Posted by business901 on April 16, 2012
Ari Weinzweig, CEO and co-founding partner of Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor, MI continues to share the "secrets" that have helped take Zingerman's from a 25-seat, 4-person start up to a nationally known, $40,000,000-organization employing over 500 people. 
In this Business901 podcast, Ari discusses his latest book A Lapsed Anarchist's Approach to Being a Better Leader. The book includes "Secrets #19-29" of the Zingerman's Experience, including essays on the Energy Crisis in the American Workplace, Servant Leadership, Stewardship, why everyone's a leader, Zingerman's Entrepreneurial Approach to management, and Ari's approach to Anarcho-Capitalism.
In the book series, Zingerman’s Guide to Good Leading, part 1 offered up the "secrets" behind Building a Great Business, and now part 2, takes a look at the leadership style that has helped make Zingerman's such a special place to work and to eat. While everything in the book draws on what Ari and others have learned and live at Zingerman's over the three decades since the Deli first opened back in 1982, all of the material is totally applicable to organizations of all sizes and scopes—it is, as Ari says in the introduction, leading towards a new way to work.
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How Zing Training Started! -
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In love with your products more than your customers?
Posted by business901 on April 2, 2012
My guest on the Business901 podcast this week was Paul Yandell of Value Stream Focus and we discussed one of my favorite topics – Middle Management. Paul Yandell, led a lean transformation that won the 2007 Pacific Northwest Silver Medallion Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing. Business Week called the Shingo Prize the “Nobel Prize for Manufacturing”.
A recent blog post of mine, Can Lean be driven by Middle Management? contains an excerpt of the podcast. Paul has a proven record of leadership developing and implementing world-class lean manufacturing operations and supply chain across multiple industries that reduce cost, improve service, and enhance new product implementation.
About: Paul Yandell is a manufacturing and supply chain specialist with strong skills in identifying and eliminating waste and improving operational performance. His particular strengths are building infrastructure to support turnaround and growth situations, building and leading teams in total quality environments and he is bilingual (Spanish).
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Posted by business901 on March 25, 2012
Anthony Manos is a Catalyst with Profero, Inc., where he provides professional consulting services, implementation, coaching and training to a wide variety of organizations, large and small, private and public, in many industries focusing on Lean Enterprise and Lean Healthcare. Mr. Manos has extensive knowledge of Lean and quality in a wide range of work environments. 
Anthony was my guest on the Business901 podcast and we discussed the application of Hoshin Kanri. Since Hoshin Kanri first appeared in the late 1960s, it has become a management system for companies to establish annual policy, pass it down through their organizations and implement it across all departments and functions.Hoshin Kanri is different from what most people think of as strategic planning.
It goes far beyond the typical strategic planning process and implementation.
Mr Manos says, “Hoshin Kanri is for organizations looking for a method to create a thoughtful plan for the future. In addition to helping other organizations learn and apply Hoshin Kanri principles, the company I work for has applied Hoshin Kanri principles for its own operations.” Here is some practical advice and “tricks from the trenches” that might help you and your organization move forward:
Anthony is the co-author of the book Lean Kaizen: A Simplified Approach to Process Improvements and author of many articles on Lean and its allied subjects. He wrote the script for SME’s DVD Total Productive Maintenance Blitz and is the co-editor of ASQ’s upcoming Lean Handbook. He writes commentary on Lean in his blog: blog.5Ssupply.com.
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Lean Canvas for Lean EDCA-PDCA-SDCA
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Value Chain Thinking is not Rocket Science
The use of Hansei in Lean Sales and Marketing
Posted by business901 on March 19, 2012
David Kasprzak, of the popular blog, My Flexible Pencil discussed ROWE in the Business901 podcast this week. ROWE is a concept developed by Jody Thompson and Cali Ressler, co-authors of the book, Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It: The Results-Only Revolution. ROWE stands for Results-Only Work Environment. It is a revolutionary new way of working that gives employees more responsibility and accountability for their work and the way they do it. 
Are Lean/Six Sigma and ROWE (Results Only Work Environment) complimentary, or competing, approaches to workplace transformation? Both place a heavy emphasis on value and the elimination of any activities that don't produce that value. Lean, however, advocates an engaged management that is able to "go to Gemba." In gemba, leaders can observe where value is created in order to find waste and identify areas for improvement. ROWE, however, places a heavy emphasis on worker autonomy and freedom, as long as the Results are achieved. This could lead to the Gemba being anywhere and everywhere, especially for knowledge workers. Listen to the podcast as we attack issues such as this.
About David Kasprzak: While working as a cost & schedule analyst, I realized that the sources of either good or poor performance usually rested in the habits, practices and mindsets of both the leadership and the led. As a result, I began to explore the “people side” of performance. On this blog, David addresses both workplace and family situations by applying ideas derived from Lean, ROWE, Project Management, Organizational Behavior and my Master’s-Level education in Political Science and Business Administration.
P.S. Last week, I asked, Does ROWE solve some Lean problems?
More information about Dave and Rowe can be found: ROWE, Lean and the Shingo Model “Results Only” means “Value Only”
Related Information: Customer Flow is not Linear or Controllable An Appreciative Look at the World ROWE: Results-Only Work Environment
Posted by business901 on March 11, 2012
Rob Doctors, lead author of the book, Contextual Pricing: The Death of List Price and the New Market Reality was my guest on the Business901 Podcast. Rob believes that pricing decisions need to be driven by customer context rather than simple list prices. Pricing is more than just an issue of margin and production costs, but rather a complex set of contextually factors best defined as an outcome. In the podcast, we discussed the outcome of four contextual factors:
- Situation
- Objectives
- Perception
- Capabilities
An excerpt from the podcast:
Joe: If I need to change my pricing structure and look at contextual pricing, what would be the compelling reason for me to go that direction, right now?
Rob: Better margins in a nutshell. Because, think about it, once you've set a list price, the traditional way of doing it. It's really tough for anyone in your organization to sell above that list price. I've set a list price on, whatever, my plastic clam shells for holding food in a supermarket. The next moment a customer runs in saying "Rush order, rush order, I desperately need clam shells. I'll pay you a million dollars per clam shell!" You look in your book and you say "I'm sorry. I can only charge you $0.30 for this clamshell because that's our list price." You immediately cut off the benefits by setting a list price.
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My Engagement Strategy – Appreciative Inquiry
Posted by business901 on March 2, 2012
Vivian Hairston Blade, Founder, President & CEO of Experts in Growth Leadership Consulting, LLC (EiGL Consulting, LLC) based in Louisville, KY was my podcast guest. Vivian is a recognized expert, keynote speaker, trainer and executive coach in the principles of Customer Experience, Lean Six Sigma and Leadership Development. With a 20+ year career in Fortune 100 companies, General Electric and Humana, Inc., Vivian has exten
sive experience in successfully leading the development and execution of customer centered, quality-based, growth business strategies.
Through EiGL Consulting, Vivian has helped clients achieve direct cost savings and productivity by more than 10%, implement customer loyalty and customer service programs, and has coached and trained hundreds of professionals in customer experience implementation and leadership skill development. Her articles have been published in many professional, industry and business publications.
EiGL Consulting is WBENC, TSMSDC and SBA-WOSB certified, accredited by the Better Business Bureau, and is a member of Greater Louisville, Inc. Vivian's website is: http://eiglconsulting.com/
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Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success .
Posted by business901 on December 4, 2011
..is technology managing them? What about innovation? What about marketing? As organizations continue to get flatter and flatter, we continue to put more and more pressure on the few left in middle management. It’s not just the personnel either. That may be the easy part. Now, we are being faced with everyone becoming customer facing, the depth of customer penetration within in the ranks is increasing at a rapid wait. The one answer that so many of us fallback to is technology. And, that is also changing at a rapid rate. So what does a manager have to do?
Terri Griffith answers that in her new book,The Plugged-In Manager
. The cornerstone of Dr. Griffith's work is an easy-to-understand framework for plugging in, explained through three core practices:
- Stop-Look-Listen: What do your data say? What do you already know that will help you with this project?
- Mixing: How do you balance your available resources?
- Sharing: How can you achieve better results by integrating your choices with other team members?
I found the book practically written from a Lean/Kaizen perspective. It is a well written book that you can read cover to cover without stopping. What you will do, is bookmark or crimp many of the pages in it and start tackling her suggestions. She includes a few exercises to get you started and improve one thing at a time. She discusses an evolution for managers, not a revolution. Great insight and the podcast with Terri was excellent. I hope you enjoy, I did.
About: Terri Griffith, Ph.D. helps people and organizations work with technology. As a Professor of Management at Santa Clara University (Silicon Valley), Terri helps mix together the technology of work (everything from telepresence to the size and type of tools a crew would use to build a fence), the way we organize to do this work (virtual teams, collaborative leadership, hiring and pay plans), and the knowledge, skills, and abilities of the people we work with.
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Even Seinfeld used Standard Work
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Posted by business901 on October 11, 2011
In the Business901 podcast, What Political Campaigns can teach business, part 1 of 2 we looked at a more strategic view. In today's podcast, we looked at the more tactical practices and how they related not only to a political campaign but to a typical marketing campaign. 
Derek A. Pillie has served public and political candidates for over 15 years. He has served on the staff of Indiana’s Third Congressional District, most recently as District Director for just over a decade. In that role, he oversaw Indiana operations of the office; including constituent outreach and helping taxpayers solve problems with federal agencies. He also worked on crucial economic development projects and was heavily involved with advising the office on online media and marketing decisions.
After his federal service expired Derek started working at Cirrus ABS, an online marketing and technology development company. He currently manages their business development efforts. Cirrus ABS has added political campaigns to the portfolio of industries they serve since Derek joined the team, and he continues volunteer efforts on behalf of candidates he supports.
Related Information: Preview of Political Campaign Marketing Podcast Political Campaigning – Strategy Update What political campaigns can teach business Lean Six Sigma for Government
Posted by business901 on October 10, 2011
Looking for immediate business? Is it taking too long to build a brand? Many of us look toward marketing to be our silver bullet, but seldom is it. We sometimes tire waiting for that marketing message to take hold and search for the latest and coolest gimmick to grab our prospects attention. Though I consider myself on the leading edge of these trends, I have come to appreciate that slow and steady wins many of the times. Driving home that consistent message is far more productive than being on the leading edge of every new marketing angle.
In my research I have also come to appreciate, What political campaigns can teach business. Few marketing processes do a better job of creating immediate business. With these thoughts in mind, I pursued Derek A. Pillie a leading political analyst for a Business901 Podcast. The interview lasted over an hour, as a result I split it in two parts. Part 1 is a strategic view of political campaigning and part 2( Will post tomorrow) is from a tactical viewpoint.
Derek has served public and political candidates for over 15 years. He has served on the staff of Indiana's Third Congressional District, most recently as District Director for just over a decade. In that role, he oversaw Indiana operations of the office; including constituent outreach and helping taxpayers solve problems with federal agencies. He also worked on crucial economic development projects and was heavily involved with advising the office on online media and marketing decisions.
After his federal service expired Derek started working at Cirrus ABS, an online marketing and technology development company. He currently manages their business development efforts. Cirrus ABS has added political campaigns to the portfolio of industries they serve since Derek joined the team, and he continues volunteer efforts on behalf of candidates he supports.
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Preview of Political Campaign Marketing Podcast
Political Campaigning – Strategy Update
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Lean Six Sigma for Government
Posted by business901 on August 22, 2011
I was participating in a discussion on LinkedIn and came across an article, How to Sustain Front Line Process Improvement Activities from the Harvard Business Review and like most of us, if it says sustainability we take a look. It has to be the most difficult part of any continuous improvement process. 
I found the author of the article, Brad Power handling the comments masterfully and engaging in a great dialogue with the commenters. He is actually researching sustaining attention to process management and is currently conducting research with the Lean Enterprise Institute.
Our podcast centered on Brad’s research of sustainability and his findings so far may not be unique but the structure he puts to his information is. Also, I think you will find out as much about researching and the questions you ask as you will sustainability. At times I wondered who was being interviewed.
Brad Power is a consultant and researcher in process innovation. In his latest consulting engagement, for over a year he's been helping a healthcare insurance company reengineer its interactions with providers and members to reduce cycle times. And for the last three years he's been researching why few companies sustain their attention to process management — how they can make improvement and adaptation a habit (even fun?). He's been collaborating with the Lean Enterprise Institute on his research. You can see some of his research insights in his blog posts at The Harvard Business Review at bradfordpower.tumblr.com. He's interested in hearing stories of companies which embarked on a process improvement program and either kept going, or didn't, and why.
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Posted by business901 on August 4, 2011
The Friday Video Series with Dr. Michael Balle, the Gemba Coach at the Lean Enterprise Institute recently competed a two month long series on Kaizen. I have included the entire audio of the conversation as a podcast. Even if you have watched the videos I think you will find it worthwhile. 
Dr. Balle is a multiple Shingo Prize winner as an author of the The Gold Mine and The Lean Manager. His newest Shingo Prize was on the adaption of The Gold Mine: A Novel of Lean Turnaround to an audiobook that features performances by multiple readers who bring its realistic business story and characters to life.
Dr. Michael Balle is the Gemba Coach at the Lean Enterprise Institute
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Lean is not a revolution, Lean is solve one thing and prove one thing!
Posted by business901 on June 27, 2011
Razi Imam is an accomplished award winning innovator, entrepreneur, and author. He has experience and knowledge of successfully innovating products and services, launching them in competitive markets, and building world-class high-performance teams.
Razi;s new book Driven: A How-to Strategy for Unlocking Your Greatest Potential is discussed in the podcast and you are introduced to a powerful motivational philosophy. I think you will find the podcast a little different than most of mine as we discuss self and team development. Razi is an excellent and captivating speaker.
Razi is the founder of a fast growing software company called Landslide Technologies that is receiving rave reviews from customers, analysts and press. His company has been named 'visionary' three years in row by the leading analyst firm - The Gartner Group. He has also recently founded 113 Industries, an industry-driven business incubator focusing on advanced materials. The goal of this incubator is to help breakthrough discoveries in advanced materials coming from our universities, and government labs become viable commercial products.
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