newsletter archive.

(Previously published under the title Extreme Profits
under ISSN 1925-8941)

Mary Colak Mary Colak

Rational decision making, decision audits

With a plethora of books, videos, podcasts, TED and similar talks, seminars, coaching sessions, and other services, why are leaders' decisions still not moving more organizations to success? McKinsey & Company reports that leadership development is consistently less than desired - in a 2016 survey of 510 executives, only 11 percent said that their leadership development programs achieve and sustain the desired results.

Read More
Mary Colak Mary Colak

The devil is in the details, big data to the rescue

Big data, that "large volume of data - both structured and unstructured - that inundates a business on a day-to-day basis" is a hot topic these days.

Even though the "information explosion" actually started 70 years ago, an increasing volume of online content has created a sudden rush for businesses looking to big data as the next money maker. In fact, the big data industry is expected to grow from $10.2 billion (US dollars) in 2013 to $54.3 billion by 2017.

Read More
Mary Colak Mary Colak

How we work, top-down mapping

Mapping is an excellent way of "seeing" a process and determining where improvements are needed. But did you know that mapping is also an excellent way to improve jobs?

Read More
Mary Colak Mary Colak

Meeting customer expectations, when to re-design

If you wanted to design a new product or service, how would you start? Would you pull out your sketch pad? Or your laptop? Or some other drawing instrument? Would you talk to your employees or managers? While all of these actions seem reasonable, there is an important first step-identifying what your customers want.

Read More