The Productivity Guru

Yes, this post will be primarily a copy of a Harvard Business Review (HBR) article.  The article is the point of this blog. Over my decades in consulting, one of the major requirements in our niche was to insure that our clients received the savings we had forecast that they would achieve in a mutually agreeable manner.  In the very beginning, when I started back in 1974, computers were not easily available or accessible as they had to be huge room-size machines and many clients did not even have them.  So we used adding machines with paper tape to the shortly thereafter personal hand held-calculators.  Personal computers starting with the very first Apple or Radio Shack model proved far superior but had minimal calculating capacity.  None were perfect and because of this limitation, a straight line average over a years period was typically used to compare history to current and prove savings had been achieved. ...

 Do you procrastinate?  I know I do it more often than I would like to admit.  We all have a tendency to procrastinate.  Very recently, I saw this photo in a LinkedIn post.   To be legally clear, this is a billboard type advertisement by Nike. They are very famous for their "Just Do It" slogan.   Now they have two and they have combined both into an even more powerful expression. The definition of "procrastinate" from the Oxford dictionary is: "to delay or postpone action; put off doing something."  It is like the old colloquialism "Manana."  Mañana is tomorrow in Spanish.  We all do it to one degree or another.   From a business perspective, to procrastinate is a terrible situation if you or a great many people in a company or organization do it.  If it occurs too often or too much, then what does it do:  it has the probability to DELAY MOST EVERYTHING.  Is that what you really want?  No, I doubt it.  It very we...

  Recently I have been doing a great deal of research for a Zoom Class that I am doing relative to the CEO role.  Having reviewed literally hundreds of articles, I came up with the following list of Skills and Attributes that all CEO's should theoretically have.  This list came from me and the authors of the various articles I have read.  The compiled list of 23 traits or skills, in no particular order, are: 1)    Active Listening 2)    Empathy 3)    The ability to share messages and make complex ideas understandable to everyone (storytelling). 4)    Strategic Thinking Skills 5)    Creativity 6)    The ability to inspire and convince others. 7)    Flexibility 8)    The ability to turn information into action. 9)    Project planning 10)  System development 11)  The ability to assess an employee's strengths and weaknesses. 12) ...

Recently, I have had quite a few people ask me in the course of small talk, what exactly is this "supply chain" talk they are hearing about again regarding th e Delta variant of the Covid-19 virus.    They've heard the horror stories on     toilet paper or disinfectants in many stores.  Now we've heard of hoarders over-stocking their own homes or selling these products on the street corner at inflated prices.  Many people ask how can this be; what causes this; we are in the 21st century; etc. I remember the start of this current problem back in the 1960s (perhaps earlier) with the start of such programs as MRP (Materials Requirement Planning), but certainly not limited to this program and parlaying further into programs and schemes like J-I-T (Just-In-Time).  Bottom line and perhaps over-simplified, these programs were and are intended to speed up production and cut costs.  There are newer and greater programs like Le...

It was decades ago that I was in grammar school.  Things were significantly different then than they are now.  Of course computers and smart phones were not even in our line of sight as they are today.  I am not questioning the digital revolution one whit, as I believe it is integral to our growth as people, our growth as an economy as well as our growth globally. But I am dismayed by our departure from grammar school years of some of the basics that we used to go through.  I remember one class in particular in 7th grade (about age 12) called Home Economics, in which both the boys and girls had to take.  It was a school year long class and included cooking, sewing, electricity and plumbing.  We all had to learn how to cook some basic foods and as part of the class had to cook a hot lunch for ourselves.  And I am not talking about just opening a can or defrosting someth...

August 7th was indeed my latest post.  That was about 3 weeks ago.  In the interim I have had some serious surgery.  Hip replacement surgery of my right hip was completed on August 9th.  All is good now and I am in recuperation.  I had my first review with my surgeon this past Monday and he was very pleased.  So, probably this Monday, August 30th, we will be starting up again.  I just wanted to let you all know why there had been a delay and so yes, I am guilty as charged of taking a short break.   Have a great weekend. Bob  August 27, 2021

We keep reading of the lack of people in the fast food industry.  This is due to the Covid pandemic, the pay rate and other external factors.  Robotics has been hugely influential in the automotive and other manufacturing industries for some time.  We have even seen it enter the serving industry with robots delivering food in restaurants and hospitals.  But now meet  Flippy , Flippy is the robotic french fry cooker that works 23 hours a day, 7 days a week without a bathroom or meal break.  It gets a one hour maintenance and clean-up break every day.  It just works and works and works.  This Flippy works at a White Castle fast food restaurant in Merrillville, Indiana.  I remember White Castle's from the early 1950's, long before McDonalds ever reared its Goliath like head.  A great article in today's Wall Street Journal on Flippy by Christopher Mims is excellent.  Robotics, Autom...