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Posts selected fromManagement Blog - Engineering Blog - Investing Blog and other blogs

• Businesses Tell the IRS They Are Not American but Executives Stay in USA

  I have previously written about the ethically challenged companies that claim they are not American to avoid paying the taxes that they owe. For some reason the executives, often seem to stay in the USA though? They even continue to get huge USA government contracts (military and other). It is sad that such behavior is tolerated.

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• Engineering Innovation

  I was giving a talk, while I was working for the Office of Secretary of Defense Quality Management Office, on Using Quality to Develop an Internet Resource (back before blogs, but after the web, in 1999). I was trimming things as I spoke and cut the tidbit about DARPA and the internet because I figured everyone already knew that (and I had to trim as I was speaking). In discussions afterwards I found many didn’t know DARPA’s involvement.

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• Paying New Employees to Quit

  Training new employees and then paying them to quit, sounds pretty bizarre; Zappos is not afraid of doing things differently. Why Zappos Pays New Employees to Quit – And You Should Too...

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• Deming Auto Repair

  "Clients often ask how we motivate our staff members. The answer is simple, we don’t. We feel good people are already motivated, what they need is removal of the things that de-motivate them..."

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• Well Managed Companies

  Do your outstanding people think their importance is in getting through another day through hard work and individual expertise. While those qualities are good most important to the success of the organization is improving the system not getting through one day. If those seen as the stars are not improving the system and processes then get them to work doing so.

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• Fed Funds Rate Changes Don’t Presage Mortgage Rate Changes

  The recent drastic reductions again emphasize (once again) that changes in the federal funds rate are not correlated with changes in the 30 year fixed mortgage rate. In the last 4 months the discount rate has been reduced nearly 200 basis points, while 30 year fixed mortgage rates have fallen 18 basis points.

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• China Outsourcing Manufacturing to USA

  For decades foreigners have taken debt from Americans that promise to pay back later (to pay for what they consumed). Now many are deciding that these debts are not attractive investments and are looking to own productive assets in the USA (companies, factories…).

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• Toyota Execution Not Close to Being Copied

  A company truly driven by a focus on continual improvement, respect for all employees and reasonable executive compensation might be a company serious about adopting Deming and Toyota management principles. It is hard for me to imagine such a situation that doesn’t truly seek, as the primary aim of the organization, to benefit many stakeholders (workers, owners, suppliers, customers…) not just executives (or just executives, board and owners…).

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• Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve in Ohio

  The Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve in Ohio is quite a nice short hike.

  I visited the preserve last year. Other sites from the trip include: Rocky Gap State Park, Maryland and Coopers Rock State Forest, West Virginia.

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• 1,000th post on the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog

  Here are some highlights:

  Post number 2: Dangers of Forgetting the Proxy Nature of Data – “We use data to act as a proxy for some results of the system...

  The Purpose of an Organization quoting Dr. Deming: “The aim proposed here for any organization is for everybody to gain – stockholders, employees, suppliers, customers, community, the environment – over the long term.”

  ...

  What to do: Management is Prediction ... Using Design of Experiments ... Bring Me Problems Even if you Don’t have the Solutions ...

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• Find Joy and Success in Business

  ...They are not concerned with becoming large. They focus on doing what they want to do – creating great software solutions (see: Systemic Workplace Experiments). And on making money to allow them to stay in business.

  Some tidbits of advice: create great applications, charge people money, make a profit. Yes to those outside the web world this might seem obvious...

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• The Defect Black Market

  ...It is simple to blame employees for taking such action. But the management that setup such a system deserve more blame. This type of manipulation is what is encouraged by managers that think management means setting up such simplistic, senseless systems (Why Extrinsic Motivation Fails). This is one more example of forgetting the proxy nature of data (among other things).

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• Making a Difference

  Kiva provides loans (lent by individuals) through partners to entrepreneurs. Those partners do charge the entrepreneurs interest (to fund the operations of the lending partner). Kiva pays the principle back to you but does not pay interest. And if the entrepreneur defaults then you do not get your capital paid back (in other words you lose the money you loaned).

  They do an excellent job of using the internet to allow people like me to feel connected to people we can help. And in so doing, they do an excellent job of implementing their strategy (providing funds for micro-loans) to achieve their goal (to alleviate poverty)...

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• Confusing Customer Focus (when not thinking systemically)

  ...If I buy a car from a dealer they don’t sell it to me for $100. They don’t agree to not tell the government so I can avoid sales tax. They don’t agree to sell me a car that is not legal in the state. Customer service does not mean doing what is in the interest of the customer irregardless of laws, regulations, good business practices, etc..

  I would say doctors don’t give patients anti-biotics for viral infections (but actually they do). They shouldn’t...

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• Packaging Improvement

  This is another reminder that tackling problems directly is not always the best strategy. The packaging doesn’t actually change the taste, but really it is not the taste that is likely a concern but rather the perception of taste. To me this is very similar to the studies on people preferring wine they are told costs more...

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