Operations and supply chain management

In my consulting and research I’ve seen many companies launch process improvement programs such as Total Quality Management, Business Reengineering, Lean, and Six Sigma. Many got significant benefits, including lower costs, faster time-to-market, and better customer experiences. But after one round of improvement, they gave up and let their organization get flabby again. Organizations, like […]

Product companies often try to differentiate themselves by offering ancillary services. Many struggle to make money at it.

If we asked you to make a list of the top 50 performing CEOs in the world, who would you name? Jeffrey Immelt? Jamie Dimon? Carols Ghosn? They’re on your list? They shouldn’t be. What about Bart Becht? John Martin? John Lau? Not on your list? They should be. Becht, of Reckitt-Benckiser, Martin, of Gilead […]

Zhang Ruimin's leadership of the renowned Haier Group began before the Chinese company even carried that name. More than 20 years ago, Zhang was appointed...

Like all good revolutions, just-in-time manufacturing is producing revolutionaries who don’t know when to stop. It is also producing over reactions from people determined to make them stop. Consider the curiously vexed debate about how to get materials to, and work in process through, the shop floor. Pick up virtually any manufacturing magazine these days […]

The “Anna Karenina Principle” can help health care providers identify — and fix — problems they didn’t know they had.

What should hybrid care look like once the pandemic is over?

Tips from Google and behavioral economics.

The author of this article says he would be the last one to argue that the approach described here is a complete view of marketing. Then again, he is convinced that the approach enables marketers to achieve three important objectives. First, it enables them to identify the markets in which their companies have the best […]

CEOs, take note.

Following up on his pledge to provide greater support for manufacturing in his State of the Union address, President Obama has announced a proposal to cut the effective tax rate for manufacturers to 25%. A number of economists howled against this so-called “industrial policy” and criticized the president’s singling out manufacturing for “special treatment” — […]

Start by having a clear sense of its goals.

Spend on tomorrow’s opportunities, not just today’s needs.

It's against human nature to react favorably to the disruption of process change. Continuous improvement means continuous change, and change takes people...

Starting one because of FOMO is never a good idea.

As commissioner of the New York City Police Department, Lee P. Brown faces two enormous challenges. The first is crime. In 1989 in New York City, 712,419 crimes were reported, including 1,905 murders, 93,377 robberies, and 3,254 rapes. As Brown is quick to point out, the situation has grown so severe that people in cities […]

Can companies actually grow stronger during a recession? What can they do to capitalize on the problems that their rivals encounter during tough economic times? Suppose you have a sturdy balance sheet, low debt, and plentiful amounts of cash. How can you employ these strengths to take on rivals who have been weakened considerably? I’m […]

The U.S. may be the world’s leading innovator, but it won’t be for long if investors, regulators, and the legal establishment continue to penalize companies for risk taking, says Deborah Wince-Smith, president of the Council on Competitiveness. Recently, the council’s National Innovation Initiative, a leadership network of CEOs and university presidents, released a report in […]

A look at the lean management strategies adopted by New York’s Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital.

In recent years a growing number of companies have expended considerable amounts of time and money to develop strategic planning skills in their profit centers and at higher organizational levels. We applaud this effort, but as we stand back and observe large and small companies alike apply this new talent and expertise, we are struck […]