Bringing Change Management to Life: An Interview with George Taninecz
Performance Improvement expert and MPI’s VP of Research George Taninecz on the art of the huddle, the role of lean in healthcare, and his new change management novel, Winning Innovation. MPI Insight: George, you’ve spent your career as a student of performance improvement, in particular lean manufacturing. You had a front row seat to the advent of lean in manufacturing while you were an editor at IndustryWeek and then you eventually became a partner and VP of Research at The [...]
Getting Out of the Customer Free-Zone: An Interview with John R. Brandt
The CEO of The MPI Group shares practical advice for putting the focus on process. MPI Insight: When companies are looking at making big improvements, innovation tends to take the focus at the expense of process. Why do you think that is? And what’s lost by ignoring process? John: Innovation's fun! Who doesn't want to create something new and exciting and be lauded around the world as the genius who came up with this for the first time ever? (Which is [...]
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 Customer as Victim
I’m going to give you a scene, then ask you to tell me whether it was from a hidden-camera comedy program or modern corporate America: A shopper in the parking lot of a big-box retailer looks at the price of a product on her phone, a reasonable $69.99. As she walks into the store, however, the price shown on the app jumps to $99.99. When she walks back out, it reverts to $69.99. Bewildered, she shakes her head and gets [...]
Lordstown Family Feud
After releasing The Trade Skirmish of 2018, a policy report on the early evidence on the economic effects of the tariff actions by the U.S. and global retaliation (http://glenn.osu.edu/research/) in April, I was asked to referee a family feud. What follows is an edited version of the question and an expanded version of my answer. Good morning Mr. Hill, I am trying to understand what factors led GM to close the plant in Lordstown, Ohio. My cousin and I argue [...]
Disruptive Technologies Offer Major Opportunities — and Headaches — for Manufacturers
New study finds some manufacturers are ready to leverage cutting edge technologies — while others fall behind New research finds that manufacturing leaders are worried about disruptive technologies — robotics, artificial intelligence, additive manufacturing, and analytics — and yet few are doing much about it. The MPI Disruptive Technologies in Manufacturing Study surveyed more than 400 executives at manufacturing companies around the globe and found that: 88 percent report that their industries and markets are vulnerable to disruptive technologies (29 [...]
Life Cycles of the (Not-So) Rich and (Formerly) Famous
Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world and the founder of Amazon, recently predicted to a group of employees that “Amazon will go bankrupt.” He was reflecting on the recent bankruptcy of Sears, which not that long ago was as formidable as Amazon is today. “If you look at large companies,” he said, “their lifespans tend to be 30-plus years, not a hundred-plus years.” I know what you’re thinking: That doesn’t seem right. Large companies have enduring strength. Massive [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
A Timely Lesson from our First President About Tolerance
George Washington’s Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island By Ned Hill, A One-Handed Economist, and Professor of Public Administration and City & Regional Planning at The Ohio State University’s John Glenn College of Public Affairs, powered by The MPI Group On August 17, 1790, Moses Seixas, the Warden of Newport Rhode Island’s Synagogue Yeshuat Israel, read his letter of welcome to President George Washington: Permit the children of the stock of Abraham to … join with our fellow citizens in [...]
Happiness is Control (unless you don’t have it!)
By Alec Pendleton, Big Ideas for Small Companies, powered by The MPI Group Early in my career, I had the good fortune to attend seminars led by the late Leon Danco, a noted consultant to family businesses. He had particular skill — and took particular delight — in waking up scions to the realities of life in a family company, and in urging them to upgrade their management skills. A master storyteller, he often underscored points with memorable quips that [...]
As Cleveland Bids Lebron James Adieu
Lebron’s return did not cause the economic rejuvenation of the city and region. And his leaving will not cause its economic collapse or ruination. Cleveland is better and stronger than that.