The word according to The Economist is that the world’s most valuable firm may be past its prime. Indeed, stiffer competition in smartphones and tablets from the likes of Samsung has spooked investors in Apple. The two factors that have contributed largely to Apple’s decline, namely the death of Steve Jobs and Apple’s fantastic profit margins…
The Economist looks at the significance of two of the most popular words in the business lexicon: Global and leadership. When you put these two words together, it has great potential to draw multitudes of people together. One such conflagration happened recently at Davos, a Swiss ski resort, where some 50 heads of state and…
We started our discussion on Customer Focus last month with a general discussion about what it means to be ‘customer focused’, and how this term is overused and misunderstood in business. Everyone claims to be ‘customer focused’, yet customer loyalty is at its lowest point in years, complaints are higher than ever before, and almost…
As Continuous Improvement practitioners, it is natural (even a passion) to always seek ways to improve ourselves and the value we drive to our colleagues and the companies for which we work. During our quest for this personal and professional development, sometimes we know precisely which areas we wish to improve our skillsets and where…
“Charting the Right Course” by XONITEK’s Joseph Paris & continued media coverage of the Operational Excellence Society. Published in Lean Management Journal in the February 2013 issue. Download PDF
You’ve heard it again and again: manufacturing is dead in America. What once made us a great nation has either moved offshore or rusted away. And with that wide-ranging loss in productive capacity, our national economy began its long, painful, sad descent… At least it seemed that way to a lot of folks. In reality,…
