Wise designers of offerings will go to great lengths to make it hard for people to do the wrong thing. Most vehicles with automatic transmissions won't start if they are not in Park or Neutral. That design helps avoid having the vehicle take off unexpectedly.
But even the wisest designer can be outfoxed by people who are confused. A crucial piece of a lawn mower that had to be assembled...
A major U.S. television network decided to run local celebrity events to encourage viewing of its flagging soap operas (daytime serial dramas). Normally, hundreds of people will show up at such free events. Fans will meet new actors and actresses in the series. Based on these personal contacts, fans will watch a given soap opera more often and encourage their friends to do the same.
Since...
One of the great tragedies of our time is the scourge of AIDS. In some places, most of the parents have died, leaving legions of orphans with few to care for them.
Because the disease is often undetected until the later stages, many infected people unwittingly infect others. In too many countries, the cost of medicine to delay or treat symptoms is beyond what most people can afford. People...
When the major automobile companies come up with an exciting concept vehicle, they keep it under wraps for as long as possible. For this purpose, they have many indoor facilities where various aspects of the vehicle can be tested in private.
As an example, you can tell a lot about the aerodynamics and potential fuel efficiency of a vehicle by putting it in a wind tunnel. You can also stage...
Leaders are often proud of their ability to make tough decisions and drive forward despite difficulties. However, that courage is usually a dangerous attribute when it comes to making test of new ways to expand volume by 20 times.
Why? Many great improvements emerge from trial-and-error experimentation. The priorities that any leader establishes for expanding to twenty times volume will,...
Have you ever watched a figure skater skim lightly across the ice making great speed with lots of grace? Imagine how the results would be different if you placed a lot of potholes in the ice and turned off the lights. Unfortunately, that's a good analogy for the way that many company managements try to expand sales and profits.
In assessing the potential for profit growth, a market...
Nobody in his right mind tries to cross a broad ditch in two steps. --Carl von Clausewitz
Have you ever seen a figure skater gracefully glide across a gorgeous rink of ice? It's sheer poetry in motion.
Add potholes in the ice and turn off the lights, and you would see a vastly different picture through thermal imagining glasses. There would be cautious movements followed by pratfalls....
A good place to start with developing a strategy is by imagining that the 20 times expansion of consumption, practices, or usage of your offerings has already occurred because obstacles to that expansion have been eliminated. Imagine also that everyone is very pleased that this expansion has taken place. Here are eight questions to help you gain insights from this musing:
1. Why is everyone...
Most cars operate with two front windshield wipers. Those devices are designed to overlap in the middle and alternate in cleaning up water flung off by the power of the other wiper. A single wiper blade, by comparison, is usually not as efficient because the blade has to travel at higher speed to wipe the same surface area. Unless you keep a fresh wiper blade, you will also have a streaky wipe...
Knowing that obstacles to profit growth exist for all organizations is one thing. Eliminating those obstacles is a more difficult activity.
Let's look at some simple steps you can take to identify superior ways to eliminate the most important obstacles. First, identify your three most expensive profit growth obstacles to avoid. You are probably ignorant about what those obstacles are now....
