Lynda Gratton’s prediction in Harvard Business Review that middle managers will be disintermediated by advances in information technology is true given a few precarious assumptions:
• a narrow definition of the middle managers role as consolidator of information coming from the “shop floor” and conduit of it to more senior levels and [...]
HP, in general, and Mark Hurd, in particular have been criticized by IBM’s leadership for being penny wise and pound foolish in cutting R&D spending for short terms bumps in profitability. Today’s “Heard on the Street” column, in the Wall Street Journal, adds some substance to that criticism. (”Big Blue’s R&D Machine Benefits Shareholders,” WSJ, [...]
BACKGROUND: WHY LOOK AT TOYOTA? BECAUSE IT CAME FROM BEHIND TO DOMINATE ITS COMPETITION!
Understanding the tremendous commercial success of Toyota, rising from an uncompetitive auto maker in the 1950s and 1960s, to the most dominant in the world by 2000s, and understanding the vast benefit that has come to some that have diligently sought to [...]
Sales and marketing may seem a far cry from the production shop floors on which ‘lean’ was first observed. Nevertheless, that type of work lends itself to exactly the same disciplines of rigorous discovery that allowed Toyota to come from beyond, over take its rivals, and run away from the field.
There is a mistaken notion [...]
Many organizations have looked to Toyota for a model to emulate, in pursuit of excellence. Why? Toyota went from being an uncompetitive auto maker in the 1950s, to world class in quality and efficiency by the 1980s, to the world standard in model diversity, new brand introduction, regional expansion, and technological leadership by 2000.
Credit for Toyota’s success was given to its management system-the Toyota Production System-more generally known as ‘lean manufacturing.’
Recently, a CEO trying to drive his own organization to exceptional levels of performance suggested that at some point, ‘lean’ becomes self perpetuating, largely because employees-accustomed to problem solving, kaizen, and the like, would insist on continued improvement it even in the absence of strong leadership.
Does that happen?
