I IMAGINE SOME READERS WONDER WHY I WRITE SO MUCH ABOUT CURRENT EVENTS AND POLITICS AND THE ECONOMY AND SO LITTLE ABOUT BUSINESS
I don't really. Because in this global competitive business environment business is very much about politics and policy. The economy is all about business and how businesses are doing--and that is hugely influenced by the conditions imposed on them by government (thus politics enters again).
PRESIDENT OBAMA HAS FIGURED OUT HOW TO REDUCE SPENDING ON HEALTH CARE IN THE USA
The growth rate of health care spending dropped to only 3.9% in 2010, which is nearly an all time low for recent decades. How did Obama do it? He simply killed jobs, crippled the economy and put so many people out of work (on on government welfare) that they chose to spend less of their meager earnings on health care. See--his plan is working!
CHECK OUT MY RECENT POSTS ON FORBES AND AMERICAN EXPRESS--I THINK YOU WILL FIND THEM TIMELY AND USEFUL
AN ANSWER TO A FRIEND'S EMAIL ABOUT HOW THE PERSON USED EVERYTHING MADE SOMEWHERE ELSE…AND WENT OUT LOOKING FOR A JOB IN AMERICA (AND COMPLAINING ABOUT WHOSE FAULT IT WAS)
Maybe it isn't "the 1%" who have caused the income gap/inequity problems in the USA. Maybe it's globalization encouraged by the fact that "the 99%" want the cheapest stuff available so they can have more stuff! So whose fault is the income inequity really? The people who profit from it, or the people who choose to save money on so much of their "stuff?" See; there are two sides to every story.
THE LAWBREAKER IN THE WHITE HOUSE--AND NOTHING IS BEING DONE ABOUT IT.
In case you haven't read my Forbes post: http://www.forbes.com/sites/prospernow/2012/01/06/the-president-who-ignores-the-law-again/
Here is an even more comprehensive WSJ presentation of it by someone with the right qualifications to evaluate Obama's actions:
Download Democrats and Executive Overreach - WSJ.com
ECONOMIC OUTLOOK: CONSUMERS ARE SPENDING BUT THEY ARE NO LONGER SAVING--THEIR DEBT IS INCREASING
Posted below is the most recent summary from BIGinsight's Consumer Intentions & Actions Survey.
EXECUTIVE BRIEFING
Economic & Consumer Insights for Marketing Executives
The Consumer Intentions & Actions® Survey monitors over 8,000 consumers each month providing unique insights & identifying opportunities in a fragmented and transitory marketplace.
January 2012 (Respondents surveyed 1/4 - 1/11/12)
Talking Points- The New Year didn’t begin with a bang, according to consumers
- Just one in three predict full economic recovery, down from Jan-11, Jan-10
- Blame it on the holiday spending hangover…practicality, focus on needs UP
- More than a third plan to decrease overall spending, up 20% from December
- Walmart is back in the driver’s seat in Women’s Clothing
- Will the Express Scripts debacle end Walgreens Prescription Drug domination?
- Consumer Migration: Prescription Drugs
- 90 Day Outlook: Looks like consumers are in for a little spending hibernation
- What’s Hot…does American craftsmanship score more points than the Super Bowl?
For the full briefing, please click on the link below:
SOME OF THE BEST LESSONS ABOUT HOW TO DO THINGS BETTER ARE SURPRISINGLY SIMILAR--AND SIMPLE:
THE FOLLOWING STORY WAS SENT TO ME BY AN OLD FRIEND, AND IT REALLY RESONATES WITH ME… I had an almost identical experience at Huffy Bikes, which I'll describe after you read this story.
NOTE: Henry Ford reportedly had an effective way to find the most efficient way to get a job done."Give the job to the laziest SOB in the plant ... and watch him carefully. You'll have the answer in a few hours."
A toothpaste factory had a problem: they sometimes shipped empty boxes, without the tube inside. This was due to the way the production line was set up, and people with experience in designing production lines will tell you how difficult it is to have everything happen with timings so precise that every single unit coming out of it is perfect 100% of the time. Small variations in the environment (which can’t be controlled in a cost-effective fashion) mean you must have quality assurance checks smartly distributed across the line so that customers all the way down to the supermarket don’t get pissed off and buy someone else’s product instead.
Understanding how important that was, the CEO of the toothpaste factory got the top people in the company together and they decided to start a new project, in which they would hire an external engineering company to solve their empty boxes problem, as their engineering department was already too stretched to take on any extra effort.
The project followed the usual process: budget and project sponsor allocated, RFP, third-parties selected, and six months (and $8 million) later they had a fantastic solution on time, on budget, high quality and everyone in the project had a great time. They solved the problem by using some high-tech precision scales that would sound a bell and flash lights whenever a toothpaste box weighing less than it should was detected. The line would stop, and someone had to walk over and yank the defective box out of it, pressing another button when done to resume the line.
A while later, the CEO decides to have a look at the ROI of the project: amazing results! No empty boxes ever shipped out of the factory after the scales were put in place. There were very few customer complaints, and they were gaining market share. “That’s some money well spent!” he said, before looking closely at the other statistics in the report.
It turns out that the number of defects picked up by the scales was 0 after three weeks of production use. It should’ve been picking up at least a dozen a day, so maybe there was something wrong with the report. He requested an explanation, and after some investigation, the engineers come back saying the report was actually correct. The scales really weren't picking up any defects, because all boxes that got to that point in the conveyor belt were good.
Puzzled, the CEO went down to the factory, and walked up to the part of the line where the precision scales were installed. A few feet before it there was a $20 desk fan blowing the empty boxes off the belt and into a bin. "“Oh, that! One of the guys put it there ’cause he was tired of walking over every time the bell rang”," said one of the workers.
Back in the 1980's at Huffy Bikes, we had a problem with missing parts in the bike box—a bag of small parts was supposed to go into each bike box—and sometimes was left out. Without them you could not assemble the bike. The parts bag was too light compared to the weight of a whole bike to use a scale, and after considering many complex solutions were discussed, one of the assembly line workers offered a suggestion. "We don't intentionally leave out the parts. We just lose track of whether we've put one in each box. Can't you install a little electric eye like my garage door has on it, that sees our hand reaches out and grabs a parts bag and it turns a light on (or off)? Then depending on if light is on or off, we'll know whether we put the parts bag in the box."
The Assembly Dept. Supervisor and an Industrial Engineer rigged up a simple electric eye and light bulb and sure enough, it worked. If the worker's hand didn't pass through the beam to pick up the parts bag, the light wouldn't go off, and thus the parts bag had not been picked up and placed in the box. Problem solved. We put the same arrangement on all six assembly lines, at a combined cost of far less than any of the complicated solutions. Ask the person closest to the work how to solve the problems.
Principle: No one knows as much about a job as the person doing it. ASK THEM--AND THEN LISTEN & LEARN
THAT'S IT FOR THIS WEEK,
BEST, JOHN
Author of the Award Winner: THE COMPLEXITY CRISIS, and the exciting novel: THE CHINESE CONSPIRACY. Come see my blog posts on Forbes.com & American Express Open Forum: http://www.openforum.com/connectodex/small-business-trends?username=john-mariotti&isRecentPosts=True
John L. Mariotti, President & CEO, The Enterprise Group, OH Address (Mar.-Dec.): 10218 Ashton Close, Powell, OH 43065, FL Address (Jan.-Mar.): 316 Edgewater Ct., Marco Island, FL 34145 Phones (mobile) 614-499-5577 & OH Office 614-840-0959. http://www.mariotti.net, http://mariotti.blogs.com/my_weblog/
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