Posts

Business Models

/in , /by

Business Models

Since 1980 when Ronald Reagan and Paul Volcker fixed the high levels of inflation with a drastic increase in interest rates we have been operating on a “cost control driven” business model.

This model now needs to have a dramatic review and update.

  • I don’t believe anyone can make money by reducing costs alone.
  • We are driven by sales per employee metrics to the point of obsession.
  • We have beat up supply chains to extract costs.
  • Just in time inventories supply chains are the norm.
  • We have “computerized” business processes, moving a paper form to an input screen. We have not improved them.
  • We have concluded that market coverage is too expensive and seen precipitous reductions in market share as competitors have taken our customers by simply calling on them.
  • We have taken on incredible levels of risk thinking low interest rates are with us forever.
  • Rental inventories have grown and money has been made without the offset to risk abatement.
  • With market changes the escape valve for too much inventory is nowhere in sight.

Now is not the time to have the technocrats and managers, alone, determine what needs to be done to improve business. Now is the time to include and involve every single employee in this effort. Never forget that the employee doing the job should be the one that knows that job better than anyone else and to ignore them is not only wrong but truly a shame.

The Time is Now.

Friday Filosophy #2016-15

/in /by

One of the many misunderstandings that people have about management is that they equate it to leadership. You manage processes, but you lead people.  For Friday Filosophy #2016-15, some thoughts about leadership, from leaders.

 

Don’t follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you.

Margaret Thatcher.

 

The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets people to do the greatest things.

Ronald Reagan

 

To add value to others, one must first value others.

Before you can be of any value to anyone else you must be of value to yourself.

R.J. Slee

 

The task of the leader is to get their people from where they are to where they have not been.

Henry Kissinger

 

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them become what they are capable of being.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 

There are no office hours for leaders.

Cardinal J. Gibbons

 

When people talk, listen completely.

Ernest Hemingway

 

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.

Peter Drucker

 

A leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is don’t, his aim fulfilled, they will say we did it ourselves.

Lao Tzu

 

The time is now.

Friday Filosophy #2016-3

/in /by

With our Friday Filosophy #2016-3, I want to continue to focus on education, with some of the terms we like to use to describe intellect.  Intelligence and genius are interesting words with all manner of preconceived notions as to what they mean. So here are some interesting quotes to consider on Intelligence.

The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.

Albert Einstein.

 

Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.

Henry Ford

 

Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.

Salvador Dali

 

There is no great genius without some touch of madness.

Aristotle.

 

Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.

Stephen Hawking.

 

Common sense is not so common.

Voltaire.

 

The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.

Plutarch.

 

There are no limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination and wonder.

Ronald Reagan.

 

The time is now.

Friday Filosophy #2015-22

/in /by

This week, in Friday Filosophy #2015-22, let’s go back to an earlier era. Some of us might want to return to yesteryear – the times of Ronald Reagan.

 

We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.

Peace is not the absence of conflict. It is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.

When you can’t make them see the light, make them feel the heat.

Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.

If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.

Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

There are no limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination and wonder.

The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I am here to help.

There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.

We are never defeated unless we give up on God.

We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.

Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.

Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.

My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose – somehow we win out.

All great change in America begins at the dinner table.

 

The time is now.