Guy Kawasaki asks….and he shall receive
Archive for March, 2006
Its stuff like this that makes the internet so wonderful.
http://www.geocities.com/chefgate/ÂÂ
So how do you expand capacity when the need arises?
Well apparently:
1) Forecast future demand…(Sounds easy)
2) Devote energy toward obtaining good, quality information (naturally)
3) Plan for an intermediate or transitioning period
4) Perform an economic justification and choice selection (NPV, Capacity capability etc)
5) Static analysis is rarely helpful. That is, basing a decision on purely financial metrics just isn’t enough. You have to consider a raft of other variables, like organisational culture, strategy and market position.
The case was how New Balance which maintains operations in Maine and Lawrence, whilst Adidas and Nike offshore all manufacturing. New Balance remains competitive, and actually increases market share, purely on position and the fact that they dont get into the sweatshop debate. Which I find weird. The question that pops into my head is what sort of protectionism is the US government giving New Balance to sustain operations in the US, and then, how many people could have been lifted from poverty if this protectionism didn’t exist…
08
Mar
The meeting epidemic
From Thinking Smarter:
“The Wall Street Journal yesterday (3-6) has an article on how corporations are trying to change meetings to make them more productive. Probably my favorite quote in the article was “A lot of people come to us and say I have no idea why I’m in those meetings”. So, in many cases, people are attending meetings where they can’t add value, don’t take value away and aren’t willing to just leave if they can’t add value or learn something.” [via]
A great equation came out of tonight’s Managing Processes lecture referring to the new product development cycle:
Time In the Market = Opportunity Window – Time To Market
So true. It also aligns with the Guy Kawasaki Mantra
“Dont worry, be crappy”
Getting stuff out the door and into the market is infinitesimally more valuable than long winded sequential / waterfall development cycles.
