This week, a client of ours drew up a SWOT analysis and it turned out to be a very productive event. The SWOT analysis tool has been around for a very long time. The Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats categories are comfortably familiar to many as a way of brainstorming and analyzing the current reality of […]
If it’s so spectacularly effective to manage an organization around a constraint, why doesn’t everyone use the Theory of Constraints?
While working with a client at their plant last week, our Founder, Dr. Domenico Lepore, told the dramatic story of his visit to a German aluminium plant, part of a multi-billion, multi-national business. The General Manager had invited Domenico to visit and give a presentation after hearing him speak at a Theory of Constraints (TOC) […]
Why Projects Complete “Sooner or Later”
What is a project? It’s a word that everyone is familiar with but it can mean very different things to different people. This can lead not just to misunderstandings but to intrinsic unreliability in delivery. In other words, far too many projects in the world get delivered “sooner or later” with all the knock-on negative […]
Achieving Predictability in Uncertain Times? Learn to Understand Variation
We live in such astonishingly uncertain times. So let’s do something that’s good for our mental and emotional health and lend some attention to an aspect of management that’s grounded in science and related to predictability. This is strongly connected with our previous post about Dr. W. Edwards Deming, the father of Quality and the […]
Dr. Who? Deming’s Teachings about Management are More Relevant than Ever
If we want to manage our organizations more effectively, profitably and respectfully, we need to heed the work of Dr. W. Edwards Deming, American physicist and statistician, and the man who helped Japan rebuild itself after World War II. Though Deming is regularly quoted in articles and blog posts, sadly it is often out of […]
It Takes a C-Suite with a Clear Purpose to Go Beyond Shareholder Value
The Business Roundtable recently announced a major policy change declaring that the purpose of a corporation is not just to serve shareholders – its official position since 1997 – but “to create value for all our stakeholders.” Over the last 25 years, Intelligent Management has developed and implemented a systemic approach to management that inherently brings attention to the […]
Digital Content and Business – Systemic Lessons Learned
Every brand is a media company. This is a huge take away from our friends at Hyphen-Italia at their event yesterday on Omnichannel Digital Production Management. No matter what kind of a business you are today, you must produce digital content that can be published on multiple channels. When you consider that over 80% of commercial […]
The Limiting Beliefs Holding Your Business Back – and What to Do About It
If a business is not growing, it’s shrinking. It’s a hard truth to accept. There is no such thing as standing still because plenty of other businesses are moving forward. Even if your market share increases, how much is it increasing in proportion with the growth of the market? So what is it that holds businesses […]
Some Summer Reading for Whole System Change
The famous “brioche con gelato” in Salerno, Italy. As we take a few days off mid-August Italian style, we wish all our subscribers and readers a serene and regenerating summer period. We will be back soon with our regular blog. In the meantime, here is a selection of some of our most popular posts […]
How to Do New Product Development Seamlessly with a Systems Approach
Any organization that wishes to innovate must be able to develop new products. The ability to develop new ideas, and new products in particular, can be stimulated and increased systemically by addressing the “cognitive limits” of the organization using the Thinking Processes from the Theory of Constraints. The capacity to continuously innovate has become a […]