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Portfolio - Professional Life - Blog - Travel - Consulting
History
- 401k's are a Great Investment Option - some details to consider: "tax rates will go up - we are passing higher taxes onto the future by not paying our bills now; the tax deferral is a huge benefit; 401(k) employer matching is another huge benefit (for those that offer it)"
- The Economic Consequences of Investing in Science Education - The debate now whether we are willing to invest more today to slow the decline or whether we are willing to risk the economic future where our centers of science and engineering excellence are eclipsed
- Software Supporting Processes Not the Other Way Around - I have a bias is against off the shelf software as it often ends up forcing the process to be designed around the software.
- Sneaky Fees - The Curious Cat credit card tips page provides advice on how not to get tricked by credit card companies into paying big fees along with some other tips.
- Starting Retirement Account Allocations - One of the most important financial moves you can make is to start investing for your retirement early...
- Management Books to Ignite Improvement - I have mentioned some of my favorite management books before but here some are again: The Leader's Handbook by Peter Scholtes, The New Economics by W. Edwards Deming...
- 12 Stocks for 10 Years, Adding Danaher - The performance since the last update has not been good but that isn't much of a concern to me. The long term prospects remain very good for this portfolio, I believe.
- Why Americans Are Going Broke - It is pretty simple, they are spending more than they make. And don't save money when they should - so they could tap savings when needed.
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Nature Recreation Declining - My visits to national parks have led me to believe the attendance was increasing but that seems to be wrong.
- Federal Funds Rate and 30 Year Fixed Mortgage Rate - some believe moves in the federal reserve discount rate will raise or lower the 30 year fixed mortgage rate directly. This is not the case.
- Top 10 Manufacturing Countries 2006 - USA, China, Japan, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, France, Brazil, Korea, Canada
- Don't Lock Your Content Inside a Proprietary System - if they can't figure out a way to be open and interact easily with mainly internet based content don't waste your time with their old proprietary thinking model
- From Ghost Writing to Ghost Management in Medical Journals - I understand that traditionally claiming authors that were not actually authors has not been uncommon. But what reason is there to be dishonest in this way now?
- Politicians Again Raising Taxes On USA's Children - If politicians claim to cut taxes but in fact pass on huge debts to the future they just moved the taxes into the future.
- Creating Jobs - If you assume the lean company grows sales at the same rate as some poorly management company then it may well be that the lean company creates fewer jobs. However that is not a valid assumption.
- Parasite Rex - One of the most enjoyable aspects of writing this blog is that I have focused much more on cool things I read. One direction this has encouraged me to pursue is the life sciences including bacteria, viruses, genetics, cells etc..
- Understanding the Evolution of Human Beings by Country - how many of us even know whether the earth revolves around the sun or the sun revolves around the earth? In a 1988 survey 21% in the USA got that wrong and 7% said they did not know.
- It Just Works - Perhaps customers have become so disillusioned that something actually working is delightful. Which shows how much room there is to improve.
- Communicating Change - the best way to communicate such changes are to explain how they tie into the long term vision of the organization.
- Bigger Impact: 15 to 18 mpg or 50 to 100 mpg? - amazingly you save 111 gallons improving from 15 mpg to 18 mpg and just 100 improving from 50 to 100 mpg.
- Deming Companies - I see Toyota as the best example of a Deming company. Dr. Deming did not propose a cookbook to follow. Instead he proposed a theory that requires learning and application within the specific institution. Toyota has created a management system that is based on Dr. Deming's ideas and then they have evolved that over 60 years into something that is consistent with Deming's management philosophy and has new ideas Deming did not mention.
- Randomization in Sports - My father was a professor (of statistics, chemical engineering... at the University of Wisconsin. I remember one time he wanted the football coach to randomly select the play for certain situations.
- Playing Dice and Children's Numeracy - he asked all the kids what number do you think will show up when you roll the die. 6 was the answer from about 80% of them (which I knew was wrong - so I was feeling very smart).
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John Hunter has experience with quality management, management improvement, customer focused continual improvement, process improvement and related areas. Since 1995, I have used the internet and internet technology to improve the results of management improvement efforts.
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