In a recent article entitled Five Ways Pixar Makes Better Decisions, Tom Davenport, a Babson College professor, refers to what I call “after action reviews” as a critical element of the creative decision-making used at Pixar.
In my earlier post, Powerful After Action Reviews, you can learn more about this concept, built and nurtured by the US Army. For Pixar, Davenport reminds us how movie makers use “dailies” to review their work in progress, showing movies to other filmmakers every few month to solicit critical insights that often make the movies better. Nothing we couldn’t accomplish with a Daily Huddle, right?
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Today is usually a day for hot dogs, parades and festive celebrations of the birth of this wonderful nation we inhabit.
In that spirit, I’d like to dedicate this holiday to a dear family friend, Cpt. Kevin Mott, an Army Ranger who was badly wounded in Afghanistan this week and is returning to the U.S. for treatment. Our hearts and prayers are with him and his family for a rapid and full recovery.
Another day, we can debate the wisdom of our foreign policy and the wars in which we’re currently engaged … but today, I’d like to pay tribute to Kevin and the men and women with whom he serves. We stand straighter because of their bravery and commitment and shed tears for their innocence and selflessness as they put themselves in harms way for the country to which they give so much and from which they ask so little.
They aren’t encamped on a comfortable bar stool celebrating Independence Day. They’re carrying out their mission in the unforgiving terrain of the Korengal Valley and Kunar Province of Afghanistan, without electricity, plumbing or running water,
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I’m a big believer in the Ritz Carlton’s program of providing a $2,000 allowance to empower their employees to enhance the “Guest Experience” … and I think it’s noteworthy that the Cadillac division of General Motors is applying this concept to strengthen their relationship with potential Cadillac customers.
It’s not the money. It’s not the ability to gloss over errors and omissions in your customer service process … and the Ritz Carlton experience confirms that it’s rarely abused. It’s a great idea because it will not only “WOW” your customers … but most importantly … will demonstrate to your team that they are always on the front line of the customer experience and need to actively seize the power to solve problems for customers … right now!
What have you done to astonish your customers and build an impregnable customer relationship?
“Ninety-nine percent of all failures come from people who have a habit of making excuses.” –George Washington Carver
This week I chose to digress from our series on strategic finance to offer a few observations about some powerful leadership lessons threading their way through recent headlines.
It’s mind-boggling how many repeat offenders of the “cover-up” appear in the headlines every week, denying the indiscretions that inevitably lead to slow, tortuous “uncovering.” Watergate fostered the relentless pursuit by the media of anything they rhymes with “lie and deny,” and Woodward and Bernstein launched plenty of investigative journalist careers when the Watergate secrets led to the downfall of the Nixon presidency. More recently, the political cover-ups, void of any sense of personal accountability, continue ad nauseum with a cast ranging from John Edwards to South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, the Catholic Church, etc.
Umpire Jim Joyce
Distrust and suspicion for the motives and intentions of public figures abounds.
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“The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is to act with yesterday’s logic. ” – Peter Drucker
We’ve been talking over the last several weeks about the perils of unplanned growth and price discounting. One approach to evaluating revenue growth, often overlooked, is the traditional analysis that looks at price, volume and mix variances as the three principal components of revenue growth.
This traditional variance analysis separates the components of revenue growth to give you more insight into what really caused the change in revenue. Let’s assume that your sales increased from $10 million last year to $11 million this year.
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“A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. ”
– Oscar Wilde
These days, when you ask a business executive “what’s on your mind,” pricing is on the short list. Is this the right price for this item? Am I getting the markup I need to be profitable? How much will the price affect the buying decision? Does the economic environment require that I drop my prices? Are they too high? If I lower some, won’t I need to raise others? What if the mix changes and the higher priced items don’t sell and the lower ones do? What’s my competitor doing? Why do people shop here in the first place? Ad infinitum.
Pricing is both omnipresent and eternally vexing. It’s at the core of a profitable business, the management of the supply chain and the strength of your brand. In its most pernicious form, however,
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Many of you have seen my earlier posts – the Stanford research or the NY Times summary about how multitasking fails to increase our productivity … the very enemy it’s sworn to eliminate.
In an HBR blog, Peter Bregman reports what he found when he did NOT multitask for a week and discovered some lost pieces of life’s puzzle. I’m going to try it myself to see what I discover and report back to you.
What about you? Why not give it a go? It’s a slow week anyway, isn’t it?
Usually, when we remember this song, we think of someone “straddling the fence”, trying to be all things to all people, teetering on the edge of indecision and inaction … or someone who always takes the “middle of the road” and commits to nothing.
Gill Corkendale writes in the HBR blog that leaders tend to be either Mr. Inside or Mr. Outside when they really need to focus on being Mr. In-Between, creating an essential “balance” among their varied responsibilities. It’s true that we all drift toward our comfort zone, doing what we enjoy and are good at, often ignoring the more tedious, even painful tasks that remain critical to our success.
She offers a simple checklist to help you evaluate where you are on this continuum.
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Dennis Zeleny, an established HR professional and frequent contributer to Forbes magazine, contributes another POV in a growing list of articles about How to Lead in Tough Times. I think his key points are right on, and represent a compelling summary of key elements of leadership for all times:
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