The 30% rule

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Stan

What I’m going to describe to you is a principle of business strategy, planning and management that will help your organization for many years to come.  It’s not a tool that you can implement today and see the effect tomorrow.  It takes time to design and install. Once enacted, it takes time to produce the results you’ll benefit from.  And it takes discipline to maintain through the sine wave of business cycles.  The rule begins with a few assumptions.  If you agree with the assumptions, you’ll immediately understand why the “30% rule” is advantageous.

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Corporate politics…the universal excuse

Posted on November 27, 2011 by Stan

Sitting at lunch with Steve, we took stock of how our lives have unfolded since we worked together in 1983-1987.  At that time, Steve was a product engineer for TRW LSI Products division and I was heading up manufacturing.  We made (at the time) the most advanced large scale integrated circuits on the planet.

It was good to reconnect with Steve.  I had admired him during our work together for a few reasons.  He never got emotionally flustered when everyone around him seemed to be.  He stayed focused on solving the problems.  And he never played corporate politics.

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The Dilbert Dipstick

Posted on November 20, 2011 by Stan

“Dear Stan,

Our organization, like many others, is experiencing very difficult economic challenges.  So far we’ve been able to not let anyone go, but money is tight and we’re all trying to do more with a lower budget.  We don’t know how much worse it’s going to get.  As a board member, I’m thinking it would be useful to survey our staff, to see how they’re feeling about the company’s mission, get their view of our capacity constraints and assess their readiness for changes in our organizational structure.  What do you think about the survey approach for this purpose?

Signed,

Without Clues”

Dear Clueless,

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You failed. So what?

Posted on November 13, 2011 by Stan

David asked, “Stan can you spend a few more minutes with me here on the phone?” after our joint telecon had ended with his business partner.

David and Jed had formed their company about seventeen years ago.  It had grown steadily into one of the best known brands in its market, reaching revenue of $15 million annually.  Then its business slid in 2007.  Currently, the company is producing revenue at less than half the rate two years ago.

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