Articles by Joseph F. Paris, Jr.
We often talk about the need for speed, but speed without direction is chaos. It is far better to achieve and increase velocity; which is speed with a vector – a direction, purpose. For those invested in Lean principles, PDCA starts with “Plan”, but all too often and to their risking doom, organizations start with…
Spend five minutes watching a group of young children play soccer, and you will likely be entertained by the spectacle. There’s enthusiasm, laughter, a lot of movement, and almost no structure. Eleven kids (though it could be seven, or five, or however many happen to be on the field) swarm the ball like bees to…
I was recently the Chairperson at the 10th Annual Global Process Improvement and Operational Excellence Summit in Amsterdam this past March. In my opinion, it is one of the best summits on the subject that exist; it and it is counterpart in Orlando held annually in the Fall. I have been the Chairman of both…
I started XONITEK in August of 1985 in Endicott, New York. I still own its latest incarnation, now located in Sheridan, Wyoming. Having owned my own businesses for the last 40 years makes me uniquely unemployable. Perhaps that could change given the right circumstances (whatever those might be). Since the very beginning, the purpose of…
Headline: “Business Metrics Gone Awry: The Dark Side of Relying Solely on KPIs” Subheading: “Corporate Missteps Highlight the Pitfalls of Blindly Chasing Key Performance Indicators” We read about it all the time; in a shocking turn of events, the business world is abuzz with meteoric fall of some company and its CEO, its CFO, or…
I wrote an article entitled “The Strategic HR Department” where I shared my thoughts on the characteristics of a Human Resources Department that is strategic with a purpose of being an accelerant of the organization’s ambitions rather than one that is a bureaucracy whose emphasis is on compliance. Of course, compliance is an important responsibility…
