Michael Lee Stallard

DECEMBER 9, 2010

Research from two well-respected organizations makes it clear that we have a big collective blind spot that’s dragging down productivity, innovation and economic performance. The report went on to show this has been a long-term downward trend rather than a temporary decline due to the Great Recession.

Leadership 400

Leadership Six Sigma Competitive Advantage Consensus 400

Harvard Business Review

MAY 1, 2012

Innovation may be an organization's life blood, but still its success rate in most companies hovers at just 17%. Even innovation leader P&G succeeds less than 50% of the time. What prevents companies from innovating better? So in the end, it's a mixed message: "We want you to innovate, but only after you've done your real job.".

Innovation 15

Innovation Six Sigma Management Short-term 15

Strategy Driven

APRIL 8, 2011

In his groundbreaking new book, Brand Relevance : Making Competitors Irrelevant, David shows how any company can use the “brand relevance” strategy to achieve long-term, competitive success. Brand Relevance provides the tools companies need to generate innovative offerings that can create long-term financial success.

Brand 56

Brand Aaker Six Sigma Short-term 56

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

You probably reach for your firefighter’s hat to extinguish the short-term problem. The problem is, this instinct crowds out longer term, innovative thinking. To find out how they do this, we focused on the two key questions underlying the challenge: How much is your organization spending on innovation?

Budgeting 13

Budgeting Innovation Disruptive Innovation Six Sigma 13

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 10, 2011

These mandated-from-above programs include Lean Six Sigma initiatives with experts (" Belts ") in command, big IT implementations, and reengineering of major end-to-end processes. An executive in the company's finance operations adopted a Six Sigma belt-driven approach to reduce costs in the company's global shared service centers.

Six Sigma 15

Six Sigma Bottom-up Cost Project 15

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 6, 2011

The management team was running short of patience for results and wanted me to help them bring changes to fruition. We quickly initiated a program to reduce the number of legal entities, saving tens of thousands in each country, while longer-term process improvements progressed in parallel. Their publicity got ahead of reality.

Process 15

Process Six Sigma Finance Short-term 15

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 30, 2013

From reducing costs by improving quality, to enriching existing products and services by informationalizing them , to innovating by bringing big data and analytics to bear, data are showing themselves worthy across the board. Our Six Sigma program is decent enough, and our first choice is to leverage that effort for data.

Six Sigma 8

Six Sigma Long-term Information Technology Short-term 8