There are global risks that corporations must mitigate. If not addressed, the occurrences could have a negative impact on an organization. The World Economic Forum reported in 2014 that the top five were: income disparity, extreme weather events, unemployment and underemployment, climate change and cyber-attacks. If ranked by impact and not likelihood, then the top…

When an “IBM-er” joined Dell Computers, he was told at his first performance review that “Margin decreases revenue velocity.” There are trade-offs between driving gross margin vs. top-line growth. Both companies are successful, yet they measure and pursue different metrics. You need to know what YOUR company is measured on. A corporate scorecard (or dashboard)…

There have been more changes in the first 15 years of this millennium than in the entire millennium before Christ. ·      Demographically: Total world population has grown from 275 million at 1000 AD to 6 billion in 2000 AD ·      Technologically: smart phones, drones, etc…. ·      Geo-politically: Russia, Iraq, etc…. ·      Culturally: o   Agrarian economy…

GM failed to disclose defective ignition switches…for a decade. GM’s handling of the ignition switches is reminiscent of Ford’s Pinto in the 1970’s…known about for a decade, yet rejected a fix due to a “tooling cost” deemed too high. GM’s faulty product has been linked to 13 deaths. Finally, in 2014, 15 million vehicles were…

Employee engagement is positively influenced by: meaningful work (worthwhile, purpose), collaboration (cooperation, encouragement), autonomy, growth (career development), task variety (challenge, complexity), performance expectations (clear evaluation factors), feedback (timely, relevant, specific), workload (reasonable), distributive fairness (pay, benefits, resources, workload are equitable and balanced), procedural fairness (impartial policies, procedures, decisions), connectedness with leadership (trust, ethical, interpersonal), connectedness…

Many organizations desire innovation, rating their attitudes toward creativity as positive. However, the goal of creativity is abstract, and then managers spurn it when they see it because they have a greater need to reduce uncertainty (Mueller, Psychological Science, 2010). Many companies would describe their IT and HR departments as controlling; their main motivation is…

Countries with labor surpluses and no economic growth are at risk of the surpluses spiraling out of control. Two countries with continuing surpluses include South Africa with 7 million, and the US with 20 million. These countries should consider: a)     Repatriate the manufacturing it previously outsourced, b)     Align educational qualifications of college graduates and labor…

Toyota has two pillars, which have provided a foundation for success:  1.     Kaizen – philosophy of continuous improvement ·       When operational excellence is not a part of the process or culture, there is a huge issue with inconsistencies costing effectiveness and efficiency. 2.     Respect and empowerment for people ·       Individual independence leads to a lack…

A man celebrating his 100th birthday was approached by a news reporter. “I suppose you’ve seen a lot of changes in your day?” “Yes,” the centenarian said, “and I’ve been against every one of them.” Because employees are naturally change resistant, one company says, “We’re not changing…we’re just constantly improving!” The British created a civil…

When the Houston-based Enron fraud also caused Andersen Accounting to go under, one of my New York friends who worked for Andersen called me in Texas and commented on my unethical state! The “moral spillover effect” is when the personal reputations of good and ethical leaders are damaged in companies that have a corruption or…