The Decision to Trust

A new book by Bob Hurley has come out called the The Decision to Trust, where he discusses the many different points of view about trust.  He also explains his Decision to Trust Model (DTM), which focuses on:

-How trustors, or those who trust others, can make effective trusting decisions
-How trustees, or those who are trusted, can become more trustworthy
-How to create an environment where trust can flourish

Seems like a great read, and it's endorsed by the Trusted Advisor himself, Charles Green.

Why Profit Centers Work Better On Paper Than In Reality

Bill Waddell writes about erroneous policies found in companies, that usually when thinking about them, they just don't make any sense at all.    Using Wal-Mart as an example, he shows how local efficiencies, suboptimal policies, internal transfer pricing systems just makes things incredibly difficult for customers.

Sometimes, you just have to wonder how some companies are still in business, but when you find similar cases everywhere, then I guess it's no wonder at all.

Toyota Kata - Unified Field Theory of Management

A great presentation was recently given by Bill Constantino, where he talked about the essence of the Toyota culture (also known as "Toyota Kata"), showing examples of how improvement "challenges" are tackled under the Toyota mindset.

He also gives some great examples on how to define and structure change initiatives, to improve the odds of success.

Scrap Targets and the Law of Unintended Consequences

Rudi Buckhard writes an article about a company trying to maximize manufacturing yields (by minimizing % of scrap), and how this led to unintended consequences.

Just one more example of how local optima can lead to decreasing the bottom line of a company. 

The Haiku Approach to Elevator Speeches

The "Legal Rebel" shows a way to define your elevator speech, answering three questions with a short answer for each (5 words, 7 words, 5 words).

A very good example of how to "keep things as simple as possible, but not simpler", as Einstein used to say.

See the article here.

Metro Supermarkets - Innovation by Tesco

A local friend sent me this video, about how Tesco redefined their marketing approach in Korea.   The assumptions that were questioned when developing this solution are very interesting.

Is Delighting The Customer Profitable?

Tackling the ever aging question of "what should a company's goal be", Steve Denning offers an interesting point of view, and challenges companies to focus on "delighting the customer".

He also offers several examples of how this works, and why it will be the best bet in the long run, as opposed to focusing on "being profitable" as the primary goal.