All Features
Martin Cottam
It’s tempting to attribute the increased profile now given to occupational health and safety (OH&S) to the Covid-19 pandemic. But while in many organizations the pandemic shone a spotlight on OH&S management, there are other issues that will keep OH&S at the fore throughout the next…
Alonso Diaz, Maria DiBari
The pandemic has sparked a shift in many business models around the world, especially in the MedTech industry. The old manual labor model has sharply transitioned into businesses leaning on digitization and remote working models to cut costs, innovate, discover new drugs, enhance clinical trials,…
Sharon McDougall
Although the coronavirus pandemic changed the working lives of employees around the world, closing workplaces and transforming dining tables into professional workstations, it also gave employees a chance to time out and recharge from the hustle and bustle associated with office working.
The…
Tami Trout
It’s time for a digital workforce transformation. Modern manufacturers must juggle evolving expectations for workplace flexibility, pay, career paths, and benefits. They also have to take into account the changes in the ways employees learn and access information. The most obvious example of this…
Matthew M. Lowe
Change of any kind often requires a catalyst. This is particularly true in a business environment where the rule of thumb is to do things the way they’ve always been done. And when you’re working in a regulated industry, processes tend to get more locked in because compliance is at stake.
That was…
Ken Chapman, Tony Orlowski
‘Turning to the men around him, Dodge shouted, ‘Up this way!’ but the men ignored him. Dodge later stated that someone responded, ‘To hell with that, I’m getting out of here.’ The team raced past Dodge up the slope toward the ridge. Four men reached the crest, but only two, Bob Sallee and Walter…
Gleb Tsipursky
With 74 percent of U.S. companies transitioning to a permanent hybrid work model, leaders are turning their attention to measuring the success of their return-to-office and hybrid work policies. That’s because, in the United States, there’s only one traditional office-centric model of M–F/9–5, but…
Bryan Christiansen
With so many assets and projects to think about, facilities management is a huge and complex field. It’s easy to lose focus.
Luckily, there’s a simple and easy fix for this problem—facility management KPIs (key performance indicators). Outlining and tracking the most important ones will help you…
Winnie Jiang, Claire Harbour, Antoine Tirard
A simultaneous surge of mass layoffs and unprecedented job growth in the United States has created a confusing, complex climate for companies. In such a paradoxical environment, organizations should seize the opportunity to retain talent instead of falling into a cycle of continuous turnover. By…
Rajas Sukthankar
Digitalization is transforming all areas of life as well as existing business models. It’s enabling the manufacturing industry to implement its product ideas by taking advantage of technology trends such as generative design and intelligent models. Production has become more innovative through…
Kate Zabriskie
She has three supervisors, and he has six. She works on five projects, and he has four. Although their paths rarely cross, they have something in common—they’re both part of a matrix organization.
Unlike a traditional workplace where employees have one boss and a chain of supervision, matrix…
Harry Hertz
On two prior occasions, I was motivated by additions to the Oxford English Dictionary and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary to create and update the Hertz Lexicon of Creative Leadership Terminology.
As luck would have it, in late 2022, Merriam-Webster added another 370 words to its dictionary. With…
Henning Piezunka, Oliver Schilke
Top management teams often find it difficult to agree on a course of action for their firm. Whenever we participate in firm strategy retreats, we see managers grappling with collective decisions. After weeding out inferior strategic alternatives, they are left with a set of promising but mutually…
Stephanie Ojeda
Quality management and environmental health and safety (EHS) have traditionally existed as siloed processes and roles in most organizations. It’s easy to see why, given the forces that have shaped quality and safety during their history.
Modern quality management was born from the post-World War…
Robert Mazzucka
Manufacturing has always had an element of matchmaking at its core. As a supplier, you want to be found quickly by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), prime contractors, and tier one and two suppliers. Buyers want to find companies capable of doing their work.
The ability of manufacturers and…
Gleb Tsipursky
Angry and dismayed Amazon employees are pushing back against the recently announced return to office policy by the Amazon leadership. Amazon’s policy joins other high-profile companies such as Disney, Starbucks, Tesla, Google, and others that are forcing employees back to the office.
Some are…
Henry Mintzberg
Management is a practice, not a profession or science. To appreciate the true complexities of managing, we have to understand its intrinsic conundrums.
Management is learned largely through experience—which means that it’s primarily a craft—although some of the best managers make considerable use…
Theodore Kinni
Voluntary disclosures, like those issued by managers in quarterly earnings calls, inform investment decisions across financial markets. They can buoy—or puncture—corporate valuations and stock prices. But it isn’t always clear what effects result from the policies governing these disclosures,…
Daniel Marzullo
Are you looking to drive innovation and growth within your company? Creating an entrepreneurial learning environment may be the answer you’re looking for. However, implementing this culture can be challenging for any leadership team.
This article includes a guide with some of the steps you can…
ResumeBuilder
A recent study found that tech and media workers are putting in more weekend hours than ever as mass layoffs lead to heavier workloads and remote work blurs the line between working and living. To find out just how many people are being pressured to work during their days off, in March 2023,…
Joshua Zable
Optimizing inventory, like most problem-solving, requires a thoughtful process and a few steps. Naturally, the easiest way to prevent back orders is to always have a lot of inventory on hand. There are ramifications for not optimizing inventory, though. Overproducing and maintaining high inventory…
Leslie Bloom
Our country has proven to be a place where workers who are skilled with their hands (and have a head for all things mechanical) can flourish, even during difficult times.
The value of resilience has been etched into the soul of our most famous products: • Thomas Edison’s phonograph in 1877 • Henry…
Rip Stauffer
A couple of years ago, my wife decided to surprise me by taking me over to our local Tesla dealership so I could test drive a Tesla. We put a deposit down to hold our place in line, and two months later took delivery of a Model Y Performance. I loved everything about it, took everyone who asked…
Matt Fieldman, Blair Milo
I’m ashamed to say that I’ve only been to Indiana once—for a fun weekend in Indianapolis. I will say that its Children’s Museum is truly world-class, and it was great going duckpin bowling for the first time.
Though I haven’t taken full advantage of Indiana as a tourist destination (yet!), as a…
Bob Ferrone
Quality and sustainability are two critical aspects of modern business operations that are closely intertwined. While quality refers to the level of excellence or standard achieved in a product or service, sustainability relates to the ability to maintain or improve that quality over time while…
