Hoshin kanri (HK), or strategy deployment, has been an integral part of the company management practices of some of the most successful Lean-practicing organizations. The purpose of this note is to give a very quick introduction to how it has been successfully used in small and medium-sized value streams to inject strategic meaning and tactical understanding to operational strategies and improveme
On December 22, 2017, President Donald J. Trump signed into law the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA). While many pundits focused on the bigger ticket items of the bill, there was a small provision tucked away in the 185-page document that promised to have outsized influence on the investment strategies of high-net-worth individuals, and others sitting on appreciated investments, throughout the
External corporate communications and the rapidly changing ways in which companies engage with their customers received a lot of attention between 2010 and 2020. With social media, online chats, blogs, vlogs, and much more, consumers gained unprecedented access to corporate decision-makers, celebrity spokespeople, endorsement-driven athletes—even the US president. Internal communications, through
This technical note outlines what an employer brand is, how it relates to a consumer brand, and why it matters. It allows students to be able to put their knowledge to the test by evaluating the attribute ratings among seven different top employer brands. Finally, they will have a better understanding of how to assess, build, and enhance a company's employer brand.
This technical note discusses competitive dynamics: the various and evolving actions and reactions of two firms engaged in a rivalrous relationship. By allowing us to analyze interactions at this dyadic level, the competitive dynamics perspective provides valuable insights into a firm's behavior in a variety of competitive situations and contexts.
Entrepreneurs strive to solve problems and create value through partnerships. Studying how they do that led to the hypothesis that "asking" played a critical role in the success of an entrepreneur. This note addresses studies of expert entrepreneurs and how they differ from novice entrepreneurs, including discussion on type, method, and frequency of asking, as well as effectual reasoning.
This technical note discusses how a high-potential start-up entrepreneur should use equity in building and growing a new venture. One of the most crucial things for entrepreneurs to understand is equity: Most high-growth ventures grow through equity partnerships, but most new ventures fail because relationships between founding partners and other equity partners become conflicted and impossible to
This technical note describes the problem-solving process known as A3 Thinking through the lens of an individual's weight-loss efforts. The story is easy to understand and shows how the A3 process can be integrated into one's personal life. The note details the A3 process steps of current condition, target condition, root-cause analysis, countermeasures, implementation, and standardize and sustain
This note describes how the behaviors of competitive buyers and sellers interact to determine market outcomes—the price at which a product is sold, and the quantity of a product that is exchanged. It begins by defining supply, demand, and market equilibrium. It then derives firms’ sup
This brief note provides a description of the A3 report, a classic problem-solving methodology associated with the Toyota Production System. A3 thinking may be used for many activities, including problem solving, proposal writing, and status reporting. The six elements of an A3 report are described briefly.
This technical note explains how to account for leases under Accounting Standards Codification 842. This new addition to US generally accepted accounting principles became effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2019. The note provides broad treatment for how a lessee will account for a short-term, operating, and financing lease, and how a lessor will account for short-term and sal
Articles published in academic journals are rich in research that can be invaluable for business management, operations, and strategy. But managers often consider the publications to be too theoretical and impractical. This note can help business practitioners how to approach academic articles and quickly extract relevant information they can apply in their decision-making to benefit their organiz
