PC Advisor recently wrote about the “world’s cheapest laptop” and guess what?…It’s located on Alibaba.com through a vendor from Taiwan. Here’s the listing: http://carapelli.trustpass.alibaba.com/product/101509462/World_s_Cheapest_Laptop.html
The Impulse NPX-9000 laptop has a 7in screen and comes with the Linux OS. It has a 400MHz processor, 128MB of RAM, 1GB of flash storage and an optional wireless networking dongle. [...]

How to obtain, train and retain the people who can help a business get ahead in such a competitive and challenging market is one of the most common topics of conversation among senior managers in China. Luckily there is some advice on hand from McKinsey (and others). A new McKinsey report “How to address China’s [...]

Indian inflation has just hit a 3-year high of 7.41%. We can take comfort from the fact that many of our neighbors are faced with 20%; even China has reported an 11-year high of 8.7%.
Global trends are cited as the primary reason for the present situation. The IMF has reported that food prices in [...]

Governor Ted Strickland of Ohio recently took away most flexible work arrangements for state government workers, a move that was endorsed by the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He eliminated the four-day workweek, severely limited telecommuting, and stated that exceptions to a standard 8-to-5 workday are to be made only at management’s discretion.

According to a memo [...]

My Babson colleague Bala Iyer and I have written an article on Google in the current issue of Harvard Business Review. While there is no shortage of words written about GOOG, I hope this piece says some unique things. To me, what is truly distinctive about Google is that it is the prototypical 21st century [...]

My editors asked me for a prediction post for 2008. I didn’t quite do that, but I think what follows covers a topic people will be thinking about a great deal in the coming year.
At the holiday season, I’m inclined to give most people and things the benefit of the doubt. Negative comments about information [...]

Lean Six Sigma Black Belts are most often referred to as Change Agents and there is no doubt that the Black Belt role is a leadership position within an organization. Black Belts are full-time Lean Six Sigma project team leaders responsible for implementing process improvement projects DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control) or DFLSS (Design for Lean Six Sigma) [...]

What is Lean?

‘A manufacturing philosophy that shortens the timeline between the customer order and the shipment by eliminating waste.’     
-John Shook
Toyota’s first ( and still only) American ‘Kacho’ (manager)in Japan 
 

1890 – Sakichi Toyoda receives a patent for a wooden loom and the philosophy of ’KAIZEN’ is born out of the need to compete.

‘No machine or process ever reaches the point where it cannot be improved upon.’ - Sakichi Toyoda  
1908 -Henry Ford invents the moving assembly line and raises the daily wage to $5.00; continuous flow as a production method is created.

‘ The thing is to keep everything in motion and take    the work to the man and not the man to the work.    This is the real principle of our production and     conveyors are only one of many means to an end.’    – Henry Ford : Today and Tomorrow

The Roots of Lean Manufacturing Henry Ford developed and used some very specific management tools as he built his Model T factory, a tractor factory or [...]

My post for January 21, “When Should You Keep Your Ideas to Yourself?” has led to an amazing discussion from readers around the world. If you haven’t had a chance to review these comments, please check them out. There are lots of interesting reflections and good ideas. If you submitted a comment [...]