• Leadership for the Business Battlefield

    “Man down! Heat casualty! Candidate, get his temperature!  Now! Get a measurement! “Roger that, sir.  He’s hot, 104.” “Corpsman!  Quickly, we have a possible heat stroke here!” This emergency unfolded during a field exercise more than 20 years ago at Officer CandidateSchool at the United States Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia. We were training in full combat gear on a muggy, 95 degree day…

  • C.R.M.

     What do these three letters mean to you?  A quick poll of the people in the room proved the meaning to be quite elusive.  A nine year-old responded, “See are em? I don’t get it, you’re so weird.”  A five year-old pondered the question for all of two seconds and said, “huh…can I play Wii?” OK, I didn’t…

  • How ERP Can Help in Lean Implementation

    News reports over the last several months continue to paint a gloomy picture for today’s economy.  Rising material and labor costs, weak consumer spending, and the collapsing housing market are hammering businesses nationwide.  Many are looking for ways to re-engineer themselves in order to compensate for flattening growth.  To survive, one must do more with the resources they…

  • Apples, Oranges, and EDI

    In the October 2007 installment of “Synchronization”, I wrote an article which gave an overview of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and the benefits of using the technology. Savings in time and paperwork along with the ability to quickly send and receive information are some of the best reasons to embark on an EDI solution. However, the one thing that needs…