There is one principle of our democratic republic that has been betrayed. It is the principle of compromise. When compromise becomes a forbidden word, a sign of disloyalty to a party or particular interest group, achieving the consensus necessary to govern becomes impossible. Those who reject compromise and reason in favor of rigid adherence to party dogmatism are the American equivalent of radical Islam.
Read MoreThe child like and pseudo religious belief that the free market will, by itself, right all wrongs in time, a belief adhered to by Alan Greenspan and other groupies of Ayn Rand, is at the heart of our financial crisis and the crisis of capitalism. This Greek tragedy was played out at Enron, Lehman Brothers, and now Goldman Sachs and BP. The question is whether corporate executives are capable of adhering to principled behavior in the absence of punishment of significant severity to balance out the significance of potential rewards for unprincipled behavior.
Read MoreThere are times when intelligence, analytic ability, is far less important than urgency and empathy. It is the difference between leadership in combat and leadership in a court room or academic setting.
Read MoreIt appears clear now that the Deepwater Horizon, the Transocean drilling rig under contract with BP, suffered from poorly designed decision processes.
Read MoreOne of the core ideas of Lean Management is the elimination of waste. This usually means eliminating unnecessary tasks, motions, inventory, rework, etc. However, the new challenge for lean management is to improve the efficiency...
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