Opportunistic attitudes lead directly to further fundamental change in management in leading organizations. Managers are recognizing how the character of companies is changing. The traditional concept of a company was largely based on hard assets and primarily hierarchical. This concept influenced the structuring of business in the United States and globally for several decades. The [...]
Administration
Learn and innovate
The effects of innovation have long been recognized as a principal determinant of economic growth. In recent years the importance of management innovation has become one of the principal factors in that determinant. While difficult to quantify and measure, its results are recognized as one of the most significant influences on economic performance. In the [...]
Innovate constantly your company
An important characteristic of a pacesetter company is that it emphasizes management innovation not as periodic events but as a general and constant theme, an ongoing process, a prevailing attitude.This orientation defines the organization. The company emphasizes innovation in order to increase its business value for customers and key stakeholders. These are management innovations, such as [...]
YOUR GE WORKOUT CHECKLIST
Identify business issues that can best be addressed by a small,multiplelevel problem-solving team.You may want to identify a few issues and give the workout team the opportunity to prioritize them during the session. Select the workout participants using the team roles for sponsor, champion, facilitator, and team members.You can create team selection criteria so that [...]
New Product Development
An industrial products manufacturer recently completed a new product development project and conducted a Lessons Learned Analysis with its project teams and functional support groups to determine areas for improvement. The goal was to learn what could be immediately applied to the next generation of product development scheduled for the next business year. They grouped [...]
Lessons Learned Analysis
The Lessons Learned Analysis seeks the information and knowledge gained from analyzing both positive and negative experiences of a project, program, or major objective. The purpose of this exercise is to use the findings to improve performance. It should become a discipline for every company manager to conduct a post-assessment of their major efforts at the [...]
Optimize Selling and Service Time
Often customer accounts aren’t viewed as investments in time and money, and may get unnecessary attention based on their actual and potential sales volume. Account Management. The major goals are to increase revenue, decrease costs, and enhance the customer experience with a focus on improved service and outside sales coverage within your existing account base. [...]
Being Proactive: Business Tune-Ups
A proactive approach to contingency planning is to conduct annual business tune-ups designed to uncover and identify situations that can be improved in the business. By asking the right questions, issues that need attention will surface. The subsequent actions can be prioritized as short- or long-term solutions. Case Example: Making Adjustments A well-established engineering company [...]
Objective and Project Tracking
The monitoring and tracking of the objectives and projects will provide ongoing progress reports to the departments and functional managers, and will be critical to evaluate progress against plan in the quarterly and annual reviews . Computer software is available to do this, but some may want to use a simple tracking tool similar. The [...]
Kaizen
The Kaizen Event takes three to five days and focuses on the most critical business process—manufacturing or service—to get significant levels of productivity, quality, and profits. A team of 6 to 12 people from across the organization is formed and given one full day of training in techniques to identify and eliminate waste. The team [...]
Converting Customer Requirements into Measurements
As a working example, the goal of this project is to establish key performance measures and to develop supporting programs to improve customer service and satisfaction levels. The results of this effort willdirectly impact the strategic and business plan objectives regarding increases in market share, customer retention, and operating income The end results will also [...]
Common Communication System Pitfalls
Organizational communication has been an enormous challenge, especially in companies that have grown and have multiple locations. As we discuss building an effective communication system, it’s worth noting the pitfalls that must be remedied for success. Reliance on technology such as voice mail and electronic mail versus face-to-face contacts whenever possible. Lack of communication about [...]
How Culture Attributes Can Drive Business Results
An example of a culture shift occurred with the deregulation in industries such as utilities and telecommunications. With the onset of deregulation, the operating environments changed to ones in which customers had choices of suppliers and fixed prices for services were being phased out. The mandates for change were not an option. For some companies, [...]
Using Cultural Influences to Shape Culture
Use of cultural influences, such as policies and work practices, company history, symbols and rituals, training and education, and leadership, can have a strong impact on shaping a company culture. Use these influences to create a sense of company norms and reinforce the desired cultural attributes, while eliminating unproductive or counterproductive behaviors. Synergy Culture may [...]
