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Your Salmon Story: Plan for Continuous Process Improvement

August 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Costco's story of Process Improvement

Salmon and Costco can serve up a good reminder of how good organizations can become great: By planning for and executing on continuous quality improvement. This morning I had the pleasure to hear Mr. John Matthews, Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Risk Management for Costco, speak to the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club.  John's message featured the Costco Salmon Story. Quite simply, in the 15 years since 1995, Costco has improved the quality of the salmon sold in its stores no less than five times … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Fix Your Processes, Right Processes Tagged With: ,

Strategic Action – From Horror to High-Performance

August 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Action plans make strategic plans come allive. Learn how.

If management consultants made horror films, most would somehow feature the theme of strategic planning gone lame.  Let me pitch an example flick and see if you’ll greenlight me. After years of neglect, Acme Widgetry finally does it – they “get serious” and build a strategic plan.  It is a good plan full of good information and well-intentioned statements about priorities and what is important.  At great expense, the plan is copied, bound, and distributed to key personnel who each … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Action Planning, Featured, Fix Your Processes Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Leadership Rabbit Hole

May 8, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Lacking accountability and performance? Maybe you're in the Leadership Rabbit Hole.

Recently, I had the dubious honor to work with a senior executive who just doesn’t get it. Rodney was V.P. of Marketing for a leading manufacturer of networking technology.  (Or so we’ll say – substitute the leader, politician, or other important person of your choice.)  As such, it is Rodney’s job to create demand for his company’s products.  And yet after months of effort, demand had actually decreased, Rodney’s team became alienated, and the company’s performance suffered as a result of his … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advisory Perspective, Featured, Fix Your Processes, Restore High Performance, Right People Tagged With: , , , ,

Building a Culture of Profitability

December 8, 2008 By Leave a Comment
Have you established profit as a goal and planned for it? You should...

Every once in a while a product comes a long that makes you shake your head and ask, “But how do they make money?”  This Christmas, one lucky recipient on my list is receiving a telephone device that promises free domestic long distance charges for the life of the unit for no fees beyond the initial purchase price paid by yours truly. That’s an extreme example, but even in companies where the business model is obvious, profit is often elusive.  We struggle to assemble the secret sauce that … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Action Planning, Advisory Perspective, Fix Your Processes, Restore High Performance Tagged With: , , ,

A Micromanager’s Guide to Trust, Teamwork, and Communication

October 7, 2008 By Leave a Comment
Trust, teamwork, and communication are key to making accountability happen.

The unavoidable truth is micromanagement makes us feel better and that’s why we do it.  Like the nicotine in a cigarette, it calms the nervous manager, providing information and visibility into situations where it would otherwise be lacking.  We gain our “hit” of easy information, our twitching eases, and we can move on to something else for a while. The problem is that just like the nicotine in cigarettes comes laden with a cadre of things that will kill you, micromanagement too carries a host of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Accountability, Fix Your Processes, Restore High Performance, Right People, Right Processes Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Sabotage Your Business in Ten Easy Steps

July 30, 2008 By 1 Comment
Businesses fail for common reasons. Learn how to avoid them.

The nice thing about cars is they’re predictable. Every model has its own quirks that tend to act up like clockwork, and any mechanic worth his salt can tell you what to look for.  I remember my 1987 Honda Accord (an otherwise exceptional vehicle) had a body joint below each tail light that, as if on cue, rusted out… right along with every other 1987 Honda Accord in the exact same spot. It’s the same with businesses.  Businesses tend to have very common cracks and crevices that expand and contract as the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Issue Discovery, Reboot Potential Tagged With: , , , , ,