How much can you improve the productivity of a process without changing the underlying technology? Sometimes we look for the major changes that major process change can bring about.  However, real gains can often be achieved by simple changes to the way we plan, organise and control the process and the resources it consumes.  Measure

Success comes from being clear about what you are aiming for ... and then single-mindedly executing the strategy to get you there. What you don't need are distractions - the little problems along the way ... but also the little side projects that crop up and you 'fit in' alongside the main project. You need

I normally post to this blog on a Saturday ... but this is not a normal week. Firstly I am in St Johns, Newfoundland attending a Board Meeting of the World Confederation of Productivity Science. Secondly, today is National Manufacturing Day in the US. Co-incidentally, one of my WCPS colleagues, George Smith, happened to mention

So, Blackberry seems to have gone.  A few years ago, business executives were addicted to the mobile email platform ... for that is what it was.  Then Apple - and Google via Android - showed what else could be done by a mobile device... and Blackberry was left behind.     Remember, however good your product

Many organisations are thinking through their 'corporate social responsibilities'.  They see this as either a good means of getting positive PR (the cynical ones) or as a means of making their contribution to the communities they touch with their operations (the good guys) ... or perhaps for many, somewhere in the middle (the majority). Unfortunately,

One by one the BRIC countries seem to be losing their lustre.  Most of them are growing at a considerably slower rate than they were a few years ago ... some are really struggling. Is this merely the result of the world recession taking away their markets .. or is there something more fundamentally wrong.

On one of the forums (groups) on LinkedIn there has been  a very interesting discussion recently about the relationship of productivity to profitability.  The relationship is certainly there but it is not necessarily direct or obvious. One of the reasons that I encourage companies to measure their productivity as well as their profitability is that

I've just returned from India - one of the world's economic success stories over the last decade. Yet it doesn't feel like that. Partly because the rupee is in free fall. Partly because the government is focusing only on the next (forthcoming) election. Partly because though wealth is being created, much of it remains in

I read some data the other day on the level of absence in the Australian public sector.  It was astonishingly high. Why is this ... it seems to be a pattern in public sector employment the world over. There are a number of possibilities.  One is that public sector organisations work their employees so hard

Increasingly our workplaces are filled with 'knowledge workers'. The way in which they work differs from the working patterns of 'traditional' office workers - much more participative, team-based and relying on research and discovery. How does the way in which you design and build your office space recognise these different working patterns.  Probably not at