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Marshmallows and the Cure for Everything

22 November, 2015 by James Lawther 6 Comments

Test and learn Now I’m married with daughters I don’t go out that often. Nightclubs and cinemas are a thing of the past (unless it is to watch Frozen… 4 times and counting). An evening in front of the TV is a treat. I sat down last night to watch a re-run of House.  It […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: marshmallow challenge, plan do check act, problem solving, TED talks, test and learn, video

What is an Organisation?

8 November, 2015 by James Lawther 4 Comments

You can’t improve it if you don’t understand it You can’t improve your organisation if you don’t understand what an organisation is. So I googled organisation, this is what I found: Organisation: noun /ɔːɡ(ə)nʌɪˈzeɪʃ(ə)n/ An organised group of people with a particular purpose. – “a research organisation” The action of organising something. – “the organisation of conferences” The quality […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: beliefs, point optimisation, systems thinking, video

Short-Term Management

26 October, 2015 by James Lawther 3 Comments

Short Term Thinking

The curse of short-termism We focus on the immediate future:  The stock market obsesses about interim returns Politicians like to see instant results Managers must hit quarterly targets  We rarely look beyond the next 6 months. It is easy to hit a short-term target It doesn’t take too much talent or imagination: If you have to cut […]

Filed Under: Blog, Wild Cards Tagged With: management style, poor service, short term thinking, systems thinking, targets

The Ultimate Business Constraint

20 October, 2015 by James Lawther 5 Comments

Running a business is tough I used to run my own business. It was hard work. I have the utmost respect for anybody who does it. The constraint on my business wasn’t the lack of good ideas or cash — I have plenty of ideas and I could always find somebody to lend me money. […]

Filed Under: Blog, Wild Cards Tagged With: human nature, management style, trust

Did Process Improvement Destroy Starbucks?

9 October, 2015 by James Lawther 29 Comments

The Memo I came across a memo from Howard Schultz, the chief executive of Starbucks the other day. Here are the bits that caught my eye — to read the whole thing click here. From: Howard Schultz Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 Subject: The Commoditization of the Starbucks Experience Over the past ten years, in […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: customer focus, fessing up, management style, objective setting

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