Two decades of research show that, while large deals still have their place, programmatic M&A strategies continue to create gains in excess total returns to shareholders, at lower levels of risk. M&A is having a moment—again. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has had to adjust its premerger review process to manage the tidal wave...

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Topic:  JP shares his challenges with a recent move of premises.  Many of the frustrations involve the discarding of waste in Germany; the myriad of bins and methods of discarding and the confusions that go with their use is but one of the challenges.  The biggest challenge, besides JP holding the opinion that his landlords were assholes...

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‘Leadership by intent’ has been described as the leadership technique that can best contribute to making organisations more adaptable and effective. That it can create an environment of employee empowerment. That it can help businesses thrive in environments that are increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. In this article, I describe what leadership by intent...

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Are your operations achieving best-in-class operating performance? As corporate earnings continue to show good growth and the great recession falls further into the past, adverse results may be creeping into operating performance levels while businesses emphasize top line growth.  Understanding what best in class performance is for today’s operations and how our improvement efforts affect...

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We have often heard of Lean being described as a “Journey, not a Destination” – in that the pursuit of an optimal business condition is what is important and that an ideal state is never to be realized.  So how is it then that so many journeys are abandoned or fail to realize their potential...

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Behavioral economist, Dan Ariely reveals why the dismal science of economics is not as firmly grounded in actual behavior as was once supposed. And, in this TED talk, he examines the motivations behind our drive to work. In doing so, he presents two eye-opening experiments that reveal our unexpected and nuanced attitudes toward meaning in our...

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The investor due diligence process has evolved with the growth of the hedge fund industry. What was once a short and rather perfunctory process has grown into one which today is highly quantitative and detailed. While there is no one-size-fits-all formula for investors, one certainty is that managers who understand the components of the due...

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I have been quizzed by some readers, “What do currencies in general – and the challenges facing the Euro and its member countries in particular – have to do with Operational Excellence?” For that matter, what do discussions that involve “geo-politics” have to do with Operational Excellence? Both are very fair questions. Operational Excellence is a philosophy...

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Is the sum of the parts greater than the whole? A number of the world’s largest companies are considering the degree of truth this timeless motto holds. Starbursting is the popular term given to restructuring a company by breaking it up into smaller pieces and sending forth these new, smaller divisions toward the stock markets....

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Sooner or later in your consulting career, you will find yourself in the somewhat awkward position of having to listen to a client proudly describe what you are sure is the worst conceived performance intervention you have ever heard. Imagine, it has taken you months to get them this excited about anything. You listen in...

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