Category Archives: Management

Cater to Customers Desires to Achieve Customer Delight

Posted on January 10, 2017 by John Hunter

Customer delight requires understanding your customers needs and desires. Often even your customers don’t understand these well. Businesses that have a deep appreciation for what their customers, and potential customers, desire and that create systems to deliver solutions that delight … Continue reading →

Posted in Competition, Customer focus, Management, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

20 Most Popular Posts on the Curious Cat Management Blog in 2016

Posted on January 3, 2017 by John Hunter

These posts were the most popular posts on the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog in 2016 (as measured by page views, as recorded by my analytics application). Toyota Post Record Profit: Splits $15 million in Pay and Bonus for top … Continue reading →

Posted in curiouscat.com, Management, Popular | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on 20 Most Popular Posts on the Curious Cat Management Blog in 2016

Most Popular Links on Management Sub-Reddit in 2016

Posted on December 27, 2016 by John Hunter

I created the management sub-reddit many years ago. The management sub-reddit provides links to worthwhile management improvement content and the members indicate those links they liked. Here is a list of the most popular links added in the last year. … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Comments Off on Most Popular Links on Management Sub-Reddit in 2016

Podcast: Building Organizational Capability

Posted on December 7, 2016 by John Hunter

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 420 features an interview with me, by Thomas Cagley, on Building Organizational Capability (download podcast). John Hunter in the podcast: Changing how organizations are managed makes a huge difference in people’s lives, not all … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Continually Improving Using a Focus on Delighting Customers

Posted on December 1, 2016 by John Hunter

ASQ asked the ASQ influential voices to respond to this question: What is the best way to ensure quality and customer integration grow together? When I first got involved in the quality field that name (quality) seemed to vague for … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Management, Process improvement, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Bell Labs Designing a New Phone System Using Idealized Design

Posted on October 19, 2016 by John Hunter

I remember hearing this same story when Russ Ackoff spoke at the Hunter Conference on Quality (which was named in honor of my father) in Madison, Wisconsin. If you haven’t heard this story you are in for a treat. And … Continue reading →

Posted in Innovation, Management, Process improvement, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Burning Toast: American Health System Style

Posted on October 4, 2016 by John Hunter

Democrats and Republicans have created a health care system in the USA over the last 40 years that “burns toast” at an alarming rate. As the symptoms of their health care system are displayed they call in people to blame … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Health care, Management, Public Sector | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Burning Toast: American Health System Style

Lead by Building Organizational Capability

Posted on September 13, 2016 by John Hunter

The result of a recent interview with me has been posted: How to Lead From Any Level In the Organization [broken link replaced by new link to content hosted on this site] 2. Help people solve their problems. Similar to … Continue reading →

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

Integrating Technical and Human Management Systems

Posted on July 6, 2016 by John Hunter

ASQ has asked the Influential Voices on quality management to look at the question of integrating technical quality and human management systems. How do different systems—technical or human—work together? How should they work together? My view is that the management … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Unintended Consequences

Posted on June 29, 2016 by John Hunter

Using data to understand your processes and improve them is very useful. But using data often results in unintended consequences. If you don’t have a good understanding on the pressures collecting data will bring to bear on the system you … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Management, Process improvement, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment