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One of the challenges modern businesses face is the flood of information that is streaming at them on a daily basis. That wave of data contains a wealth of good ideas. And some of those ideas are things that the competition is doing.

The problem is that many people, predominantly managers, suffer from SCS, better known as “squirrel chasing syndrome”. When they are in the middle of something, the moment an interesting alternative flashes by, they drop what they are doing, and chase after that elusive idea. For dogs, the “can’t resist” alternative is often a furry little creature. For business people, the irresistible item is commonly something that a competitor is doing.

I recently read an article about the debate over the number of H-1B visas being offered. What was interesting to me was not the immigration issue, but rather the customer service issue. Apparently, the system creates a batch process. There is a filing deadline, and companies are required to turn Read more…

Every spring, the earth comes to life. The flowers start blooming. The trees grow buds. And the ‘For Sale’ signs spring from front yards all around the neighborhood.

And every year it gets me thinking about Lean and the real estate purchasing process. First of all, it is far, far, far too complicated. But that is a topic for a different day. The topic today is about value. It has always been interesting to me that there is a fairly standardized rate for commissions on the sale of a home.  I cannot fathom that every agent …

I’ll start this article off by asking a simple question. Why do educators in the US think that every child is identical? Now, I bet an open ended, inflammatory question like that would be challenged by teachers. There would be a range of arguments presenting evidence to the contrary. But Read more…

One of the trends I have seen recently is to knock taking a tools-based approach to continuous improvement. The driving thought is that you have to focus on the whole continuous improvement system in order to be successful. While this is true for an organization to reach top levels of Read more…