Work-life balance issues bring out the optimist in some, the pessimist in others. For pessimists, the work-life balance concerns of employees will be undermined when a firm faces increased competition — and ‘improves’ its management practices in response to that competition. Examples of improved management practices include: the introduction of lean manufacturing techniques; better tracking […]
Read More… from Does Work/Life Balance Help or Hurt Productivity?
Seasonal depression is well-known and has traditionally been easy to recognize: difficulty concentrating, low levels of energy, etc. — all related to bleak winter weather conditions. So naturally, it follows that we assume the opposite in weather conditions leads to positive outcomes. Indeed, some previous studies have found this link to be true, linking good […]
The apparel industry (which includes clothing, footwear, accessories, etc.) is one of the world’s largest, due partly to the relatively low barriers to entry. According to Euromonitor International, there were more than 1,400 retail brands at the start of 2013. All of these brands are concerned about meeting growing demands and getting their collections out […]
Read More… from Fast Fashion Retailing – Transforming Operations Management
Does bad weather reduce productivity within factories and other workplaces? This is the question that the latest research from Marcelo Olivares of the Columbia Business School and Gérard Cachon and Santiago Gallino of Wharton addresses. The researchers used inventories and productivity statistics covering 10 years for 64 US automobile assembly plants, and matched them to […]
Read More… from Severe Weather: Moderating Its Impact on Productivity
In this White Paper, the author looks at how organizations can free up necessary resources to pursue their overall business strategies. Identifying the ‘waste’ and ‘complexity’ in a company can free up people and space needed to do so, calling this process becoming ‘Lean.’ As we Lean the business, says the author, enthusiasm is generated, […]
A report published in 2012, Value Creation in Listed European Family Firms, showed that listed European family businesses have created more value over the last decade than non-family concerns, achieving far higher prices on the stock exchange. Using a sample of 2,423 European listed companies monitored during the period 2001-2010, it took a much broader […]
Read More… from The Ties That Bind: How Family Businesses Create Value
Sooner or later, any engineer working on new technology or infrastructure will hear a familiar question from investors: Does it scale up? There are few axioms in business as simple and historically accepted as the idea that ‘big is better.’ Large-scale industrial agriculture is better — more efficient, more effective, cheaper — than the family […]
Read More… from Why Scaling Up Is No Longer the Only Strategy
