“And we can do it all by starting from first principles–questioning our assumptions and building something new from the ground up.” Let’s focus on two words: First principles. The concept of ...

When I worked in manufacturing, we worked tirelessly to reduce job changeover time. Like a Nascar pit crew–the analogy productivity consultants always used–we hunted for 10 seconds here, 20 seconds ...

Problems come in many varied flavors in the world of business. Solving a problem means figuring out the best way to tackle it. Unfortunately, the biggest problem with entrepreneurs stuck in a singular ...

FedEx founder Frederick Smith, a Marine Corps veteran who kept the company afloat by any means necessary. (Courtesy of FedEx) What makes an entrepreneur entrepreneurial? This was the question posed to ...

The more I research the problems that bedevil U.S. manufacturers and try to find and share the stories of companies that are solving them, the more I appreciate lean management principles. More ...

I’ve said this many times before and I’ll say it again: Problems are opportunities in disguise! When most people think about problems, they picture a cluster of negativity that will eventually bury ...