Harvard Business Review

MAY 8, 2012

Six Sigma , Kaizen , Lean , and other variations on continuous improvement can be hazardous to your organization's health. Similarly, Japan's automobile industry has been plagued by a series of embarrassing quality problems and recalls, and has lost market share to companies from South Korea and even (gasp!) the United States.

Six Sigma 16

Six Sigma Kaizen Govindarajan Telecommunications 16

Strategy Driven

SEPTEMBER 19, 2011

Whether it was branded the Deming Method or Six Sigma or a host of other models, ‘continuous improvement processes’ found their way into organizations large and small and have made a major contribution to improving quality worldwide. Keep your company fighter-pilot agile in any turbulent or changing market.

Six Sigma 57

Six Sigma Learning-by-Doing Training Tools 57

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 7, 2013

You even people talking about UX as the way in which a consumer connects to a business — all the touch-points from marketing to product development to distribution channels. At frog, we hear the same things from executives in financial services, healthcare, and infrastructure. But that was a foreign idea not so long ago.

Strategy 8

Strategy Six Sigma Engineering Bottom-up 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 3, 2014

The board’s challenge is to decide what deficits it can live with (usually because they can be compensated for by the rest of the leadership team), and which two or three criteria are non-negotiable must-haves. The retiring leader advocated strongly for an executive he had groomed for the job, in his own image.

CEO 15

CEO Six Sigma How To Apparel 15

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 25, 2011

These layoffs are usually driven by small teams who look for opportunities to "right size" departments. He looked at the firm's client records and noticed that they executed these studies every three to five years at the same clients. But that's outside the experience and comfort zone of most C-level executives.

Cost 9

Cost Six Sigma Short-term Banking 9

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 24, 2015

This sense of being pushed and pulled every which way – without having any broader context or a sense that you’re getting somewhere – is something I see all too often in organizations, as executives try to keep up with new competitors or business trends.

Welch 8

Welch Six Sigma Real Estate Trends 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 6, 2011

A large division of this company had recognized the need to dramatically change its business model to survive and succeed in a changing market. In this case, the answers were not there, the effort was stopped, and a new management team took over. However, two years without any tangible results will strain any executive team's patience.

Process 15

Process Six Sigma Finance Short-term 15

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 30, 2016

ZBB’s resurgence is further fueled by the uncertain markets hindering many companies’ efforts to attract fresh capital, as we see venture capital and private equity funds increasingly pushing ZBB on their portfolio companies, in the hope of securing a more rapid and profitable exit on their investments.

Zero Based Budgeting 8

Zero Based Budgeting Budgeting Supply Chain Company 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 20, 2013

A 2010 IBM survey found that 79% of global chief executives foresaw "high or very high complexity" over the next five years, but only 49% felt their organization was prepared to handle it. Access to finance , designing operational processes and systems , and building strong, talented management teams are just a few obstacles that many cite.

Entrepreneur 8

Entrepreneur Company Six Sigma Franchising 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 24, 2013

Last year, NBA teams played 66 games during the shortened season and the NHL will play 48 games this year (a full season is 82 games for both leagues). A closer examination of the truncated seasons offers some useful lessons for executives. Sixty-six games for the NBA is plenty to allow the top teams to climb to the surface.

Skills 8

Skills Six Sigma Incentives Sports 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 3, 2014

The board’s challenge is to decide what deficits it can live with (usually because they can be compensated for by the rest of the leadership team), and which two or three criteria are non-negotiable must-haves. The retiring leader advocated strongly for an executive he had groomed for the job, in his own image.

CEO 8

CEO Six Sigma How To Apparel 8

Mike Cardus

DECEMBER 28, 2011

Here is the schedule it may change; 12/27/11 – Photos of Teams. 12/29/11 – Team Building & Leadership activity (simulation). Team Building & Leadership Model of Transferring Lessons into Organizational Reality. DiSC Team Building & Leadership. 10 Team Dynamics That All Great Teams Share.

Workshop 94

Workshop Team Building Six Sigma Innovation 94

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

This is purely about executing within an existing and stable operating model. This includes most of the myriad Lean and Six Sigma continuous improvement projects that drive improved efficiency and effectiveness within an existing management and organizational structure. Incremental Improvement. Disruptive Innovation.

Budgeting 10

Budgeting Innovation Disruptive Innovation Six Sigma 10

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 22, 2013

When we surveyed over 300 global executives between 2008 and 2009, one of the primary concerns they expressed was their inability to compete long term without a solid innovation engine that can grow their top line. Once they find it, they work on finding radical ideas and developing business proposals for top executives to review.

Skills 8

Skills Power Six Sigma Disruptive Innovation 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 11, 2015

Our work covers each brand’s visual identity, from the product itself all the way to the marketing and merchandising activities that bring a brand to life across different platforms—music, sports, fashion, and so forth. Let’s say that in the room there is a marketer who tells me the brand is not visible enough.

Organization 8

Organization Brand Six Sigma Innovation 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 30, 2013

To gain some real end-to-end experience — perhaps making a concerted effort to try out advanced analytics in the hiring process, improve content in financial reporting, bring more data to decisions made by the senior team, and improve the quality of data used in marketing. It is important to think through organizational implications.

Six Sigma 8

Six Sigma Long-term Information Technology Short-term 8

Strategy Driven

APRIL 2, 2014

But those leaders have had training and experience to succeed in a traditional organization with a C-suite at the top and siloed business units and functions under each executive. The question is, do your executives have the skills and experience to lead a cross-functional process focused organization? What’s in it for Me?

BPM 56

BPM Process Tips Management 56

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 4, 2012

When the knowledge base underlying a project is fragmented and project teams are scattered over multiple locations, miscommunication, conflict, and stalemates over crucial decision making are much more likely. Companies that are smart about global innovation create an explicit role for senior executives in their projects.

Globalization 15

Globalization Innovation Team First-mover Advantage 15

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 4, 2012

When the knowledge base underlying a project is fragmented and project teams are scattered over multiple locations, miscommunication, conflict, and stalemates over crucial decision making are much more likely. Companies that are smart about global innovation create an explicit role for senior executives in their projects.

Globalization 15

Globalization Innovation Team First-mover Advantage 15

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 28, 2013

Spurred by government reforms and market expectations, healthcare leaders are being forced to reinvent their organizations. But, all of these efforts are dependent on people for both initial implementation and long term execution. This requires developing creative approaches to finding new ideas from outside of healthcare.

Health Care 8

Health Care Innovation Six Sigma Consultative 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 23, 2015

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. 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.

Innovation 8

Innovation Company Six Sigma Constraint 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 23, 2014

But in most cases, it’s still falling well short of its full potential because it either lacks or fails to tightly integrate with the mechanisms needed to systematically capture lessons learned and share them outside the team. And that’s where the money is in innovation.

Innovation 8

Innovation Six Sigma Productivity Products 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 27, 2015

By comparison, think of the long strides many businesses have made in reengineering their supply chains, boosting product quality, and rolling out lean six sigma. Every day, senior executives get bombarded with ideas—and most of them are either woefully underdeveloped or downright batty. What’s the problem?

Innovation 8

Innovation Company Engineering Supply Chain 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 30, 2012

There's something about the culture of business that tends toward excess — in financial markets, to be sure, but also in the "market" for new ideas and management techniques. Companies are touting chief innovation officers, innovation teams, innovations strategies, and even innovation days," the hard-hitting piece noted.

Innovation 16

Innovation Airlines Six Sigma Lean Production 16

Skip Prichard

JULY 15, 2019

Bringing a new prescription drug to market, for example, now costs nearly $2.6 Even a simpler product like the SpinBrush, which entered the market priced at $5 each, required an upfront investment of $1.5 As a result, Fitbit held 68 percent market share through 2013 versus 19 percent for Jawbone and just 10 percent for Nike.

How To 76

How To Middle Management Innovation Technology 76