About Donald Mitchell
 Donald Mitchell Member Since: 23 Oct 2007 Total Live Articles: 257 ( Total Views 1799 ) 
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1. Treat Those With Bad News Well, or You'll Never Know What Hit You
Leaders and managers usually don't know what's going on. If they bite off the heads of those who tell about problems, no one will warn them of what to look out for.... |
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2. Being Satisified with Hiding Problems Leads to Fatal Inaction
Leaders and managers need to stir up their people to avoid stagnation.... |
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3. Admit You Are Wrong, or Make Your Situation and Eventual Embarrassment Worse
Hiding mistakes to avoid embarrassment often requires making worse mistakes, mistakes that create even worse problems and embarrassment.... |
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4. Avoid Giving Incentives to Take Unlimited Risks
When you can gain a fortune and only lose your job if things go wrong, many will choose to bet someone else's house to take a chance. That leads to disastrous losses.... |
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5. Put in Rules That Allow You to Adapt to Powerful Trends
People often make arbitrary decisions that imperil their organizations. Put in rules that avoid such decisions.... |
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6. Self-Justification Is Usually a Mistaken Excuse Not to Address Powerful Trends
Those who take a self-sacrificing approach to irresistible forces will often simply waste away critical resources. Get busy addressing what's running against you!... |
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7. Throw Me A Blindfold--The Cover-Up Stall Keeps You Blind to Powerful Forces
Avoiding embarrassment is a human instinct that gets in the way of finding and dealing with irresistible forces.... |
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8. A Balance of Views Can Help You Strike Out Successfully in All Directions
Optimism and pessimism each have their uses. Put them to work.... |
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9. Keep an Optimism Thermometer Where It Will Do the Most Good
You need to measure how practical your optimism is to get a sense of how blind you may be to looming irresistible forces.... |
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10. Table Tennis Balls Inspire Superior Business Model Innovation
An original business thinker derives ideas for major profit improvements from enjoying table tennis. In this article, you will see ways you can use your interests and added education to boost your career and credibility.... |
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11. Where Does the Customer's CEO Sit?
Dealing with huge forces you can't control requires careful attention, tact, and quick action.... |
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12. Check Your Strategy by Giving Your Optimism Regular Reality Check-Ups
Unfounded optimism leads to missing opportunities. Practical optimism looks for opportunities and turns them into accomplishments.... |
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13. Check, Recheck, and Check Again Your Optimistic Assumptions
Leave out the spark plugs from an engine and it won't do anything for you. Likewise, leave out one key action and you often won't succeed either. Your insurance is to be sure you know what all the needed actions are and how to do them.... |
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14. Be Careful: Fast-Moving Trends Often Don't Continue
Look to the causes of trends before believing that they will continue.... |
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15. To Grow Faster Temper Your Optimism with First-Hand Information
The best way to test your beliefs about trends is to get information from as close to the source as possible. With better information, you'll make more appropriate decisions.... |
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16. To Prosper the Most Measure How You Are Doing with Non-Accounting Measures
Accounting measures are often inaccurate for making strategic decisions. Use non-accounting measures to determine how you are doing.... |
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17. Profit from Adding the Right Allies to Prosper from Important Trends
Look for reciprocal relationships with allies that are easy for each of you to provide for one another.... |
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18. Avoid Overoptimism That Leads to Taking Success for Granted
When irresistible forces shift, a company's overoptimistic actions will lead to achieving much less than full potential, or possibly even disaster. This article provides you with a guide to avoiding the harmful consequences of viewing the circumstances of your actions only through rose-colored glasses.... |
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19. Lead Your Organization Away from Being Too Independent in Working with Trends
Leaders can help their organizations learn to seek allies rather than remain blind to significant trends.... |
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20. A Lifelong Learner Lightens His and Others' Loads
Learning how to learn can lighten your load . . . and then you can help others do the same.... |
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21. You Are Only Going to Be As Good As Your Business Allies
Complementary skills and resources are easier to add through alliances than through hiring and internal learning. Choose your allies carefully and learn from them.... |
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22. Form Alliances with Matchmakers to Gain Even More Profitable Alliances
Your choices of allies and partners determine the ease by which you will add other allies and partners. These choices will either open doors to profitable opportunities or close those doors.... |
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23. Learn How to Be Good at Adding Profitable Allies
Successful companies need as many helpful allies as possible to add new insights and sources of profit. This article explains how to add such allies.... |
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24. Overconfidence About Irresistible Forces Can Bring Humbling Profit Drops
People and organizations have exaggerated views of their effectiveness. Unchecked, those exaggerated views breed overconfidence and inaction with regard to dangerous potential trends.... |
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25. Look Sharp to Find the Most Profitable Answers
When circumstances become adverse, you need to dig in to find solutions with the right expertise. Waiting to intervene is a mistake.... |
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26. Being a Copy Cat Can Pay Off Big When Partners Show the Way to Success
Everyone wants to know the inside word about how to succeed. Check to see if a partner can deliver that word to you.... |
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27. Don't Bother Me With Your Help--Can't You See I'm Busy?
Many leaders and managers are so busy working on yesterday that they cannot find the time to address today and tomorrow. A shift in priorities is critical to succeed by getting help.... |
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28. Be Curious About Trends Before They Affect Your Company
If you wait until trends are affecting you, you will miss most of the opportunities these trends bring. Look around before you are affected.... |
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29. The Company That Attempts to Stand Alone Will Fall Behind the Competition
Don't let self-confidence keep you from looking for helpful allies who can help you serve customers better.... |
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30. Be Like a Weatherman and Find Out Which Way the Trend Winds Are Blowing
It's not enough to know that irresistible forces are at work. You need to understand their influence. This article provides directions to help you to understand the causes of these forces.... |
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31. Develop Defensiveness Extinguishers to Find More Great Profit Opportunities
When surprised, most of us get defensive. We don't learn from that surprise until we stop being defensive. This article describes ways to overcome defensiveness faster and more effectively.... |
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32. Don't Be Defensive about Your Mistakes, Profit from Them
Setbacks are usually opportunities in disguise. Be sure you get over your defensiveness to look into what happened.... |
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33. The Blame Game Just Delays Putting in Better Strategies for Profitable Growth
Putting the blame for poor results on circumstances outside of your control just makes you look foolish. A good leader knows that a new strategy is needed when circumstances turn negative.... |
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34. Even Those with Enormous Stakes at Risk Can Mistake Future Trends
Don't believe that you can foresee future conditions and what they spell for the right strategy. Instead, assume that you need a strategy that will work well regardless of the conditions.... |
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35. Consider How Adverse Conditions Can Be a Blessing in Disguise
Any surprise startles us, making us feel uneasy. But the surprise may be a great blessing after we relax and think about what we are actually facing.... |
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36. If Adverse Conditions Overwhelm You, Add Expert Help
Some conditions are so adverse that only experts can deal with the problem. This article demonstrates why getting such expertise is critical to business success.... |
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37. Beware the Current Path to Profit Growth: It May Be the Most Expensive and Longest
Leaders fall in love with their strategies. They like to blame execution for any setbacks. If irresistible forces are causing your problems, you need a different strategy.... |
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38. Resist Taking on Too Many Opportunities to Make the Greatest Improvement
Our perception of what's possible exceeds our grasp. If we spend all of our time trying to reach things we can't grasp, no improvements will occur.... |
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39. For More Profit, Shovel Away the Sand Over Those Whose Heads Are Buried in It
Be earnest in seeking out problems rather than denying them. The damage will be limited when you do.... |
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40. Practice Kicking Yourself With Your Jerking Knee to Earn More Profit
Learn to use your instincts to set you off in the right path when big obstacles appear.... |
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41. Defending Failed Directions Can Direct You Away from Profitable Progress
Some become frozen into following failed policies because they don't want to admit they made a mistake. That pride can be costly when it leads to harmful inaction.... |
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42. Open Your Eyes and Ears When Tough Times Arrive
When problems arise, you need good ideas. But fear can keep people from offering solutions.... |
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43. Confidently Prepare for the Best When You Feel Helpless
When you feel overwhelmed, the best path for creating a solution is to assume you will succeed. This article helps you create that mental process.... |
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44. Look for the Benefit in Setbacks to Gain the Most Profit
Adverse circumstances provide opportunities to explore choices that would otherwise not be considered. Implement those opportunities and a setback can be a blessing in disguise.... |
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45. When the Situation Looks Hopeless, Doubt Your Lack of Choice
There's always an ethical way out to any irresistible trend problem for a business. Don't let a feeling of helplessness keep you from looking for it.... |
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46. Banish that Helpless Feeling When Trends Turn Negative
Helplessness is a state of mind, fueled by emotion. You can take practical steps to banish that feeling and move toward valuable solutions.... |
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47. Act Fast When Customers and the Community Lose Faith in Your Offerings
Helplessness is most dangerous when customers and others are concerned about whether they can trust you.... |
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48. To Profit from Powerful Trends Be Like a Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Be ready to jump away from mistakes concerning irresistible forces if you want to avoid costly setbacks.... |
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49. Helplessness Can Turn a Big Company into One Big, Unhappy Company
Remaining inert in response to strong, adverse trends is very harmful. Get help instead.... |
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50. Profit from Irresistible Trends Rather than Sit Helpless
When irresistible forces unexpectedly change a familiar environment to one in which normally-appropriate actions no longer work or even backfire, executives and workers can find themselves feeling overwhelmed by negative emotions and helpless to respond effectively. They should see adversity as an opportunity to reconsider thinking and develop a new sense of direction.... |
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51. Keep Life in Balance: A Devoted Father Juggles His Way Up Mount Everest
A father finds a way to improve his relationship with his son while adding the education he needs to advance his career by using a flexible online MBA program.... |
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52. Boxed In: Which Way Are We Going?
Leaders can easily define paths for growth that actually restrict the potential to expand. Wise leaders will be more careful to avoid getting boxed in.... |
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53. "Where Are We Going, and How Do We Get There?" -- The Directionless Stall
A fundamental problem that most organizations have when encountering irresistible forces is the resulting confusion that stems from a lack of a clear understanding of what the enterprise itself is pursuing. This article explores that problem.... |
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54. Add Breakthrough Solution Cost-Reduction Capability
Spread knowledge of how to achieve cost breakthroughs and you'll be amazed at how much better you do.... |
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55. Go to the Source for Your Fountain of Truth About Powerful Trends
When something unexpected appears, track down what is the source of the unexpected to understand powerful new trends.... |
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56. Look at the Worst Case to See All of Your Opportunities
Many fear problems that they can easily avoid. Advance planning can permit pursuing higher-potential strategies when such problems are anticipated and prepared for.... |
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57. Check the Downside to Be Sure You Enjoy the Upside
Most leaders forget to check out what can go wrong when they choose an action. This article looks at how to look at the unappreciated risks.... |
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58. To Prosper Look for Causes and Continually Monitor Irresistible Forces
Many mistake trends by failing to understand the trend's causes and by not tracking what's happening with the trend. Eliminate those errors and you'll be much more successful in exploiting trends.... |
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59. Value Conflicts: Do Your Customers See Slashing Your Organization's Size as Good for Them?
Value alignment works a lot better than value conflicts. Yet many profit-obsessed leaders and managers choose directions that cause such conflicts . . . making profit problems worse instead of better.... |
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60. Play All the Parts If You Want to Prosper from Powerful Trends
An internal perspective on trends is almost always wrong. You can overcome this problem by playing the roles of others who are affected by the trend.... |
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61. To Appreciate a Trend Look Over the Curve of the Horizon
A long perspective helps make the implications of irresistible forces clearer. With a clearer perspective, you can pick the right strategy.... |
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62. To Prepare for Future Challenges, Throw Away Your Hockey Stick Forecasts
A common assumption about the future is that circumstances will be difficult for a while, but then a era of easy success will follow. Wrong!... |
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63. Avoid the Wishful Thinking Stall If You Want to Enjoy Irresistible Growth
Don't assume that you know what future conditions will be. You'll just make a fool out of yourself if you do and miss valuable growth opportunities.... |
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64. Learn from the Wishful Thinking of Others to Take the Potential for Change Seriously
Wishful thinking makes companies vulnerable to competitors. The more success a company has, the more vulnerable it will be to wishful thinking paralysis.... |
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65. Are You on the Yellow Brick Road to Success?
Each organization can find an optimal route to success after considering how irresistible forces will affect its activities.... |
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66. Are You Ready to Adapt to Irresistible Forces?
It's not enough to know about irresistible forces; you need to be prepared to adapt to them.... |
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67. Check Your Organization's Values Before Launching into Improvement
This article describes a self-assessment you can use to determine if your organization is employing appropriate values necessary to succeed.... |
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68. Use Breakthrough Solution Cost Reductions as a Management Development Tool
You can expand the rate of cost reductions by making learning about breakthrough solution cost reductions a required part of becoming a more senior level manager in your organization.... |
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69. Expand Your Focus to Locate Previously Unperceived Targets for Cost Reductions
Just when you think you've found all of the best ways to reduce costs, think again. You've missed most of them!... |
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70. Square the Benefits of Your Recent Breakthrough Cost Reductions
By repeating the breakthrough cost-reduction process, you can double the size of the benefits you gain.... |
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71. Resist All Expensive and Slow-Developing Choices to Pursue Cost-Reduction Opportunities
Slow development and large expense in cutting costs are usually signs of limited opportunity. Seek the fast-developing and low expense opportunities for cost reduction instead.... |
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72. For Best Results Repeat Cost-Reduction Steps
It's easy to overlook cost-reduction opportunities. By repeating your cost-reduction reviews, you'll find opportunities you missed in the past.... |
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73. How to Put It All Together in Gaining Advantages from Irresistible Forces
Think about irresistible forces before they change direction to check out how well you are ready for shuch shifts.... |
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74. The Well-Aligned Enterprise Using the Right Operating Principle Goes Further
When an organization can encapsulate a key principle in a way that everyone can understand and act on, that principle will guide everyone to accomplish more of the right things.... |
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75. Organizational Clarity--As Clear as a Bell
The way to handle irresistible forces must be as clear as the proverbial bell to capture the attention of those in an organization.... |
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76. Be Flexible with Selecting and Employing Resources
Customers' needs and wants change. If you are flexible in serving those needs, you'll do better. Creating a process that flourishes with flexibility is a key ingredient in that success.... |
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77. Launch Redundant Searches for Cost-Reduction Solutions
Pick one route to cut costs, and you are in trouble if that route doesn't work. Instead, look into several promising directions to be sure that at least one is likely to work well for you.... |
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78. Set Goals Beyond What Seems to Be the Theoretical Best Practice
Limits mainly exist in the mind. Set goals that go beyond what you can conceive and you are likely to achieve the cost-reduction goals.... |
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79. Ask the World to Compete to Find Breakthrough Methods
Expecting your organization to find all of the breakthrough methods that you could use is unrealistic. Expand your search and you'll enjoy more breakthroughs.... |
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80. Pick Critical Elements That Can Lead to Breakthrough Cost Reductions
Reduce the cost of something unimportant, and you won't make much progress. Focus first on what will make the most difference in setting large cost reduction targets.... |
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81. Set Cost Reduction Goals to Move Years Ahead of Competitors by Seeking Worldwide Expertise
While your competitor is trying to take 5 percent out of costs, you should be working on a cost breakthrough.... |
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82. Replace Expensive Outsourcing with Excellent Internal Solutions
Outsourcing can be an expensive alternative that doesn't improve competitive position. Eliminate outsourcing when that's the case.... |
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83. Design Your Offering to Be Friendlier to Do-It-Yourselfers
Doing things for yourself can be fun . . . or it can be threatening. Those who want to reduce costs should focus on providing the fun.... |
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84. Redo Your Business Model to Make Functions in Your Organization Obsolete
Do fewer things in your organization, and you can eliminate a lot of costs while expanding profits.... |
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85. Follow the Rules of the Road for Helpful Do-It-Yourself Owners' Manuals
Owners' manuals are often written to please defense lawyers rather than to help customers. Shift that focus and you'll slash more costs, including legal defense fees.... |
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86. To Erase Harmful Costs, Provide Hands-On Experiences Before Offerings Are Sold
Extensive trials with offerings in everyday situations can spot and help you eliminate harmful costs.... |
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87. Have the Right Organizational Goals in Mind to Be More Successful
Many leaders and managers make mistakes by seeking the wrong benefits. That error can undermine any improvement an organization might pursue.... |
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88. Get More Value from Your Values . . . By Walking Good Talk
It's one thing to proclaim your values. It's far more valuable to follow those values.... |
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89. To Grow Rapidly, Don't Be Misaligned and Cast Adrift
Values are helpful guides to action when they are known and appreciated. Many leaders make the mistake of not communicating what the organization's values are.... |
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90. Examine How New Processes Can Eliminate Expensive Outsourcing
A simpler or revised process may allow you to stop outsourcing that isn't worth the cost.... |
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91. Hire an Expert Outsourcing Evaluator to Advise You on Do-It-Yourself Options
Get expert help in evaluating your outsourcing options when your internal knowledge is limited.... |
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92. Encourage Your Staff to Find Do-It-Yourself Improvements over Outsourcing
Let your people see what improvements they can come up with before you outsource. They will often see better choices.... |
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93. Keep Outsourcing Relationships Short Term
Long-term outsourcing can be hazardous to your profits. You may miss a chance to switch to a better outsourcer.... |
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94. Eliminate Capital Drains with Outsourcing
Use less capital and you can grow faster. Outsourcers often supply capital in serving you that you would need to add for yourself.... |
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95. Use Scenarios to Retest the Need for Outsourcing Before Signing a Contract
When circumstances change, outsourcing may be a bad idea. Scenarios can help you think through how circumstances might void the benefits of a long-term outsourcing contract.... |
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96. Step Up to Being the Best in the World Through Outsourcing
Sometimes outsourcing is a great way to improve performance to world class levels.... |
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97. Add Unique Capabilities with Outsourcing
Most organizations are too small to attract and retain rare specialists. By outsourcing, such organizations can access such valuable skills.... |
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98. Avoid Incorrect Methods of Identifying Outsourcing Choices
Outsourcing can be very helpful if you pick the right areas to look and locate the best suppliers. Otherwise, you make things worse by spending time on outsourcing.... |
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99. Purchase Outsourcing That Advances Your Most Important Tasks
Outsourcing is often seen primarily as a cost-reduction method. But outsourcing is often more valuable as an effectiveness enhancement.... |
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100. Use Outsourcing to Learn How to Do-It-Yourself
Outsourcing can be a tactical decision to gain strategic advantages, such as when you need to learn how to do something.... |
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101. Take Out Insurance: Check Your Cost-Reducing Solutions with Outsourcing
Many people stop when they think they've found a cheaper way to do things. But their "great" solution may not match what an outsourcer can do better at lower cost.... |
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102. Add Desirable Do-It-Yourself Features to Lower Costs and Add Customers
Everyone has had the experience of being waited on by a ham-handed person who made things worse. At such moments, most people have yearned to do it themselves.... |
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103. To Eliminate Harmful Costs Ask Beneficiaries, Customers, Users How to Avoid Accidents
Those who design offerings often have tunnel vision concerning how the offerings can cause harm. But those with a fresh eye can deliver cost-slashing insights.... |
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104. Learning Beyond the Horizon
Curious people used to have to travel to find what's new. If they traveled to a remote locale, that made it difficult to find out about other new trends and practices. Bob Kudyba solved both problems by joining the land mine removal work of the United Nations to do good and by studying online to improve his skills in this demanding profession.... |
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105. Observe People Using Your Offerings to Reduce Costs
Many products and services are used in ways that are harmful to people, pets, and the environment. By observing what your offerings are employed for, you can find ways to avoid the harmful costs that result.... |
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106. Support Cost Reductions Through Simplification with Processes
Organized support for simplification through establishing processes is more effective than simply ordering simplification.... |
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107. To Eliminate Harmful Costs Help the Unskilled Avoid Accidents
Costs don't end when you sell an offering. Those who use the offering incur costs that need to be avoided also. Accidents are often the most harmful and expensive of such costs.... |
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108. Simulate Accidents to Create Self-Education in Avoiding Accidents
Help customers eliminate accidents and you'll reduce costs that retard acceptance of your offerings. Simulating accidents is a good way to help customers educate themselves in this regard.... |
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109. Challenge Your Organization to Do More After You've Simplified As Much As You Think You Can
People quickly run out of simplification ideas in looking for cost reductions. But when they return to the task afresh, they find many more opportunities.... |
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110. Achieve the Lowest Costs -- Simplify Simplification
What's better than simplification? Simplification that takes less time and effort is the answer to that question.... |
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111. To Lower Costs Through Simplification, Have a More Exciting Purpose
Inspiration is valuable in reducing costs. With an exciting purpose, better ideas will be developed and implemented.... |
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112. Simplify Each Business Model Step for Customers, Users, and Beneficiaries
Even a simple, effective business model can be made even simpler by taking each step that customers, users, and beneficiaries go through and making each step even simpler.... |
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113. Extract the Annoyance and Add Enjoyment to Delight Customers and Gain More Profit
As important as simplification is, sometimes steps cannot be avoided. But required steps can be made more palatable as part of an improved, more profitable business model.... |
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114. Create More Profitable Business Models by Determining the Needs of Beneficiaries, Customers,
Most business models deliver the wrong benefits. Correct that misperception, and you will can have a strong foundation for a more profitable business model.... |
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115. For a More Profitable Business Model Focus on Those You Can Serve Well While Using Few Resources
Rather than try to serve everyone, it works better and is more profitable to emphasize those who you can serve the most effectively with the least resources.... |
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116. Customize to Simplify, Reduce Costs, and Be More Effective: Turn Ruby Slippers into Traveling Shoes
Most people think of custom offerings as being more expensive to make and deliver. Today, the opposite is usually true. As a result, you can be more satisfying to customers while also reducing costs.... |
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117. For a More Profitable Business Model Add Complementary Partners for Achieving a Perfect Result
Try to do everything that customers, users, and beneficiaries need and you'll have costs that are too high and you'll also make more mistakes than are necessary. Instead, seek partners who can improve performance and reduce costs.... |
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118. Make It Simple To Grow Profits Faster
Making it simple and satisfying isn't so simple. This article explores the leadership and management challenges.... |
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119. To Make Great Cost Reductions Start with a Global Perspective
By only looking at your home country, you'll miss most of the good opportunities to eliminate unnecessary costs.... |
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120. Eliminate Mistakes and Delays and See What Else You Can Eliminate
Speeding up action often reveals opportunities to save money.... |
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121. Go from Thought Experiments to Testing Strategies for Exponential Growth
Most strategies cannot be implemented. By starting with thought experiments, you can improve the odds but tests are still needed to confirm the validity of a strategy.... |
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122. Simplify, Simplify Again, and Simplify Some More for Your Customers
Complications add cost, create delays, annoy customers, and open the door to errors. Leaders and managers need to focus their organizations on operating as simply and directly as possible.... |
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123. Create a One-Step Solution for Purchasing Your Offering
Make buying what you offer simple, and many more people will buy. This article explores lessons for leaders and managers.... |
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124. Make It Automatic: Eliminate the Need for Solutions
Thoughtful organizations should find ways to please customers automatically. This article looks at lessons that leaders and managers can apply for this purpose.... |
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125. Cancel Delays that Harm Customers to Create More Profitable Growth
Most businesses operate for their convenience, rather than for the convenience of the customer. This article explores the importance of changing that focus.... |
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126. To Earn More, Create a One-Step Solution for Providing Your Offering
Providing for customers needs to be simple. This article explores why and what the implications are for leaders and managers.... |
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127. Blow Away Movable Barriers to Rapid Profit Growth
The best ways to grow profits are often barred. The wise leader realizes that such barriers need to be removed. This article describes why this is an important perspective.... |
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128. Build Your Business Model to Expand the Market Faster
Insights into cost reduction often come from market development. You also need to incorporate those insights into your business model in order to gain the most cost reduction.... |
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129. Establish New Brands That Have Emerging Market Authenticity
Consumer products companies have a massive opportunity to explore emerging markets as the source for authenticity that fascinates consumers. This article explores this opportunity.... |
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130. Expand Breakthrough Solution Capacity Among Your Stakeholders
The people outside of your organization can make bigger cost reductions for you than your organization can. How can you gain more cost-reduction help from outside your organization?... |
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131. Step Up to Serve Customers as They Become More Affluent and Educated
Global cost reductions often come from serving those in underdeveloped countries as they emerge into the money-based economy to buy and use global offerings.... |
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132. |