Quality Leadership Weblog :-)

On the issue of objective vs subjective information, you will always need the right balance of both.  I addressed a similar topic on the subject of militar’s  Effect Based Operational concept.
Did managers of risk outsmart themselves? Joe Nocera, New York Times magazine, Jan 4, 2009.

The story that I have to tell is marked all the [...]

Toyota projects first operating loss since 1941, By YURI KAGEYAMA, AP Business Writer, Dec 22, 2008.
Toyota forecast an operating loss of 150 billion yen ($1.66 billion) for the fiscal year ending March 2009. Toyota has never reported an operating loss since it began disclosing such figures in 1941. But it did have an operating loss [...]

You make the call … does the headline reflect a new event or a problem that’s been around awhile?

IG’s Report Highlights ‘Material Weaknesses,’ Financial Mismanagement At The Pentagon, (Washington Post)…Walter Pincus. Dec 15, 2008. Most critiques of the Defense Department’s spending focus on macroeconomic issues that are so large, readers can only groan and move [...]

Official History Spotlights Iraq Rebuilding Blunders, (New York Times)…James Glanz and T. Christian Miller, Dec 13, 2008.
Poor planning, waste and deception led to $200 billion failure, report says
An unpublished 513-page federal history of the American-led reconstruction of Iraq depicts an effort crippled before the invasion by Pentagon planners who were hostile to the idea of [...]

POST: CNN on post-Great Depression recessions suffered by US, by Thomas P.M. Barnett on December 4, 2008
Interesting bit: Average US recession (11 since 1930s) lasts less than a year (or 6-12 months) except for two (early 1970s and early 1980s) that were global ones, in addition. Global ones run 12-18 months.
Now we are told (rather [...]

POST: Bankers, you have nothing to gain but your chains! by Thomas P.M. Barnett on November 29, 2008
A good rendition of the argument that says we’re at the end of an extended period of deregulation that has logically run its course.

ARTICLE: A short history of modern finance: Link by link; The crash has been blamed [...]

POST: Revealing charts on losses in the financial crisis, Thomas P.M. Barnett on November 28, 2008.
Post provides a synopsis and links to four articles in Economist magazine.
FINANCE AND ECONOMICS: “Global finance: Lifelines; A special section on the crisis looks at prospects for the global economy, individual countries and markets. It begins with the tricky job [...]

POST: Extreme Toyota’s Lesson for American Auto, November 19th, 2008 by Hal
While American Auto go hat-in-hand to Washington, I thought it might be instructive to take a look at what those firms have missed while Toyota has steadily out-invested, out-innovated and racked up more profits than all three combined. Who’s got the answer? How [...]

$600M Spent On Canceled Contracts, (USA Today)…Matt Kelley, Nov 18, 2008.
The Pentagon spent about $600 million on more than 1,200 Iraq reconstruction contracts that were eventually canceled, nearly half of them for mismanagement or shoddy construction, government investigators say.

Dogfight Over F-22 Requirement Reveals DOD Schisms, (Aerospace Daily & Defense Report)…David A. Fulghum, Nov 18, 2008.
The battle over how many F-22 Raptors the U.S. Air Force requires is revealing some nasty infighting as the White House administration change nears. The Defense Secretary staff has told Air Force planners not to talk to congressional staffers [...]