A human-centered society creatively balances investments in sources of innovation, while also governing in a manner that eventually limits exploitation by originators once innovations have proven their value in the marketplace, broadly defined to include both private and public constituencies. The desired balance requires society to invest in constituencies to be able to create innovations […]
In Beyond Quick Fixes (Rouse, 2024) I considered how human-centered interventions could mitigate the health, education, energy, and mis/dis information challenges addressed in this book. I explored how these ecosystems could benefit from seeing them as human-centered systems. This led to my postulating how all four challenges could be mitigated as a whole, reflecting an […]
This challenge of misinformation and disinformation prompted me to title the first chapter of Beyond Quick Fixes — “Chaos and Confusion.” Not only has this infodemic unsettled politics and other areas. It has actually exacerbated the other three challenges addressed by the book. People do not know what to believe and who to trust regarding […]
Human-centered design, as elaborated last week, is a key enabler of human-centered systems. The elements of human-centered systems include: Efficient & effective ecosystem services Integration across service systems Equitable & affordable access the services Continuous learning & improvement of services Leveraging lessons learned broadly My central premise is that everybody wants our societal systems to […]
Many decisions require deciding whose preferences should influence these decisions. In some situations, there may be one ultimate decision maker, although this is very rare in public-private ecosystems. Success usually depends an understanding all stakeholders. Human-centered design addresses the values, concerns, and perceptions of all stakeholders in designing, developing, deploying, and operating products, services, and […]
In November, Washington DC voters approved a measure to make the minimum hourly wage for tipped restaurant workers incrementally increase to $15.20 per hour by 2027. Tips will be on top of that wage, and owned by the tipped worker not their employers. DC restaurants may add a service charge to provide the resources to […]
There seems to be an epidemic of thoughtlessness. You help a young person to apply for a prestigious opportunity. They get accepted. You hear through the grapevine. You mention to their grandmother, who prompted your efforts, that you had not heard from the young person. She tells you, “She is too busy to email you.” […]
How can we get people to understand societal changes that are desirable and achievable if they embrace and support such pursuits? More specifically, how can we energize support for transformation of health, education, and energy ecosystems to achieve desirable, high priority outcomes? Consider related achievements in similar arenas in the past. Abolitionism, or the abolitionist […]
Nathaniel Philbrick in Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War (Basic Books, 2006) provides the following chronicle of John Howland’s voyage (pp. 32-33). “In the Fall of 1620, the Mayflower’s ability to steady herself in a gale produced a most deceptive tranquility for a young indentured servant name John Howland. As the Mayflower lay […]
A critical issue arises. We convene an august group of experts to address the issue and recommend ways forward. The expert panel recommends courses of action. Those empowered to act embrace one or more recommendations. They endorse and resource ways forward. Does this work? Sometimes experiences can preempt needs for evidence. Vietnam, Gulf War, Opioids, […]
Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook, now Meta, and Elon Musk at Twitter are in the process of destroying the value created by their formerly immensely successful enterprises. A recent Economist (November 3rd) outlines their misadventures, arguing that their conglomerative aspirations have set the stage for overreach. Zuckerberg is trying to move beyond the original vision, while […]
I have flown well over 3 million miles with Delta, retaining Sky Priority status when my Platinum and Diamond credentials aged out. I supposedly still receive exemplary service. I recently flew from my home in Washington, DC to Orlando for a business meeting. I sat in 30E to Atlanta, then 32B to Orlando, and 35F […]
We often compare ourselves to the other 36 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The US spends the most per capita on healthcare, but achieves much poorer outcomes than most OECD countries. The US is among the largest spenders on education in terms of costs per student. Yet, the US achieves […]
According to the US Department of Health & Human Services, “Social determinants of health (SDOH) are the conditions in the environments where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks.” Thus, there is a spectrum of attributes that characterize SDOH, […]
I recently read Ben Wiker’s treatise 10 Books That Screwed Up the World: And 5 Others that Didn’t Help (Regnery, 2008). He chronicles the thoughts, writings, and impacts of Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, John Mill, Friedrich Nietzsche, Vladimir Lenin, Margaret Sanger, Simon Freud, Margaret Mead, Adolph Hitler and Alfred Kinsey. Often, these luminaries’ hallmark books […]
So, what’s going on? The Covid 19 pandemic still kills about 500 people per day. Monkey pox is surging. The chronicle of the January 6th insurrection continues to astonish. Hordes of classified documents are turning up in Florida. Roe v. Wade was overturned. Inflation is frustrating, and the Fed is trying to cool the economy. […]
Joseph Tainter’s The Collapse of Complex Societies (Cambridge University Press, 1988) presaged Jared Diamond’s Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (Viking, 2004). Both books provide vivid explanations of how societies fail and why. Societies create mechanisms to deal with new challenges. Walls are built to thwart Mongol hoards. Regulations are created to deter […]
After eight years, I finally upgraded my iPhone 6 to an iPhone SE, the slim traditional version of the iPhone 13. I still have my iPhone 1, by the way, from 2007. The expanded capabilities of this new digital device enabled a major upgrade of my cognitive assistant, Emily, who I introduced in my blog […]
A significant proportion of our population is scientifically illiterate. They have no understanding of the Big Bang Theory or Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. Actually, one quarter are functionally illiterate and only one third can perform simple arithmetic calculations. Yet, they manage to function in life quite reasonably. They are oblivious to scientific misinformation and disinformation. […]
We know quite a bit about human well being, broadly defined to include the physical, behavioral, social, economic, and political elements of the concept. We seem to lack the will and the resources to pursue broadly based improvements in the well being of everyone. Many of us feel that everyone is on their own, and […]
What happens if a fundamental tenet of life turns out to be wrong? Does it depends on the nature of the premise or belief? How central is it to how you manage your life? Does this realization fundamentally change your subsequent behavior? Do you become a different person than you would have become with this […]
When and how do organizational change initiatives make a real and lasting difference? When there is shared recognition of existing and/or emerging value deficiencies, which requires a shared understanding of the nature of value and how the organization creates value. When there is shared agreement on the range of change alternatives that have potential to […]
I have encountered a range of situations – in industry, government, and academia – where the financial well being of the organization is severely threatened and leadership refuses to recognize the situation and accept agency for dealing with it. I recall one situation in academia where I asked the Provost how he would deal with […]
Consider two recent pieces in the New York Times: “How Animals See Themselves” by Ed Young, and “In a Parallel Universe, Another You” by Michio Kaku, both published on June 20th. Young reports that animals sense light, sounds, smells, etc. much differently than humans do. It helps them to identify food, mates, and other means […]
I recently read Serhii Plokhy’s Atoms & Ashes (Norton, 2022), a chronicle of six nuclear disasters over several decades in America, England, Japan, and Russia, three in the military and three in electric utilities. In all six cases, the consequences of the disaster were much worse than expected and governments did their best to cover […]
Pubs are “public places” where we convene for drinks, meals, and often sporting events. I always sit at the bar. At a table, I am left to conversations with my colleagues with whom I entered the establishment or, if by myself, catching up with email with far-flung colleagues. At the bar, it is likely that […]
Where are we headed as a country? We were once – at least we thought – the shiny exemplar of liberal democracy. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were our themes. We understood that there would be conflicts in these pursuits, but we would work it out. Reasonable adversaries would discuss and debates paths […]
Consumer Cellular focuses on mobile phone services for older adults who do not use their phones for streaming services. The advertised monthly fees are much lower since the bandwidth utilized is much less. Consumer Cellular is collocated with Target in their electronics department. According to the Consumer Cellular website, the only store in DC providing […]
Do the times make leaders or do leaders make the times? I have long thought that great leaders understand the times and determine how to take advantage of them. More specifically, I think many great leaders have had a naturalistic orientation to understanding their worlds in terms of what is achievable, in what time frames, […]
I have worked with over 100 enterprises, many large technology-based companies, quite a few government agencies, and many smaller entrepreneurial endeavors. The large enterprises pose particular challenges. This is due to the simple fact that they became large because of successful visions, strategies, and plans, and particularly determined execution. My encounters with executives in these […]
Thirteen months ago, the Trump wing of the Republican party attempted a coup of the US government. They failed despite injuring hundreds and killing several. Many hundreds of these people have been indicted for their acts of insurrection. Prison terms have started to result with hundreds more in the offing. The Republican party has characterized […]
I have been thinking about the extent to which ideas are fleeting but institutions are sustaining. Certainly ideas can be cumulative in the sense that electricity led to communications then computing and eventually networking via digital devices and social media. This took roughly 150 years, but that is just a blip in the 6,000 years […]
A recent issue of Technology Review (October 2021) features an article, “The problem to end all problems,” by Siobhan Roberts. This article addresses the treasured problem of “P versus NP,” the holy grail of theoretical computer science and mathematics. Can particular problems by solved in polynomial time (nx) or non-polynomial time (en), where n is […]
Exemplary leaders face difficult circumstances, work with others to devise plans for addressing these circumstances, cultivate support for these plans, and execute plans with a degree of success. Such success in difficult circumstances is possible. However, as the following vignettes illustrate, leadership is crucial. If top leaders remain stewards of the status quo, fundamental change […]
Donald Trump is, of course, the ultimate example of this phenomenon. He is a narcissistic psychopath exhibiting extreme forms of grandiosity, exploitive behavior and a lack of empathy. Fortunately, this severe personality disorder is not common. There are much lessor disorders with which we must deal. One is fervent optimism. We have all had colleagues […]
There are many problems in our societies, our organizations, and our relationships that no one wants to own. Owning a problem implies a responsibility for solving it. If one recognizes a problem but does not own it, one can often comfortably wait for others to solve it. After all, the problem is not yours. The […]
I have been involved in a variety of engagements with automotive companies over the past three decades. These companies’ abilities to understand marketplace desires 3-4 years in advance is a key element of success. There are several compelling examples of getting this right and numerous instances of getting it wrong. Beyond uncertainties about customers’ future […]
Most organizations and people like to think that everything is under control, proceeding as planned, and the sought outcomes will be realized. If anyone suggests otherwise, they will be chastised for not being team players, perhaps for having bad attitudes, or quite simply for being outright wrong. Unpopular positions are seldom socially acceptable in organizations. […]
People who are advantaged by the status quo tend to be averse to changing it. Consequently, those who are favored in this way tend to herald its merits and distain the alternatives. Why wouldn’t we continue the policies and strategies that generously rewarded them in the past. As leader of an organization needing to entertain […]
It’s a great idea, but can we do it? Can we make it happen? We are going to boil the oceans and then provide everybody gourmet seafood dinners. Ok for those who eat seafood, but how is this going to be accomplished? Making the elements of a solution happen – executing — tends to be […]
Consider two surprises for General Motors (GM) and how they reacted, initially poorly but later quite successively. Both illustrations involved Ford surprising GM. The first led to a major failure and the second to a substantial success. Indeed, failures to achieve corporate objectives are quite common in the automobile industry. Not every vehicle is a […]
2-factor authentication provides an extra layer of security to your account to prevent someone from logging in, even if they have your password. This extra security measure requires you to verify your identity using a randomized multi-digit code that your service provider texts to you each time that you attempt to log in. Alternatively, they […]
I recently finished reading Patrick Wyman’s The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World: 1480-1520 (Grand Central, 2021). He chronicles the transformation of business and political processes during these two decades that provided the foundations for Western European dominance over the successive generations. Military aggression and conquest, financed by new approaches to […]
Research involves pursuing answers to questions. How can I reset the clocks on my kitchen appliances? A Google search usually provides a ready answer to this question. One would not think of publishing an article on having answered this question, nor would any media outlet encourage such a publication. Do I have any bakers’ yeast? […]
Charles Dickens’ immortal phrase portrays a time of radical opposites taking place at the same time in a 1859 historical novel, A Tale of Two Cities. set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. Are we at a similar time of radical contrasts? Are similar consequences likely? Current technology and economic trends […]
I have been thinking about the roles stories play in our lives. By story, I mean an account of past events or the evolution of something. Of course, a story can also be an entertaining account of imaginary or real people and events. Many stories provide a combination of explanation and entertainment. Stories usually have […]
Economic growth, many argue, stems from technological innovation. Does technological innovation depend on the flow of STEM talent from our educational system? That certainly was not the case in the 19th and 20th centuries. Inventors emerged from all corners of society, few equipped with degrees in science and technology. The transformation from inventions to innovation […]
The US Department of Defense acquires systems to equip forces to assure the national security of the country. The process of acquiring systems is termed Acquisition, which involves a very complex organizational system across the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the four (now five) military services, and the aerospace/defense industry. It is very competitive. […]
For many years, my research related to design, operations, and maintenance of national security and space systems. Over the past two decades, I have added healthcare delivery, higher education, urban systems, as well as energy and transportation. These complex ecosystems interact in myriad ways. In particular, they interact in terms of claims on societal resources. […]
According to Wikipedia, “Critical race theory is an academic movement of civil rights scholars and activists in the United States who seek to critically examine the law as it intersects with issues of race and to challenge mainstream liberal approaches to racial justice. Critical race theory examines social, cultural and legal issues as they relate […]
Bill Bryson’s remarkable book, Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United State (William Morrow, 2001), chronicles the history of the English language in the US. His chapters on travel, cooking, shopping, and advertising are particularly compelling. A key element of Bryson’s story concerns how we are convinced to value, […]
What if you could make money by selling people securities, or equivalent, that have no inherent value, but people think will eventually be worth substantially more than they paid you for them? You can potentially make money from an endeavor that provides no value to the economy or society. You can make money off of […]
One of my recent readings has been the late Hans Rosling’s Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World — and Why Things Are Better Than You Think. (Flatiron Books, 2018). It is a fascinating read, loaded with valuable insights. Hans Rosling asked chimpanzees to answer 13 multiple-choice questions about the state of the world. […]
I recently read Javier Blas and Jack Farchy’s The World for Sale: Money, Power, and the Traders Who Barter the Earth’s Resources (Oxford University Press, 2021). This fascinating book reads like a novel, almost a page turner. What will the traders do next? They chronicle the history of commodity traders of oil, grain, metals, and […]
During the Era of Colonialism (late 1400s to the mid- to late 1900s), European powers colonized most of Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, Oceania, the Middle East and the Arctic, excluding Antarctica. This typically involved oppression and exploitation of indigenous ethnic and racial groups inside the geographical area colonized. This oppression and exploitation often is […]
Simon Winchester’s latest book, Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World (Harper, 2021), caused me to think about humans’ roles in the overall ecosystem. Are we apex predators, meaning that we regularly eat many other species but no other species regularly eats us? The contrast that interests me is not apex versus […]
I recently finished James Suzman’s fascinating book Work: A Deep History, from the Stone Age to the Age of Robots (Penguin Press, 2021). He chronicles humans’ work practices over many millennia. The meaning of work has changed dramatically over this period. Perspectives that we take for granted emerged much more recently than one might have […]
Many problems and potential fixes are being considered and debated to address the pandemic, associated economic slump, and economic and social inequities. Climate change is hovering in the wings. How do all these potential initiatives fit together? I think we can integrate all of these ideas by thinking about how they all support pursuit of […]
There are many complex contexts that involve a wide range of stakeholders with a broad array of ideas for improving the context of interest. Such contexts can range from neighborhoods to wards to cities to states and countries. I am involved in one right now with 200+ ideas; a few years ago, I played a […]
Most organizations want members of their workforce to be more collaborative, share information, and make better and faster decisions. These pursuits are often termed workforce culture transformation. For very large organizations, for example, elements of the federal government, this can be a daunting aspiration. Consider experiences with two examples of transforming work. Over the past […]
I grew up in New England in the 1960s and 70s. My whole family was Republican. We supported John Chafee, Edmund Brooke, Eliot Richardson, and Nelson Rockefeller. Social liberals and fiscal conservatives. These types of Republicans are long gone. Nixon, then Reagan, and recently Trump discovered that courting southern whites could win elections. Social liberalism […]
I recently read Robertson and Breen’s Brick by Brick: How Lego Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry (Crown Business, 2013). As my children, grandchildren, and I have been long-time Lego fans, this book was fascinating. It led me to think about innovation more broadly. But first, let’s consider the Lego […]
I have just finished reading Robin L. Fox’s The Invention of Medicine: From Homer to Hippocrates (Basic Books, 2020). I found it interesting that numerous medical treatises were attributed to Hippocrates many centuries after his death. It seems that the content of these treatises was more credible if attributed to Hippocrates. I have read of […]
The old normal involved lots of bus, metro, and uber rides to meetings with sponsors, colleagues, and friends in pursuit of new opportunities, progress on existing opportunities, and just plain socializing. Transit time was at least an hour per day and sometimes two, sitting in a bus, train, or car catching up on your email […]
What needs to change to transform our society in the ways needed to achieve new levels of equality, performance, and value creation? I have nine suggestions in two broad areas. In general, we need to move from status quo practices to best practices as shown in the table below. Function Best Practices Status Quo […]
There are several forces currently driving change in our society: Pandemic impacts that have completely upset the status quo Economic impacts of the pandemic that have left many in dire straights Disproportionate effects of economic, educational and social inequities These forces have led to an overwhelmed healthcare system, enormous unemployment, and intense frustration on the […]
Wicked problems defy formulation and resolution. They involve conflicting values, concerns, and perceptions that lead to conflicts, strong positions, and perhaps even hatred of the “others” who have opposing views. We are faced with roughly 50% of the country being in fundamental conflict with the other 50% of the country. Actually, Biden-Harris won 51.3% of […]
This book provides a great tour of philosophy, primarily German, in the early decades of the 20th century. Eilenberger, W. (2018). Time of the Magicians. Wittgenstein, Benjamin, Cassirer, Heidegger and the Decade that Reinvented Philosophy. New York: Penguin. Darwin’s Origin of the Species (1859), Einstein’s Theory of Relativity (1905), and Freud’s Psychoanalysis (1917) had upset […]
If you think the complexity of the current situation – pandemic, global warming, and race relations – is overwhelming, I have a suggestion for coping with the complexity. The just published issue of The Bridge (https://www.nae.edu/Bridge.aspx) provides a wonderfully broad and intriguing set of perspectives of how complexity is manifested throughout our society. We cannot […]
Facebook, Twitter, and other emergent platforms have resulted in the Balkanization of the world of information. There are large subpopulations that believe the moon landing was faked, climate change and the pandemic are hoaxes, and the presidential election was fraudulently stolen from Donald Trump. They only pay attention to information sources that support these views. […]
It is interesting to live in Washington, DC and observe how sponsors and colleagues are reacting to the changing of the palace guard. Most of these people are at least one level below the political appointees of the palace guard and will not be leaving. They seem relieved, not existentially but practically. Their new superiors […]
It is important to distinguish between understanding complex problems and solving them. Solving problems in complex adaptive systems can be quite difficult and often intractable. Climate change, global warming and their consequences provide a compelling example. The science seems clear in terms of carbon emissions and greenhouse gases that lead to global warming. The relationship […]
Subramanian, E., Reich, Y., & Krishnan, S. (2020). We Are Not Users: Dialogues, Diversity, and Design. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. The authors’ central argument is that we have a much deeper relationship with the things we create than just being users. Social media provides compelling examples of how the usability of the interface, while important, […]
How do people envision the future? How do they consider uncertainties? How do they think about investing today to have a better tomorrow? People seem willing to invest in their personal futures, e.g., retirement. They seem willing to invest in their children’s futures, e.g., education. The further they look into the future, the more difficult […]
It is so very easy to get angry about the current situation in the US. Pandemic, recession, hurricanes, flooding, fires, earthquakes, protests about racial injustice, attempts to pack the Supreme Court and undermine elections are all woven together over the past six months. It is almost a perfect storm of calamities. My anger is not […]
Here is my recent reading/watching list: Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America by Kurt Anderson (Random House, 2020) The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket by Benjamin Lorr (Avery, 2020) Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell (Little Brown, 2019) The Social […]
“Everything will work out in the end and, if it doesn’t, it is not the end.” This was a theme in the movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012) but attributed to Paul Coelho and John Lennon much earlier. I am an inveterate optimist, but I am reconsidering my inclinations. Look how we have handled […]
Joseph Tainter’s The Collapse of Complex Societies (Cambridge University Press, 1988) presaged Jared Diamond’s Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (Viking Press, 2004). Both books provide vivid explanations of how societies fail and why. Societies create mechanisms to deal with new challenges. Walls are built to thwart Mongol hoards. Regulations are created to […]
I have just finished reading a wonderful book by Maria Konnikova, The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win (Penguin Press, 2020). Konnikova is a PhD psychologist who researches decision making and risk. She decides to study this in the domain of poker. She begins as a total novice and […]
It is very difficult to foster change and innovation in complex social systems. You need to understand key stakeholders; their perceptions, concerns, and values; and how to gain their support for central elements of the changes being entertained. It can take much time and work to build a coalition capable of moving forward. Examples of […]
We have in the US over 400 years of injustice in our country. Native Americans, African-Americans, and more recent immigrants have all been abused. We have taken advantage of them for the benefits of mainstream Americans at the time. What was this mainstream? Initially it was immigrants to Massachusetts and Virginia. Over time, we added […]
Show Me the Evidence was a popular book by Ron Haskins and Greg Margolis published by Brookings in 2014. The central idea was that economic and social policy should be based on credible data rather than just opinion and advocacy. This seems reasonable, although ideology has of late disrupted these intentions. Can this idea be […]
Academia scales down problems to make them rigorously tractable for the methods being researched. Industry scales up the methods, often sacrificing rigor, to assure results are applicable to real problems. While these may seem like mutually exclusive strategies, that need not be the case. What are needed are intermediaries who understand both sides of the […]
We expect that the pandemic will lead to a new normal that will be significantly different than the old normal. Perhaps there will be opportunities for innovations in the marketplace. What changes deserve our bets? We can assume that people will always want pasta, potatoes or rice, as well as beans, broccoli or mushrooms. But […]
I recently encountered an amazing app and I am dumbfounded as to how it works. It is called My History. You can watch any sporting event from the past, for example, the Colts-Jets Super Bowl of 1969. If you watch with the My History app, the Jets do not necessarily win. Their upset quest is […]
Unregulated capitalism developed a strategy in the 19th century, if not earlier, of the big players putting the small players out of business, either by acquiring them or cutting prices below which the smaller players could not survive. Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, and Carnegie excelled at this, often financed by JP Morgan. Once the small, possible innovators, […]
How can we address alternative facts? I think we should differentiate realities that can be empirically verified versus assertions about why these realities have occurred. Succinctly, we need to differentiate data and evidence from various pundits’ interpretations. I am constantly amazed at the wealth of pundits available who will comment on anything. There are thousands […]
I recently read about a passenger’s experience with American Airlines. A six-hour flight from Newark to San Francisco had evolved to a 53-hour trip. Due to several cancellations, American had suggested that the passenger buy a second ticket. He waited and eventually made it – two days later. Airlines ticket prices and fees continue to […]
Within much of engineering, and particularly, operations research, the goal is often the “best” decision that maximizes or minimizes a well-defined criterion or objective function. One can then, for example, employ mathematical programming to calculate the lowest cost routes for delivery trucks. Often one can even mathematically prove that these routes are best. Over the […]
After 163 posts of over 90,000 words — a 360-page book if published traditionally – we have reached the 10th anniversary of this blog. So, what has happened? Here are a few highlights, none of which this blog influenced. On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama won the presidency with 365 electoral votes to 173 received […]
When we last saw Uncle Donny, he was focused on making Monopoly great again, with rather mixed results. Donny and Uncle Vladmir were mainly focused on making Monopoly great for them. Neither of them is ever concerned with making things great for anybody else. Uncle Donny, it seems, lives on golf courses. The picnic was […]
A recent book, Possible Minds (Brockman, 2019), provides 25 essays on the future of AI, building upon Norbert Wiener’s 1948 classic Cybernetics: Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. A key distinction among these pundits is between information and control versus computation. This distinction is intriguing. My roots are definitely in the information […]
I have, of late, taken to watching quite a few programs of this genre. The cinematography tends to be wonderful, especially with my high-definition television. These shows are quite compelling to watch. One thing that immediately strikes me is how the world’s species are focused on eating each other. The dynamics of the food chains […]
I posted a piece on Emily, my cognitive assistant, last March. Several readers have asked me what she really knows. Beyond deep understanding of health and well being, driverless cars, and complex systems in general, what does she know about me? She has complete access to everything I do via computer or other digital devices. […]
When do organizations fail? It is typically when their financials go south. Their deficits are unsustainable. Cash is draining from the enterprise. Their strategies for stemming the tide are too little, too late. Why do organizations fail? What causes these financial outcomes? The story that led to these consequences almost always started playing out much […]
I have started and led several companies, as well as research centers at universities. Often, things get started with a serendipitous opportunity. Suddenly, you have a paying customer or a willing investor, and soon an employee or two. You begin to formalize things. People ask about your strategic plan. Winning another contract or securing another […]
My post “Cultures of Compliance” in September 2016 led to quite a few responses from readers. I noted then that a culture of compliance laced with administrative incompetence is particularly lethal. Many readers’ responses built on this theme. In this post, I highlight some of the stories they related. Many stories related to food, primarily […]
All enterprises face a fundamental tradeoff. Do you invest in getting better and better at the products and services you already offer? Or, do you invest in creating innovative new products and services? The obvious answer would seem to be some mix of both. However, getting the mix right is rather difficult. This difficulty is […]
What if the US had a modern state of the art train system like other developed countries? The trip from New York to Washington would take one hour rather than three plus hours. The trip from Atlanta to Washington would take three hours rather than thirteen hours. This would be a great boon to personal […]
Delta Air Lines designed and optimized a system to pack the seats on their flights and extract maximum revenue from passengers by charging for every element of an airline trip. The process is called revenue maximization. A senior Delta executive once told me, “We try to pull feathers until just before the goose honks.” Delta’s […]
