GE adopted Six Sigma from Motorola in 1995, and under Jack Welch it became corporate religion. But as GE began a long, slow decline, so did the popularity of Six Sigma. Once synonymous with management excellence, GE’s reputation in the business world plummeted in concert with its share price. As GE’s fortunes diminished, so has interest in Six Sigma. So how relevant is the skill of Six Sigma in the world of continuous improvement – today?
Approaching a historic turn in U.S. monetary policy, Janet Yellen has staked her tenure as chair of the Federal Reserve on a simple principle: she’d rather fight inflation than another economic downturn. Interviews with current and former Fed officials indicate that Yellen and core decision-makers at the U.S. central bank are determined not to raise interest…
In 50 Words or Less: A European investment bank wanted to improve its cash payment process to reduce errors and delays, and ultimately improve customer service. The bank used lean Six Sigma to uncover rework, as well as unnecessary and duplicative actions, to realign activities from its front offices to operations and back offices. BACKGROUND:…
Running to standard Whenever there is a problem, we should always first ask the question: Are we running to standard? Often the issue is that we’ve not followed the standard and we simply aren’t doing what we ought to be doing. It can be hard to admit to ourselves that we’ve merely been human and…
ByHBR.org
by Michael E. Porter From the Magazine (November-December 1998) Now that companies can source capital, goods, information, and technology from around the world, often with the click of a mouse, much of the conventional wisdom about how companies and nations compete needs to be overhauled. In theory, more open global markets and faster transportation and communication…
You’ll be hard-pressed to find a country that is thrilled with our current global monetary system. Across the board, three complaints tend to arise: the dominance of the dollar as a reserve currency and America’s management of it; the fostered the creation of vast foreign-exchange reserves; and the scale and volatility of capital flows. When…
ByTED
Gaming theorist Tom Chatfield spends his time analyzing games; what we want from them, what we get from them, and how individuals might use their hard-wired desire for a gamer’s reward to change the way they learn. In this fascinating TED-Talk, Chatfield draws our attention to how games are meticulously designed to issue players with…
