Kallokain

The first person to buy a copy of my business strategy book Tempo!  (the Swedish edition) is Björn Wannebo. Björn is vice-chairman at GLC ek.för. (Göteborgs Lastbilscentral), a major trucking company in Gothenburg. Björn is also chairman at TrainingLab and the owner and Managing director of BCM AB, a management consultancy company. He is also a member of Business Network International (BNI). I met Björn recently. We talked about management, found we had a lot in common, and many similar experiences. Two things that stood out immediately is that Björn understands management, and that he has a great sense of humour. I showed him a copy of Tempo! , and Björn decided to buy immediately . I do hope he enjoys the book, and finds it useful. Björn and I will keep in touch. I want feedback from as many Tempo! readers as possible in order to find out how useful the book is to you. The feedback will be fed back into the strategy process I describe in Tempo! , in order to continuously...

Thanks to Mario López de Ávila Muñoz for posting about this in the cmsig group at Yahoo: Here is a link to the original page . There is a good point here: People will change their behavior if it is fun to do so. It is something to remember.

I wrote the following list of traits of agile organizations in a discussion at LinkedIn. I decide to preserve it here until I figure out what to do with it.  Is there anything you think should be added or removed from the list? Are there any organizations beyond those mentioned in the list that you beleve are also agile? Comments are very welcome. Likely to focus on core values instead of core business  Likely to be network structures  Likely to limit node size to 100-200 people (Virgin is an exception nowadays)  Likely to have nodes responsible for complete revenue flows  Likely to have decentralized command structures (in order to reduce response times and be more opportunistic)  Likely to emphasize self-organization  Somewhat likely to be democratic (W.L. Gore and Semco)  Unlikely to emphasize economics of scale (though they use it when appropriate)  Unlikely to standardise procedures across nodes. (Quite obvious why. Virgin Ga...

I have been involved in a discussion about the importance of context when solving wicked problems in a LinkedIn group. (The thread didn't start out that way.) Here is a little story for everyone who believes problems can be solved without understanding their context: A small car company had great success with a car model, so great that they decided to build a factory in a country new to them and open up a new market. Because this particular model was such a great success, they decided it was the best car they could hope to build, and that their way was the best way to build it. Therefore, they decided that their new factory should be an exact replica of their existing factory, and that it should build cars exactly the same way. Unfortunately, cars made in the new factory did not sell very well. Sales were abysmal. Worse, cars from the new factory were involved in several accidents. Cars from their old factory had excellent safety records. Management decided to ship half a d...

Ricardo Semler, CEO of Semco, is one of the most interesting leaders in business today. His company is not just extraordinarily successful, it is also a world class leader in workplace democracy. Ricardo Semler is one of the world's most innovative business leaders. This videocast is from a lecture at MIT. It is 48 minutes long, but well worth watching. Semler is a very good speaker and he has a message worth listening to. I strongly recommend that you read his book Maverick . Here is a link to the original page where the videocast was published .

Last Friday I visited the Business Network International (BNI) team  Draken (The Dragon) in Gothenburg. I have made a couple of visits to other BNI teams before and it has always been interesting experiences. BNI is a business reference network. A BNI team in the network consists of up to 40 people. The group meets once a week for the purpose of exchanging business references. What makes the teams work is that each individual represents a different kind of business. A team may have only one car salesman, one hairdresser, one IT service provider, one accountant... An IT service provider never has to worry about an accountant stealing her business, or vice versa. On the other hand, the accountant might have customers who need IT services. The IT service provider might know of a company that wants to lease cars, and so on. BNI team members provide each other with information that is of little value to the sender, but of great value to the receiver. This is of course a f...

It is easy to get so caught up in managing messes that one loses sight of the basics. Here are 10 simple rules that I have found useful: The Interaction/Isolation Principle: Strengthen interactions with allies (customers, employees, subcontractors, partners, etc.). Isolate opponents (from customers, their own employees, from partners, from subcontractors, etc.) When you manage a unit (team, department, etc.), watch the queues ! When you manage several units (team members, collaborating departments, project portfolio, etc.), manage the interactions between the units, not the units themselves.  Both Theory X and Theory Y are self-fulfilling. Therefore: When you manage people, use Theory Y ! When you design the organization (structure, rules, etc.), use Theory Y ! (Read up on Gore & Associates, Semco, the Virgin Group, Whole Foods, Google, and somewhat surprisingly, the U.S. Marine Corps.) People overestimate themselves and underestimate other people. It follows that: ...

I had promised myself not to blog today (too busy working), but just a few minutes ago I saw a prime example of cost world thinking gone wrong: I am sitting in a coffee shop, drinking coffee. Awhile ago, a family sat down at a table close to mine and began discussing a rather peculiar management policy in force at this shop: 30-60 minutes before closing, the shop won't brew more coffee if it runs out. This is to ensure that no coffee, and thus no money, is wasted. If you run your business from a Cost Accounting perspective, a policy like this makes sense. Most companies have policies like these, policies designed to minimize cost. When the financial crisis struck in 2008, cost cutting was the method most companies used to balance the reduction in Net Profit. Stands to reason, right: Net Profit = Throughput – Operating Expense. Therefore, if Throughput drops, the only recourse is to reduce Operating Expenses. This reasoning is simple, analytical, easy to understand, and tota...

I am looking for trouble! That is, I am looking for clients that can present me with difficult, messy, horrible challenges. Forget the easy stuff! I want to help solve the worst problems you have: Is it just not fun to be the boss? Is your work draining the life out of you? I have met plenty of smart, very intelligent managers at all levels who are   drowning in their work. Too many problems, not enough solutions, day after day. I've been there. I clawed myself out of the mess the hard way. Along the road, I found out how to make managing  fun . I can show you how I did it, and help you find your own way. Let's be clear: It will not be an easy road. There will be plenty of challenges. I can promise you a lot of fun though, provided that you are willing to seriously try a couple of new things. Do you have a great vision, but your organization just won't budge from its set course? I can help you find the pivot points you can push to make your organization turn. Part of m...

Lean practitioners and scientists have known for many decades that cost effectiveness isn't all it is cranked up to be. Cost effectiveness is a measure of how much of the capacity of a resource is utilized. The resource may be a person, a computer, an aircraft, a machine in a workshop... Most people believe that people should be as close to 100% cost effective when they work. That is, their capacity should be utilized 100%. And yet, for other kinds of work, it is well understood that utilizing a resource 100% is a bad idea. Take your computer for example. If you run one application, the computer is responsive, you can work very fast. With one major application running, your computer uses only a fraction of its capacity. If you decide to run your computer in a more cost effective manner, and utilize its maximum capacity by running a large number of programs at the same time, you will find that the computer slows down and becomes unresponsive. At 100% capacity utilization the co...

I have published a new Tempo! supplement on Scribd. As usual, you can download a PDF version from the Scribd page. Tempo! Communications in Network Organizations

A couple of days ago I posted a management problem . Here is the solution: The CEO brought you in to fix a sudden drop in sales. You got the following sales data: and a time series graph based on the data table: The key to solving the problem is being able to interpret the data correctly. The CEO told you there had been a rising trend in sales, followed by a disastrous drop, but is that really true? You would not expect sales figures to be exactly the same each month. Sales figures are subject to random variation just like almost anything you measure in a business organization. The question here is whether the variation you are looking at is random or not. You may be looking at the results of two systemic changes, one that is improving the system, and one that is making it deteriorate. On the other hand, what you see might also be random fluctuation. It is possible to figure out which by using a process control chart. (There are other tools that can do the same thing. I ...

Here is a little management challenge for you: You are a world class management consultant. You have been brought in to fix a problem at Big Company, the world's premier Thingamajig producer. The BC CEO tells you that except for the occasional hiccup, Thingamajig sales have been good for the past two years. Sales have been climbing for some time, but now they have suddenly dropped dramatically. The CEO shows you a sales chart to drive the point home: Some finicky person has provided a table with the raw sales data next to the chart: The sales department has 12 people. Most are experienced sales persons. There are three junior sales persons with less than two years of experience. One of the more experienced sales people got married in June. The CEO wants you to bring sales back to the original level, quickly. What should you do? Assume that the CEO trusts your world class reputation as a management consultant, and will do whatever you tell her. If you want to take up t...

This is worth listening to: This talk was originally published here .

View this videocast . It starts off a bit dry, but gets more interesting, and Donovan is fun to listen to.

I am interested in working environments, particularly for knowledge workers.  The following tweet was quite interesting: RT @menloprez: Coolest offices in America ... we didn't see this one coming! http://tinyurl.com/yeu6n5r (Inspired by IDEO and Kent Beck). By Ron Jeffries   I found the article quite inspirational, but all of the examples are high profile, and quite expensive, examples of building better workplaces. I'll show an example of a low cost, but at least as effective, way to improve a workplace in a (near) future blog post.

I have mentioned Donella Meadows and her list of places to intervene in a system before in this blog. Meadows worked out the original nine item list when she was at a meeting about the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the World Trade Organization. Later, she expanded the list to twelve points. The list is very, very useful for business executives because it provides insight into  where to intervene to improve an organization. The list does not tell how to intervene. I'm glad it doesn't. Keeps life interesting and me in business :-) Without going into detail, or the science supporting the list, here is a version that has been slightly simplified and adapted to business: Figure 4 shows the intervention points in order of increasing leverage. Of course, there are other considerations than the power of a leverage point. Weaker leverage points are often easier to apply, but the results are not as good as when using a stronger leverage point. In her paper D...

I rarely do announcements in this blog, but there are exceptions. Here is one. If you go, I think you will enjoy it: Catalysts in Linz, Austria, are organizing a five day Jonah workshop about The Logical Thinking Process with Bill Dettmer . Date: May 21st – 27th, 2010 (Wednesday – Friday, Monday – Tuesday) Location: Park Inn Hotel, Linz The fee is 3,200 EUR (+ VAT) with a rebate of 20% for groups of 2 or above (i.e. 5,120 EUR for 2 people). You can get all the details by clicking on the link above. Bill is a well known and very well respected management consultant. He has written several books about manufacturing processes, brainstorming techniques, and of course about The Logical Thinking Process . (Scroll down a bit and you can see my very enthusiastic video review of the book.)

Sinan Si Alhir (@ SAlhir ) and I discussed a very interesting book, Certain To Win by Chet Richards. Sinan tweeted: @ Kallokain  I have a few copies that I have warn-out due to re-reading so many times ;-) and @ Kallokain  I also distribute Certain to Win to teams that I coach; it is simple & compelling; beautifully elegant... Well, here is what my copy of Certain To Win looks like. I have put plastic markers at noteworthy passages. In case you are wondering, there are 22 markers, but that number is likely to increase the next time I reread it.

Jamie Flinchbaugh has an excellent post on a very basic mistake most managers make. He describes how managers believe that the number of problems each report has add up, so that the manager's problems are the sum of the problems the reports have. Why not just pop over to Jamie's site? You will find other valuable insights there too.