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11 11, 2022

The 7 Processes for Holiday Survival: Thanksgiving Edition

By |2022-11-11T19:24:16+00:00November 11th, 2022|Growth, Holiday, Humor, People, Process|Comments Off on The 7 Processes for Holiday Survival: Thanksgiving Edition

"There's a sale on Process Mapping, aisle 12!" At MPI, we help companies analyze seven fundamental processes that can deliver value to customers. This week we asked ourselves: Why limit ourselves to business processes when there’s another CRITICAL process in need of help — surviving the holidays! Introducing: The 7 Processes for Holiday Survival  – Thanksgiving Edition. At which of these processes are you great? At which are you ridiculously terrible? Analyze your performance now! Research and Development (R&D): Imagining, innovating, and designing great new products, such as your brand-new, organic, oddly flavor-free Artisanal Stuffing with Raisins recipe. We’ll [...]

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16 05, 2022

Mediocrity, Malaise, and Mismanagement

By |2022-05-18T16:22:13+00:00May 16th, 2022|Business, Information Technology, Manufacturing, MPI Manufacturing Study, People|Comments Off on Mediocrity, Malaise, and Mismanagement

Why aren’t you paying attention to your manufacturing business? After nearly two decades of research on manufacturers, you might think that MPI could report  that documented best practices — benchmarking, training, etc. — are now common everywhere, driving massive performance improvements around the world. Alas, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, our MPI 2021 Manufacturing Study found many manufacturers struggling with — or outright failing at — the basics of improvement. It goes without saying that the effects of the pandemic can be seen in our Study data. Nonetheless, the overall Study results are shocking: [...]

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11 12, 2018

The (Occasional) Wisdom of Inefficiency

By |2018-12-11T19:36:00+00:00December 11th, 2018|Alec Pendleton, Big Ideas for Small Companies, Business, Customer Service, Leadership, People, Small Business Advice|Comments Off on The (Occasional) Wisdom of Inefficiency

By Alec Pendleton, Big Ideas for Small Companies, powered by The MPI Group Many leaders think they know the Magic Bullet for Maximum Success: Efficiency! If only we could do everything in our lives with superior efficiency, they believe, all sorts of wonderfulness would be sure to follow. Profits would surge! Competition from China and elsewhere would dwindle! Our standard of living would soar! What could possibly go wrong? Well, actually … quite a lot. The Theory of Constraints, described by Eliyahu Goldratt in The Goal — one of the best business books I’ve ever read — makes it clear [...]

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7 11, 2018

The Profitable Magic of Transparency

By |2020-04-30T15:48:32+00:00November 7th, 2018|Alec Pendleton, Big Ideas for Small Companies, Customer Service, People|Comments Off on The Profitable Magic of Transparency

By Alec Pendleton, Big Ideas for Small Companies, powered by The MPI Group I recently bought a used car for my daughter. I expected it to be unpleasant — because car-shopping, whether new or used, has always been a notoriously one-sided affair, with sellers having much more information than buyers, and rarely disclosing enough to level the playing field. Even in our digital age, with access to CarFax reports, dealer costs, etc., I always feel that there’s something that I don’t know. In short: I rarely walk away from an automotive transaction without feeling that I’ve been somehow swindled [...]

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