A few friends, all professors in the business departments of some pretty impressive universities, were discussing a last lecture for every class. In September 18, 2007 Randy Pausch gave a now famous presentation at Carnegie Mellon, subtitled “achieving your childhood dreams”. Watch a video for more … Pausch in his battle with cancer offered some [Continue Reading]
Innovation, Recognition all come from the Culture
. “When I worked for you, I thought I was Superman.” I have occasionally reflected on why that was. Not sure I know all the answers, but the things I do know are that the environment were real, the energy was high, and the crap was low.” A friend shared that he had actually received [Continue Reading]
Owners, Employees, Customers and Company Culture
. Why are you in business? Does your company culture reflect the owner’s values, inspire employees and satisfy customers’ needs? During a recent discussion about the new iPhone 5, a friend asked our group, ‘why Apple is in business’? A business is an activity that provides goods or services to consumers for the purpose of [Continue Reading]
Family Business Generational In-Flux
Generations in the West are different than in the East. Are you familiar with these generations, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y also known as Millennials? Are they in our Family Business? Historically we had at the most 3 generations in the workplace. Businesses soon may have as many as five generations in the workplace. [Continue Reading]
Driftwood, Spalding and FMEAs
Design For Manufacturing . Otis T. Driftwood and Captain Jeffrey Spalding were working on a new design. It was late, shirt sleeved and tired, the subject turned to this design and what might go wrong. Otis and the Captain developed an experiment that product designers use to identify possible design failures, what the effects of [Continue Reading]
Overcoming the Commonplace By Reaching for the Stars
“I just want what we all want: a comfortable couch, a nice beverage, a weekend of no distractions and a book that will stop time, lift me out of my quotidian existence and alter my thinking forever.” Quotidian, means commonplace, done daily or recurring daily. Often we need to remind ourselves, it’s our job to [Continue Reading]
The Shareholder Value Myth And The Importance Of The Stakeholders
Shareholders vs. Stakeholders Lynn Stout’s book, The Shareholder Value Myth: How Putting Shareholders First Harms Investors, Corporations, and the Public was a subject this week in Jack Welch’s blog, Tom Peters’tweets and an article in the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Social Reform.” “Shareholder-value thinking dominates the business world today. Professors, policymakers, [Continue Reading]
Corporate Social Responsibility And Accountability
Corporate Social Sesponsibility is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model. CSR policy functions as a built-in, self-regulating mechanism whereby a business monitors and ensures its active compliance with the spirit of the law, ethical standards, and international norms. The goal of CSR is to embrace responsibility for the company’s actions and [Continue Reading]