S. apparel retailers are choking on slow-moving inventories as consumers hold back on spending. But Spain’s Inditex, whose Zara chain pioneered cheap chic, is zipping ahead. The $13.8 billion company, which is closing in on Gap (GPS) for the title of world’s biggest clothing retailer, has nearly quadrupled sales, profits, and locations since 2000 … Wages are higher at Inditex—its factory workers in Spain make an average of $1,650 a month, vs. … Continue reading →

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

Management Improvement Carnival #54

Posted on February 10, 2009 by John Hunter

In the webcast, Corey Ladas discusses lean thinking in software development, Deming and quality, customer pull vs Kano model and gemba. 7 Practical Ways to Respect People by Ron Pereira – “Some think that to be respectful you can never disagree. This is ridiculous. My old boss at Nokia used to tell his management team that if all 8 of us agreed he had 7 too many people in the room. So true.” Is Brainstorming a Waste of Time? by … Continue reading →

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