Great Leadership By Dan

DECEMBER 23, 2013

I recently attended a fascinating webinar by MIT Sloan Professor Nelson Repenning that explained why proven capability building processes and tools like LEAN and Six-Sigma often go unused. Useful doesn’t always mean used. I’m sure there are other reasons – please leave a comment with your thoughts.

Management 298

Management Six Sigma Leadership Short-term 298

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 25, 2011

An alternative approach to cost cutting is built into the "Six Sigma" methodology as popularized by GE. The quoted financial savings from Six Sigma projects, while valid, aren't having long-term effects on their cost structure. Companies launch process improvement projects with hard financial targets.

Cost 8

Cost Six Sigma Short-term Banking 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 12, 2011

And, as many writers in this series argue, one of the chief means of fixing the system lies in focusing on the creation of long-term value. However, when determining the CEO's compensation, most corporate boards today give the highest priority to short-term financial results at the expense of long-term value creation.

Long-term 12

Long-term Attrition Six Sigma Balanced Scorecard 12

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 14

Process Six Sigma Finance Short-term 14

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 12

Budgeting Innovation Disruptive Innovation Six Sigma 12

Harvard Business Review

JULY 30, 2014

Organizations still emphasize exploitation of existing advantages , driving a short-term orientation that many bemoan. By the early 1900’s, the term “management” was in wide use, and Adam Smith’s ideas came into their own. Others – such as Frederick Winslow Taylor, Frank and Lillian Galbreth, Herbert R. Townes, and Henry L.

Six Sigma 8

Six Sigma Drucker P&L Short-term 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 2, 2018

Industrial giants have well-established brands, built strong customer relationships, and signed long-term service contracts. The characteristics of hardware businesses include long product development cycle, Six Sigma efficiency, and long sales cycle. In short, it is very difficult for a company to disrupt itself.

Industry 8

Industry Software Six Sigma Engineering 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 24, 2013

Sixty-six games for the NBA is plenty to allow the top teams to climb to the surface. The NHL season is simply too short to be confident that the more skillful teams will rise to the top. One example is six sigma , where a company seeks to have no more than 3.4 But 48 games in the NHL is way too few.

Skills 8

Skills Six Sigma Incentives Sports 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 30, 2013

But I fear that too many organizations have sold the title short and are missing the opportunity to define a truly transformative role. A company only needs a Chief Data Officer when it is ready to fully consider how it wishes to compete with data over the long term and start to build the organizational capabilities it will need to do so.

Six Sigma 8

Six Sigma Long-term Information Technology Short-term 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 11, 2015

Methodologies like Six Sigma are all about reducing risk, but they are not effective for innovation because innovation by definition is risky. We wanted to understand where we could go and then step back pragmatically to deliver innovation in the short term, the middle term, and then the longer term as well.

Organization 8

Organization Brand Six Sigma Innovation 8

Deming Institute

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

The producer-as-customer is quick to judge the product quality and adjust the design-procurement-fabrication-assembly process, as needed, should the resultant product quality fall short of expectations. This system of feedback is much the same was what was explained by W. Edwards Deming to several dozen executives in Japan in 1950.

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 13

ROE Long-term GDP Six Sigma 13

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. The executive team of a consumer healthcare company had concluded that the rise of new competitors meant the company needed to up its innovation game.

Innovation 8

Innovation Company Six Sigma Constraint 8