2015-May: Operational Excellence by Design eNewsletter

I wrote the first version of this article three years ago and have been updating it every year since. I have had a great many people remark to me that it has helped them a great deal (which is the point, I guess.) I have also had several people give me some new ideas and, of course, I have had time to rethink and revise what I had written. And with May thru June being the season for the year’s new graduates to be set free upon the marketplace, I believe revisits and republication of this article will become tradition.

I was watching the movie “The Pursuit of Happyness”, starring Will Smith over the weekend. The movie is the story of Christopher “Chris” Gardner who struggled to win a job as a broker at Dean Witter Reynolds while being homeless and taking care of his son. It is the story of determination, struggle, being the under-dog – looking into the abyss and being absolved.

In other words, the average CEO would be better off placing “pass” bets at the craps tables in Vegas, where the odds are 49.3%.