U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released Q1 productivity and cost numbers today. U.S. labor productivity was up 1.6% driven by a 3.1% increase in output and a 1.4% increase in hours worked. Manufacturing sector productivity was up 6.3% driven by increases in output and hours worked of 9.7% and 3.3%, respectively. Unit labor costs in […]
Many aisles in stores are becoming a blur of products, none standing out from the others. Take a look for yourself. If you’re spending all your energy trying to figure out how to differentiate yourself on the store shelf to win the “first moment of truth”, you’re probably losing. In 2005, P&G’s A.G. Lafley introduced […]
Most businesses have been hit hard over the last few years by a very difficult economic climate. In 2007, just over 25,000 businesses filed for bankruptcy. That number soared to over 58,000 each of the last two years. In the face of difficult times for business, it’s refreshing to find opportunities for growth. The Greater […]
Getting great ideas to market is a very difficult job. Whether it’s a new product, a unique service for consumers, a better way to engage shoppers or even a simple change in the package, the path from idea to the store shelf is fraught with peril. You can read HBR’s article about Innovations Hidden Enemies […]
As commodity and other costs continue their upward trend, what can businesses do to maintain margins? Typically, they turn to pricing strategies and traditional cost reduction methods. But pricing can be a surefire way to lose consumers (and market share) and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to squeeze out productivity from traditional sources. As most business […]
UW’s Chancellor Biddy Martin spoke this morning at a Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce event and explained her rationale for pursuing a change in status to a public authority. She did a great job of laying out the benefits and encouraged debate based on the merits of the strategy vs. the politics surrounding it. Here […]
I’ve now had several people suggest I write a series of white papers and/or a book about how changing the design of a business is the best way to get sustainably better growth and productivity results. The book would cover the Value Creation FunnelTM and the five levers of business design (strategy, process, organization, technology, […]
Unions, like businesses, offer their members a value proposition: a set of promises to deliver benefits of value at a price. But instead of redesigning their value proposition to stay relevant, unions take their fight for relevancy to the political arena in Wisconsin and across the nation. In the long term, just as every business […]
These charts, one from Business Insider and the other from ThinkWay, would lead you to conclude getting back to pre-recession economic health will take quite some time yet.
Good cartoon and post by Tom Fishburne. It can be found in its entirety here. Most businesses have learned they need to put teeth in the upfront screening of new ideas because it becomes more expensive to kill ideas later down the funnel. But there are numerous sharp “teeth” all along the innovation funnel where […]
