I was looking for a quick source to give a client an overview of what statistical process control (SPC) is. I found an article on Wikipedia, but, as is usual with SPC articles, it made a common, but in my mind crucial, omission.

Creating and translating metrics to every level of a business is essential to get and stay competitive. But don’t be overwhelmed and think that you have to get everything up and running all at once. As a wise man is misquoted to say, “Anything worth doing is worth doing half-assed.”

There are a number of barriers that prevent small companies from transitioning to big companies. But it is interesting to see a big company putting itself at risk by acting as a small one.

In previous posts I have explained the importance of metrics for any company. One thing that is clear from how we generate and implement those metrics throughout an organization is where the value is really generated. You might be surprised at the answer!

From a very young age, we in the West we are trained with movies, books, and graphic novels to thrill to the appearance of the hero, there to swoop in and right wrongs. In business, however, the need for a hero is a management failure.

Well, the genie is out of the bottle now. Millennials (and others) have been asking for more options to work from home, and now reluctant businesses have had to grant that wish. How does this new paradigm affect managing?