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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
“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 […]
How can innovation be cultivated in the public sector? Consider defense, education, and healthcare. These three primarily public sector systems are ripe for disruption and innovation. Enormous improvements of services and decreased costs are undoubtedly achievable. The key question is how to disrupt the status quo. Let’s first consider how a direct approach might work, […]
Recent challenges suggest that the complexity of society in the US has become increasingly difficult to understand and manage. We seem to have great trouble agreeing on anything. Consequently, we do not act to quickly understand what is happening and competently develop and execute compelling courses of action. Let’s explore the sources of the impasse. […]
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 […]
We are trying our best to physically distance ourselves from risks of the coronavirus. Along with washing hands and not touching your face, this practice seems to make much sense. Everyone I know seems to be doing these things. However, the phrase “social distancing” got me thinking. Most of us have been social distancing for […]
It is really wonderful to experience great service. In this post, I highlight five companies that epitomize my criteria for great services. One is 170 years old, another 98 years old, another 75 years old, and the others 39 and 32 years old. Several much younger companies, with whom I interact, do not make my […]
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 […]
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 […]
While George continued his sleuthing, Marie focused on building relationships across campus with faculty, staff, students, and alumni, as well as each member of the Board of Trustees. It was a lot of work, leaving her exhausted every evening as she retreated to the President’s House. She tried to stay connected professionally with her colleagues […]
To achieve promotion and tenure in science and engineering, you need 16-20 articles published in reputable journals. You need to accomplish this in five years, so you need 3-4 articles per year. You need to publish a significant portion of these articles with your PhD students. I will assume 10 with PhD students and 10 […]
I have spent much time in recent years studying the possibility of transformation, fundamental change, of healthcare and higher education. For many years, healthcare was the poster child for runaway costs. That is still an issue, but cost control has received quite a bit of attention. Higher education is now the poster child for runaway […]
Stranger in a Strange Land is a 1961 science fiction novel by American author Robert A. Heinlein. I have borrowed his title as a lead in to reporting on my experiences of moving to Washington, DC, and paying much more attention to how the US government operates, including its role in the economy and society […]
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 […]
What are we trying to do by rethinking the ACA? Perhaps we are seeking an ideologically acceptable ACA, one that the Republicans get credit for rather than the Democrats. On the other hand, is insurance coverage really the ultimate goal? I don’t think so. We want a healthy and educated population that is competitive in […]
Engineering and science account for roughly three quarters of all PhD graduates, with half of these degrees awarded to US students and the other half to international students. Many of these graduates aspire to tenure-track faculty positions at universities. However, the percentage of faculty openings that are tenure track has been steadily decreasing for quite […]
Various pundits are projecting that by 2020 – just four years – the driving of cars and trucks will be completely automated. Vehicle services, whether for consumers or businesses, will be readily available for very reasonable prices. I will not need to own a personal vehicle and my business can dispense with its fleet of […]
Just watched this movie this week, after having read many of the books published on the Great Recession, as well as having served on a National Academy study committee of what happened. During this study, I had a chance to chat with the second most senior executive at one of the major banks involved, one […]
There is growing evidence that NFL referees have been instructed to make calls – particularly pass interference calls and false start calls – to control the outcomes of NFL games. The NFL vehemently denies these accusations, but the data are very clear. The NFL knows the outcomes that will maximize television revenues as well as […]
A recent issue of The Economist provided an in-depth review of how high technology financial startups are poaching high-margin financial services from large banks. The large banks are not standing still; they are often acquiring these startups once they prove viable. This may keep them in the game, but high margins are being substantially eroded […]
University research centers are delicate organizational systems. They bring together faculty, research staff, and graduate students for several reasons. Centers are often formed as a result of a large NIH or NSF grant or because of a large gift or grant from industry or wealthy alumni. So, there is money on the table and researchers […]
My last post addressed my frustration with a 60% taxation rate that left me wondering if my role was mainly to provide resources to be redistributed to other, undoubtedly needy, people who do not pay taxes. The 40% that I get to spend barely covers my financial commitments. So, how do I ever get ahead […]
A few years ago, I co-chaired the National Academies Healthy America Initiative. The members of this committee came from both the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Engineering. Our assignment was to wrestle with issues surrounding the effectiveness and costs of healthcare delivery. However, we wanted to put this in a larger context. […]
The latest debate on air travel concerns whether a person should recline his or her seat if it inconveniences the long-legged person behind them. Further, should the person behind be allowed to use the Knee Defender device that blocks a seat from reclining? There have been thousands of impassioned opinions posted on the overall issue. […]
From many years in Atlanta, I have known many UPS executives, including CEO Mike Eskew who led the transformation of UPS from a package delivery company to a global supply chain services company. I use a case study of this transformation in my classes and workshops on enterprise transformation. It is one of my favorite […]
Enterprise transformation involves redesigning or creating new work processes that enable remediating anticipated or experienced value deficiencies. This implies that some aspects of the enterprise have to be discarded. Why not discard everything? That is certainly as option, but it is called liquidation rather than transformation. A central question is what do you keep and […]
The lack of committed visionary leadership will doom any transformation aspirations. However, will the presence of such leadership assure success? The simple answer is, “No!” Great aspirations and ideas need compelling plans to succeed. Further, these plans have to be successfully executed to realize these aspirations. Quite often, plan fall prey to inabilities to execute. […]
The poor performance of the US healthcare system can primarily be attributed to three things. First, the “fee for service” payment model incentivizes providers to provide as many services as possible to maximize reimbursements from insurers, either private or public. Second, the lack of integration of archival and operational information systems undermines the delivery of […]
It is fairly common for the perceived benefits of current market offerings to fade and new value propositions to displace older offerings. As noted in earlier posts, Schumpeter called this process “creative destruction.” Steel ships replaced iron ships, which replaced wooden ships. Microprocessors subsumed transistors, which replaced vacuum tubes. Change happens and creative destruction causes […]
I have recently been involved with an enterprise that has somehow managed to embrace just about the worst transformation practices possible. It all started with the vocabulary the leaders chose to employ. They managed to paint a transformation picture that they apparently had no intention of pursuing. While they portrayed fundamental change, their actions totally […]
I am a student of history, particularly economic history. Lately, I have been immersed in reading about technological innovation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Transportation was transformed from stagecoaches and steamboats to railroads, automobiles and airplanes. Electricity transformed communications from mail, telegraph and telephone to radio, television and now Internet. In the […]
Over the past two decades, I have often asked executives about their toughest problem. Not surprisingly, they use many different words to answer this question. However, there is quite a consensus around, “Running the enterprise I have while trying to create the enterprise I want.” Keeping the existing enterprise running tends to be a very […]
We continue to anguish over escalating healthcare costs. To gain control of these costs, we need to understand one essential equation. The total cost of healthcare is Total Cost = Costs Per Use x Number of Uses Careful design of delivery processes to eliminate unwarranted care process variations can decrease the costs per use. Variations […]
Most people seem to agree that we need to be more conservative when it comes to energy. We need to conserve our stocks of fossil fuels while also investing in renewable energy sources. Our electrical grid is rife with inefficiencies, ranging from transmission losses to power-hungry devices in our homes. The notion of a Smart […]
National defense, and acquisition of weapon systems in particular, has long been a target of transformation. The Packard Commission in 1985 provided a very reasonable set of recommendations for reforming defense acquisition processes. These recommendations resulted in relatively minor changes. Blue ribbon committees both before and after the Packard Commission had comparably minor impacts. President […]
We often see dire assessments of our educational systems. K-12 is judged to be quite poor compared to other developed countries, as reflected in comparisons of educational achievements across countries. This is particularly true for STEM — science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. More broadly, our high school graduation rate of roughly two thirds means that […]
Healthcare presents a major challenge for the U.S. We pay twice as much per capita as any other country; yet achieve much poorer results in terms of health and longevity. The current system can be characterized as a federation of millions of entrepreneurs with no one in charge. Even assuming that everyone is well intended, […]
Last week, I was a visiting faculty member as a Spine Symposium. I gave three talks related to a systems approach to healthcare delivery. The context of spine surgery was purely serendipitous, as the folks inviting me did not know in advance that I have spent several years doing my best to avoid spine surgery. […]
Invention is the creation of a new device or process. Examples include computers, software products, chemical processes, junk foods, and kitchen gadgets. Innovation is the introduction of change via something new. Cable television and video rental stores were innovations, as were overnight mail and communication via fax and the Internet. Each of these innovations took […]
I have worked with well over 100 enterprises and several thousand executives and senior managers, often focused on initiatives that have the potential to fundamentally change their enterprises. Somewhat simplistically, these initiatives depended on three ingredients – technology, people, and organizations. Frequently these executives and managers commented that technology was the easy part. People and […]
I am pleased to report that IOS Press released “Engineering the System of Healthcare Delivery” this week in Amsterdam. Denis Cortese and I edited this 500-page compendium of the insights and ideas of a wide range of luminaries in healthcare. Our goal was to bring together in one place the thought leaders who are transforming […]
