Category Archives: Management

Google Software Engineering

Posted on April 11, 2007 by John Hunter

An interesting series of posts on Google NYC, Top Google engineer talks to NYC software industry [the broken link was removed]: Google NYC is not a specialized engineering operation, its 300 engineers work in teams of three on the full gamut of Google products and services. Currently, Google NYC engineers are working on about 100 different projects. … Of Google’s 8000 employees worldwide, approximately half are engineers. Warren stressed that Google pro-actively seeks to keep an engineering-centric culture and does … Continue reading →

Posted in Google, Management, Software Development | Tagged | 2 Comments

Toyota to Name Press as a Director

Posted on April 11, 2007 by John Hunter

Toyota to name first foreign director [the broken link was removed]: Toyota Motor Corp., seeking to add an international flavor to its management, will appoint a foreign national to its board of directors for the first time, sources said Tuesday. … The promotion of Press, 60, who also serves as Toyota’s managing officer, will be voted on at a shareholders meeting in June, the sources said. … But currently, all 25 board members of the parent company are Japanese. Only … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged

The Triumph of Lean Production

Posted on April 10, 2007 by John Hunter

The triumph of lean production by Steve Schifferes Laura pulls a cord, stopping the production line – and prompting her five fellow workers on trim line three to crowd round. They soon see why it is not screwed in properly and fix the problem. “I don’t like to let something like that go,” she says. “That’s really important for people who buy our cars.” Workers at the Toyota plant in Georgetown, Kentucky, pull the cord 2,000 times a week – … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Manufacturing, Toyota Production System (TPS)

Western Trailers – Lean Manufacturing

Posted on April 9, 2007 by John Hunter

Western Trailers improves efficiency – with some help [the broken link was removed]: Western Trailers President Jerry Whitehead and a couple of other senior managers went through TechHelp’s lean-manufacturing course a few years ago. Now, the company is paying for all of the approximately 50 supervisors at the 225-employee manufacturing plant to go through a new and more intense version. “It’s just good manufacturing, getting the waste out,” Panter said. There’s a need for greater efficiency, especially as companies get … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Lean thinking, Management, Manufacturing

Interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt

Posted on April 9, 2007 by John Hunter

This interesting interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt covers many topics: Sergey gives this nice speech about what is the biggest cost to Google. And everybody assumes it’s like engineers or something. He says, ‘opportunity costs‘ … The trick is to have everybody participating in the decision and make sure everybody has been heard. The book Wisdom of Crowds (by James Surowiecki) says that you have to have two things to make better decisions in groups. One is you need … Continue reading →

Posted in Google, Management

Google Website Optimizer

Posted on April 7, 2007 by John Hunter

Google’s Website Optimizer allows for multivariate testing of your website. Website Optimizer, Google’s free multivariate testing application, helps online marketers increase visitor conversion rates and overall visitor satisfaction by continually testing different combinations of site content (text and images). Rather than sitting in a room and arguing over what will work better, you can save time and eliminate the guesswork by simply letting your visitors tell you what works best. We’ll guide you through the process of designing and implementing … Continue reading →

Posted in Design of Experiments, Google, IT, Management | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Deming Seminar Update

Posted on April 5, 2007 by John Hunter

Ian Bradbury, President of Peaker Services Inc., will discuss his company’s implementation of Dr. Deming’s theory of management at a seminar in Lansing, Michigan, 23-25 April 2007. As I mentioned previously I will be co-presenting this seminar. Several interesting articles: So What’s System[s] Thinking by Ian Bradbury Improving Problem Solving [the broken link was removed] by Ian Bradbury and Gipsie Ranney. Appraising the Performance Of Performance Appraisals [the broken link was removed] by Harry Goldstein discusses some of the management … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Deming, Management, Process improvement, Systems thinking | 3 Comments

Agile Software Development

Posted on April 4, 2007 by John Hunter

Nice presentation for those interested in software application development: Waterfall Bad, Washing Machine Good. I must admit I think this slide show would be much better with audio adding details… As it stands now it is a nice slide show (though maybe only if you already agree with the idea of agile development practices). The basic idea: reduce the initial planning phase and increase the iterations (similar to turning the PDSA cycle quickly) and interaction with users. The application of … Continue reading →

Posted in IT, Management, Software Development | 10 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #8

Posted on April 3, 2007 by John Hunter

Good is not almost as good as great by Seth Godin – “They understand what a customer wants. They’re not just better than good. They’re playing a totally different game.” Great point (says John Hunter) “Fire half your salesforce. Then, give the remainder, the top people, a big raise, and use the money left over to steal the best salespeople you can find” Not a great point (John again), instead change your system to support the behaviors you want to … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management

Joel Barker Podcast

Posted on April 1, 2007 by John Hunter

Innovation with Joel Barker at the Cranky Middle Manager Show: Innovation isn’t necessarily all great. Unintended consequences are something to be considered- what Joel calls “Cascade Thinking”. What are the long-term consequences before you invest. “the answer to the problem is only the beginning of the solution”. Check out www.implicationswheel.com. How do you make sure that checking out the implications doesn’t turn into a reason not to innovate? The implications wheel is a tool you can use. You can identify … Continue reading →

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

Goodbye Quarterly Targets?

Posted on March 31, 2007 by John Hunter

Goodbye Quarterly Targets? [the broken link was removed], Business Week: For about a decade, companies have tried to goose their stocks-or manage the market’s expectations-by putting out quarterly earnings projections. Now the practice has come under fire as business leaders fret that the focus on short-term targets undermines long-term growth. On March 14 the Commission on the Regulation of U.S. Capital Markets in the 21st Century, a project of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, urged executives to stop issuing their … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Data Visualization Example

Posted on March 28, 2007 by John Hunter

[I replaced the embedded video, since Google broke the original link with the way they shut down Google Video after buying YouTube] In Myths About the Developing World, Hans Rosling shows some great graphics to display data on health care outcomes. This is one of the talks from the great TED conference that we have mentioned before. They really have some great webcasts available on their site. The presentation also gives a concrete example of faulty knowledge (people thinking things … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Economics, Health care, Management, webcast | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Metrics and Software Development

Posted on March 27, 2007 by John Hunter

Lean-based Metrics for Agile CM Environments [the broken link was removed] by Brad Appleton, Robert Cowham and Steve Berczuk: Measure Up! Don’t use metrics to measure individuals in a way that compares their performance to others or isolates the value of their contributions from the rest of the team. The last of the seven principles of Lean software development tells us to “Optimize across the whole.” When measuring value or performance, it is often better to measure at the next … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, IT, Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Software Development, Theory of Constraints | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

GM Lacrosse: China and the USA

Posted on March 25, 2007 by John Hunter

Made in China, an article exploring the new GM LaCrosse: The redesign was pitch perfect, so well targeted that the Chinese LaCrosse is on track to sell nearly 110,000 units in its second year in production. (In the United States, the LaCrosse isn’t expected to approach the 100,000-unit mark, ever.) Now, with that success still fresh, Qiu and the China design team face a critical test. They will design the next Buick LaCrosse, due out at the end of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Management

Using Google to Eliminate Some IT Costs

Posted on March 24, 2007 by John Hunter

Computer Science 101: A Case Study In Google Applications [the broken link was removed]: Sannier plans to shut down the university’s own e-mail servers later this spring. When that happens, thousands more will move over. The portal provides access to other functions of Google Apps, including calendar (which users can now share online, something they couldn’t do before), instant messaging, and search. Within the next two months, Sannier expects to offer personalized home pages and Google’s Docs & Spreadsheets applications … Continue reading →

Posted in Google, Innovation, IT, Management | Tagged , , , ,

Exposing CEO Pay Excesses

Posted on March 23, 2007 by John Hunter

The politics of pay from The Economist: Although barely one-tenth of the 2,000 biggest American companies have yet reported under the new rules, the tally of negative headlines is already mounting. “There are already plenty of examples of firms reporting chief-executive pay packages of millions of dollars more than expected,” says Paul Hodgson of the Corporate Library, a research firm. He reckons that the firms that have already reported are a representative sample likely to provide a good indication of … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , | 4 Comments