When a change-management consultant interviewed a group of workers, he realized they didn’t understand the impact of returned shipments. After that meeting, the consultant placed a pickle jar in the middle of the shipping department floor. For every successful shipment, management placed a quarter in the jar. For every shipping error, management removed $10. The [...]
Innovation is one of those words that can mean different things to different people — indeed, if you ask a group of your colleagues to write a sentence or two about what they mean by the term, you should expect a lot of variety, for example: A new idea. A really great new product. Something [...]
Under pressure to hit immediate performance targets, many managers inflate earnings, often by cutting expenditures. In a recent survey of 401 top financial executives by Natalie Mizik and Robert Jacobson, 80% said they would decrease spending on “discretionary” activities like marketing and R&D to meet short term goals. It’s true that this kind of shortsightedness [...]
America’s highly touted productivity may be destroying its legendary enterprise and many of its powerful enterprises. Many of the claimed productivity gains in recent years have amounted to productivity losses. Imagine what would happen if you fired everyone in your company and shipped from stock: Working hours would disappear while output would continue. That would [...]
Lessons from Ranjay Gulati, a professor at Northwestern’s Kellog School of Management, on how to avoid complacency: Avoid the “post-pellet” pause. Lab rats always take a break when they find that pellet of food. Recognize that once an organization achieves success, it’s only natural to want to take it easy. Look outside the industry. Comparing [...]