Three Characteristics Of Leadership - Competence, Consistency, And Character

Indeed, how does one stay on top and continue to have people follow years and years in the business world? 1. Competence There is no substitution for the ability to perform.

How's That Working For You?

Wake Up! Live Consciously? Many of us go through our work and personal life with habits that really aren't working for us. How do we wake up to that reality and coach others in the organization or on the team to do the same?

What Are The Key of Lean Manufacturing Principles Every Organization And Company Should Understand?

The lean manufacturing principles function as the guideline for companies wanting to get the best out of their organization. The lean manufacturing principles are taken as the outline for making a more productive working environment. Discover the key of lean manufacturing principles every organization should implement to get the best of their companies.

The Future of Quick Printers

This article addresses plight of quick printers in the current environment.

Open a Dollar Store - How to Provide Feedback Your Employees

When you open a dollar store you are responsible for making sure that every employee receives appropriate performance feedback. For many who open a dollar store this will become the first time that they have supervised. For many this will be the first time that they will be required to handle performance management as well. For most this will be the first time that performance management became critical to the success of their business.

Inventory - Cash Or Carry

There is an old saying in business that 'Cash is King.' Inventory, no matter what type, ties up cash and diverts it from other uses. Therefore the aim of inventory management should be to minimize the inventory investment for a particular customer service level. The approach taken should ensure that the target level of service is met while also minimizing the cash investment.

5 Myths of Inventory Reduction

Inventory reduction has been a major focus of supply chain improvement for many years. However, all inventory reduction initiatives must confront and overcome a number of systemic beliefs if they are to be successful. These hurdles take the form of truisms that destroy your company's wealth. We call these truisms the '5 Myths of Inventory Reduction'.

Why Cost Reduction Efforts Fail

Every business is trying to improve profitability, after all this is why the business exists. To achieve this goal there are only two paths that can be taken – increase revenue or reduce costs.

Why Do We Measure Performance, Anyway?

Trees (like all living things) have a clever feedback loop that helps them translate what their environment is doing so they can respond in ways that keep them living and growing and reproducing. Simpler but not dissimilar from organisations that know the real meaning of performance measurement, don't you think? This article discusses the real purpose of performance measurement: feedback.

KPI Traffic Lights - 3 Ways to Highlight the Real Signals in Your Performance Measures

Traffic lighting is a popular strategy for making performance measures easier to interpret. It does this by colour coding (or using symbols) to flag when performance is acceptable or unacceptable, meeting target or not meeting target. Here are 3 tips to make sure they don't lead you in the wrong direction!

Root Cause Analysis - Simple Techniques to Understand Why Performance is Doing What It's Doing

For this issue I'm revisiting my roots as a research statistician - with some tips for improving your cause analysis with simple but still rigorous statistical techniques.

The 12 Cardinal Sins of ERP Implementation

Industry statistics show that >60% of ERP implementation starts historically fail. Does this mean that you are doomed from the start? Of course not, if you learn from the mistakes of others. So the pertinent question is what are the main causes of ERP failure and what can be done to prevent this from happening to you?

On My Own Time? What Time?

Proponents of e-learning often cite as an advantage the fact that people can take the training at their desks, on their own schedule. The problem is everyone is so busy that it's difficult to find the time. There are other disadvantages to learning at your desk.

Realistic Target Setting - Part 2

In part 1 of this article, the first 3 of 6 challenges to setting realistic performance targets were discussed. This article looks at the last 3 of 6 challenges of realistic goal setting when it comes to business performance improvement.

Managing People - Setting Boundaries

Boundary setting is something one expects to find in a parenting book or a psychologist's journal. However, it applies to adult to adult relationships at work as much as it does to adult to child relationships. In almost any workplace, for any given behaviour required to deliver an organsation's goal, people can be split into three groups. One group is those that are both willing and able to perform and behave in a manner which contributes positively to the desired goal of the organisation.