Category Archives: Management

Toyota Presses On

Posted on February 24, 2008 by John Hunter

At Toyota, a Global Giant Reaches for Agility With plants in 27 countries, more new factories under construction and workers speaking languages that include Russian and Turkish, Toyota’s top executives are trying a difficult balancing act – replicating the company’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Losing Consumers’ Trust

Posted on February 24, 2008 by John Hunter

Last week their was a recall of 143 million pounds of beef in the USA. Lets take a short systemic view at what is going on. The public has an interest in a safe food supply which is difficult to … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Management, Psychology, Science, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

User Happiness with Search Engines

Posted on February 23, 2008 by John Hunter

Awhile back I wrote about why I didn’t think the American Customer Satisfaction Index claim that Yahoo beat Google for customer satisfaction was evidence of a broken indicator. Well here is another indicator, but this time it puts Google clearly … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Google, Management | Leave a comment

What Motivates Programmers?

Posted on February 22, 2008 by John Hunter

A fun read on What motivates programmers? I will start with a question, if you have a spare £400 in your development budget do you A) Reward your star programmer with a £400 bonus or B) Buy him a 24 … Continue reading →

Posted in IT, Management, Psychology | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Severance Plans to Respect People

Posted on February 21, 2008 by John Hunter

Yahoo’s Severance Plans a Defense Against Microsoft? Yahoo’s board of directors has created an expansive severance package for all full-time employees who are either terminated without “cause” or leave on their own with “good reason” following a “change in control … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Management, Respect | Leave a comment

Renting Toys

Posted on February 21, 2008 by John Hunter

That kids get tired of many toys long before the toys are worn out is not a recent revelation Those frustrated by this waste surely number in the millions in the last few decades alone. Some attempts to reduce the … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Management | Leave a comment

Popular Mechanics: Made in the USA

Posted on February 19, 2008 by John Hunter

Five American Manufacturers Doing It Right America’s manufacturing sales stagnated at the $4 trillion mark in the late 1990s. But then something surprising happened. America started selling again—finding more customers for tractors, steel, plastics, knives and medicines than ever before. … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Management, Manufacturing | Leave a comment

Software Supporting Processes Not the Other Way Around

Posted on February 19, 2008 by John Hunter

Rental Car IT What was funny about that exercise were the looks we got from the no nonsense King of IT: “Of course, we want things to be simple and flexible — why are you bothering to tell us this?” … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, IT, Lean thinking, Management, Software Development, Systems thinking | 10 Comments

Innovation Strategy

Posted on February 18, 2008 by John Hunter

Six Principles for Making New Things by Paul Graham The answer, I realized, is that my m.o. for all four has been the same. Here it is: I like to find (a) simple solutions (b) to overlooked problems (c) that … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Innovation, Management | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Samuel Adams Acts Like a Good Neighbor

Posted on February 17, 2008 by John Hunter

Some people think business is only about making money. I agree with Dr. Deming that the purpose is much larger than that. Even if you take a view similar to mine though, it is not often companies intentionally help those … Continue reading →

Posted in Competition, Creativity, Management | Tagged , | Leave a comment