BEYOND COST REDUCTION

I came across this short piece by Steve Martin and I feel sharing it at this time of the year may just get some of us started. These points align very much to my year plan. I hope they do for you too; somehow.

These difficult economic times have caused many companies to layoff millions of employees, cut back strategic expenditures and do many other things that are probably not in the long-term best interest of their companies.

I have identified Five Generations of Corporate Intellectual Growth:
1. Work (work harder and faster)
2. Sell (increase revenues to support expenses)
3. Cut (reduce and manage expenses)
4. Buy (apply technology, merge & acquire)
5. Think (use strategic innovation - exceed the norm)

Even good companies have regressed into the "Cut" mode with short-term strategies that they felt were the best move to get through the recession. Only time will tell whether or not these were good moves. History tends to say that those companies that "Cut" as their primary strategy will not do as well as those companies that applied thinking strategies to not only

THE 8TH WASTE: UNDER UTILIZATION OF PEOPLE

Recently I did a post of 7 waste of Lean (Check Thread) in an attempt to jump start some Quality Improvement Program in your organization.

The 8th waste which is not originally included in the traditional 7 WASTES OF TPS by Taichi Ohno is equally an interesting one.

The 8th Waste is UNDER UTILIZATION OF PEOPLE: When employees potentials are not leveraged on by the organization, the opportunity cost becomes a direct waste to the bottom line. Other sample of this waste are as follows:

(1) Persons put on the wrong job
(2) Giving position without the requisite authority
(3) Not dealing with perpetual under performance.

e.t.c.

I am sure you can relate with one of those.
Do identify this waste in your business and make necessary corrections.