All Features
Harry Hertz
On two prior occasions, I was motivated by additions to the Oxford English Dictionary and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary to create and update the Hertz Lexicon of Creative Leadership Terminology.
As luck would have it, in late 2022, Merriam-Webster added another 370 words to its dictionary. With…
Henning Piezunka, Oliver Schilke
Top management teams often find it difficult to agree on a course of action for their firm. Whenever we participate in firm strategy retreats, we see managers grappling with collective decisions. After weeding out inferior strategic alternatives, they are left with a set of promising but mutually…
Stephanie Ojeda
Quality management and environmental health and safety (EHS) have traditionally existed as siloed processes and roles in most organizations. It’s easy to see why, given the forces that have shaped quality and safety during their history.
Modern quality management was born from the post-World War…
Robert Mazzucka
Manufacturing has always had an element of matchmaking at its core. As a supplier, you want to be found quickly by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), prime contractors, and tier one and two suppliers. Buyers want to find companies capable of doing their work.
The ability of manufacturers and…
Gleb Tsipursky
Angry and dismayed Amazon employees are pushing back against the recently announced return to office policy by the Amazon leadership. Amazon’s policy joins other high-profile companies such as Disney, Starbucks, Tesla, Google, and others that are forcing employees back to the office.
Some are…
Henry Mintzberg
Management is a practice, not a profession or science. To appreciate the true complexities of managing, we have to understand its intrinsic conundrums.
Management is learned largely through experience—which means that it’s primarily a craft—although some of the best managers make considerable use…
Theodore Kinni
Voluntary disclosures, like those issued by managers in quarterly earnings calls, inform investment decisions across financial markets. They can buoy—or puncture—corporate valuations and stock prices. But it isn’t always clear what effects result from the policies governing these disclosures,…
Daniel Marzullo
Are you looking to drive innovation and growth within your company? Creating an entrepreneurial learning environment may be the answer you’re looking for. However, implementing this culture can be challenging for any leadership team.
This article includes a guide with some of the steps you can…
ResumeBuilder
A recent study found that tech and media workers are putting in more weekend hours than ever as mass layoffs lead to heavier workloads and remote work blurs the line between working and living. To find out just how many people are being pressured to work during their days off, in March 2023,…
Joshua Zable
Optimizing inventory, like most problem-solving, requires a thoughtful process and a few steps. Naturally, the easiest way to prevent back orders is to always have a lot of inventory on hand. There are ramifications for not optimizing inventory, though. Overproducing and maintaining high inventory…
Leslie Bloom
Our country has proven to be a place where workers who are skilled with their hands (and have a head for all things mechanical) can flourish, even during difficult times.
The value of resilience has been etched into the soul of our most famous products: • Thomas Edison’s phonograph in 1877 • Henry…
Rip Stauffer
A couple of years ago, my wife decided to surprise me by taking me over to our local Tesla dealership so I could test drive a Tesla. We put a deposit down to hold our place in line, and two months later took delivery of a Model Y Performance. I loved everything about it, took everyone who asked…
Matt Fieldman, Blair Milo
I’m ashamed to say that I’ve only been to Indiana once—for a fun weekend in Indianapolis. I will say that its Children’s Museum is truly world-class, and it was great going duckpin bowling for the first time.
Though I haven’t taken full advantage of Indiana as a tourist destination (yet!), as a…
Bob Ferrone
Quality and sustainability are two critical aspects of modern business operations that are closely intertwined. While quality refers to the level of excellence or standard achieved in a product or service, sustainability relates to the ability to maintain or improve that quality over time while…
Etienne Nichols
I have a bold opinion: The corrective and preventive action (CAPA) process is the second-most important component of your quality management system (QMS). (If you want to know what I think is No. 1, shoot me an email.) As you build medical devices, a well-defined CAPA program provides a framework…
Gleb Tsipursky
A recent study at the University of Birmingham, which surveyed 597 managers, has shed light on how managers’ attitudes toward the hybrid work model have changed as a result of the pandemic. Surprisingly, the findings reveal an increasingly positive outlook on the benefits of remote and flexible…
Bryan Christiansen
People often use the terms maintenance and reliability interchangeably. However, they are two separate concepts. Although there is some overlap, their scope and focus are quite different.
Understanding those differences, as well as how each concept affects the other, is a necessary step for…
Megan Wallin-Kerth
“The best is the enemy of good,” wrote French historian and philosopher Voltaire. Today that quote seems more appropriate than ever. A longitudinal meta-analysis study from 1989 to 2016 looking at data from more than 41,000 students across the U.S., U.K., and Canada revealed that perfectionism has…
Bruce Hamilton
There’s a certain irony in the recent attention paid to the application of robots on the shop floor. On a couple occasions in the past year, I’ve heard manufacturing colleagues talk about the benefits of deploying robots to handle material conveyance. “Better,” they say, “to redeploy humans to…
Jennifer V. Miller
Being a leader is tough enough, but it’s downright demoralizing if you feel like you’re swimming upstream against the currents of a toxic workplace. If you want to stand apart and make a positive difference at work, it might seem like you’re living in this weird, misshapen house where some of the…
Harry Hertz
The factors affecting employee engagement have changed dramatically during the last few years. Considering off-site employees returning to the work site, baby boomers retiring in growing numbers, and the increasingly younger workforce, I was interested in exploring what the key drivers of employee…
Narayan Pant
Sami, a manager in a multinational company, had to make a difficult decision concerning an underperforming direct report. To complicate the situation further, the subordinate in question was a contender for Sami’s job and friendly with Sami’s current boss. Sami’s boss had seemingly left all…
Steve Calechman
Sustainability is a hot topic. Companies throw around their carbon or recycling initiatives, and competing executives feel the need to follow suit. But aside from the external pressure, there are also bottom-line benefits. Becoming more efficient can save money. Creating a new product might make…
Megan Wallin-Kerth
At last year’s Masters Summit, MasterControl’s chief strategy officer, Matt Lowe, chatted with Quality Digest’s CEO, Jeff Dewar, about the challenges and rewards of his work and the many titles he’s held over the years. Lowe, who has worked at MasterControl for more than 15 years, has a lot to say…
Akhilesh Gulati
Efrain entered his office on a bright, sunny morning, a smile on his face. He poured a cup of coffee and took his seat behind his desk. From his vantage point, he could see his staff walking in and settling down to the day’s work.
His executive placement firm had risen from a downswing and was…
