This article is provided courtesy of theleanmag, a content partner of the Operational Excellence Society. Imagine steering a ship in tumultuous seas without a compass—this is like leading a business without core values guiding the way. You might eventually achieve your goals, but it might take a long time and involve unnecessary and costly detours. In...

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Every industry and business navigates the most challenging environment ever. The “great recession”, COVID-19, Supply Chain Disruptions, record inflation, the “great resignation” the war in Ukraine, energy challenges, and deglobalization all represent the new era of chronic uncertainty. Every executive wants to know where to turn and the best place is building Industry and Trade...

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In my book, “State of Readiness” is a brief discussion on “Effects Chains” (pgs 271-277); which is really a re-branding (for purposes of sensibilities) of “kill chains” that I borrowed from military parlance and adapted to business. In the context of the military, a kill chain refers to a series of stages or steps that...

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Summary. Although it sounds cliché, the world really is a more volatile place than it used to be. That’s because the drivers of uncertainty are more intense — there are more and more change vectors affecting outcomes and these vectors are more and more inter-related. The range of likely outcomes five and 10 years has...

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Give a listen… My guest today is Stephan Meyer PhD, CEO of Almademey Ltd. I have known Stephen for some years now, he being one of the first professionals when I arrived in Germany over a decade ago. I have always found our conversations quite interesting. Like me, he knows you can’t hit home-runs without...

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Too many companies equate strategy with hitting financial goals. They underestimate the difficulty—and the value—of the real thing. The word “strategy” means an approach to dealing with a difficult challenge, especially that of competing with a clever opponent. To have a strategy is to have an approach to overcoming critical obstacles and difficulties. However, through many...

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Summary. Three out of every five companies rate their organization as weak on strategy execution. When you dig into the potential barriers to implementation, there is a general lack of understanding of the various factors at play, resulting in the inevitable managerial justifications — “poor leadership,” “inadequate talent,” “lack of process excellence,” etc. This article...

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Let’s first make an assumption; that the personnel on the production floor were properly informed in absolute terms what the goals of the plant and the company might be and properly empowered to assess situations as they presented themselves.  This is not a given, for all too often the people and their abilities to think...

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Several months into a global pandemic, leading organizations are redefining expectations of what is possible. Consider how offices around the world shifted virtually overnight to digitally enabled remote work. Grocery retailers and restaurants rolled out new pickup and delivery services. Hospitals rapidly expanded telehealth options. Automakers, apparel makers, and mobile phone assemblers retooled on the...

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Mistake 1: Leaders fail to prepare themselves for change I bet there’s not one person reading this article who is not experiencing some kind of change, whether in your work or personal life.  Regardless of the type of change, you’re often in the position of leading others through the change.  Your role involves helping others...

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