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

SEPTEMBER 25, 2011

For example, at Bank of America, 44 senior bank managers and about two dozen consultants worked on a cost-cutting initiative called "Project New BAC". They solicited cost saving ideas from employees, then prioritized and presented them to senior managers. They analyzed costs, set targets, and met with business and functional units.

Cost 9

Cost Six Sigma Short-term Banking 9

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 6, 2011

In this case, the answers were not there, the effort was stopped, and a new management team took over. The management team was running short of patience for results and wanted me to help them bring changes to fruition. What kind of return can shareholders expect, and when? What can we learn from this failure?

Process 15

Process Six Sigma Finance Short-term 15

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. This seems basic, but often people just don’t know the precise answer or haven’t thought in these simple terms. Which do you respond to first?

Budgeting 13

Budgeting Innovation Disruptive Innovation Six Sigma 13

Harvard Business Review

JULY 30, 2014

Organization as machine – this imagery from our industrial past continues to cast a long shadow over the way we think about management today. Managers still assume that stability is the normal state of affairs and change is the unusual state (a point I particularly challenge in The End of Competitive Advantage ).

Six Sigma 9

Six Sigma Drucker P&L Short-term 9

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 30, 2013

With all the excitement (and anxiety) surrounding big data and advanced analytics, it is not surprising that many organizations are naming Chief Data Officers (CDO) to manage their data needs. But I fear that too many organizations have sold the title short and are missing the opportunity to define a truly transformative role.

Six Sigma 8

Six Sigma Long-term Information Technology Short-term 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 11, 2015

So, you need a leader who can manage all the different phases of design in a very smart way—someone with a holistic vision. Methodologies like Six Sigma are all about reducing risk, but they are not effective for innovation because innovation by definition is risky. There is industrial design. There is interior design.

Organization 8

Organization Brand Six Sigma Innovation 8

Deming Institute

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

The content of this blog was prepared as an article for the first edition of the Lean Management Journal, later known as The LMJ. In the late 1960s, Frank Pipp, an assembly plant manager for a Ford Motor Company factory, instructed his staff to purchase competitor’s cars. Deming is the core of our management.”

System 74

System Productivity Products Deming 74

Harvard Business Review

MAY 1, 2017

So, in real terms, debt financing is essentially free. See More Videos > See More Videos > To elaborate, a company’s intrinsic equity value reflects the long-term cash flows that shareholders expect to receive over time, discounted at the appropriate risk-adjusted cost of equity capital.

ROE 14

ROE Long-term GDP Six Sigma 14

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 23, 2015

The company had spent the past two decades focused on implementing Six Sigma processes across the enterprise and it was primed to execute on the best and smartest ideas. Many of the most common missteps we see companies make would fit nicely in Steve Kerr’s management classic , “The folly of rewarding A, while hoping for B.”

Innovation 8

Innovation Company Six Sigma Constraint 8