I recently read through McKinsey’s recent study, “Making it in America: Revitalizing US Manufacturing.” A lot of the challenges facing US Manufacturers are similar to the challenges facing our country:
All of these things are more or less apparent in our region, and leaders need to consider the best approach for their organizations to move in this direction.
Topics: Bank Products, Management
One of the terms I see frequently in literature on Leadership is “transformational leadership.” This term was coined by Dr. James Burns, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian who studied great leaders in history and authored a book called Leadership in 1978. Since then, there has been a lot of research done and a model of transformational leadership has been developed. But the basic definition of transformational leadership is leadership that identifies needed change, creates a vision to guide the change, and executes the change in tandem with the organization.
Topics: Business Best Practices
A lot of businesses think of Business Process Automation as nothing more than software purchasing, and approach it somewhat like shopping for gadgets; i.e. “hey, that looks handy, let’s buy that!” Sometimes this works out well, although frequently more work is created than is eliminated.
Topics: Business Operations
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I attended the Innovation Engineering college several years ago. My instructor introduced one topic by saying it was a secret sauce, an amazing accelerator, easy to do, and free! Then he added, “But I know you’re not going to do it.”
Topics: Strategic Planning
You may be familiar with the law of the instrument:
“I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.” -Abraham Maslow, The Psychology of Science
As we begin the New Year and begin to execute our business strategies, there will be many new programs, projects and initiatives. Whether we use a formal method like PMI, DMAIC or one of many others, or an informal method is a matter of preference. But it would be hard to overemphasize the importance of planning.
Topics: Management
You might have seen Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace study last year. In it, they published some relatively shocking statistics:
In the US, the numbers are significantly better: a whopping 29% of employees are engaged! That means only 71% are not.
Topics: Management
I have recently observed a situation in a company where there is an ever-widening moat between the C-suite and the rank and file personnel. It reminds me of this “Wizard of Id” cartoon I owned as a kid. It was funny (or at least punny) then. The divide I see now is obvious from in-fighting among the officers, but, unlike the cartoon, it is not at all funny. It is both amazing and sad to see how wide that moat truly is between those in the executive and upper management offices, and those in the trenches.
Topics: Management
Harry Truman’s famous sign, given to him by a friend and avid poker player, remained on the President’s desk in the oval office through Jimmy Carter’s presidency. The saying is thought to have originated in poker, when the passing of a buckhorn knife indicated the dealer, but the “buck” could be passed if the player did not wish to deal.
Topics: Management
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