413 — Practical Striving

Bringing About a High Degree of Economic Justice

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In the 1930s, after a prolonged nonviolent struggle, Sweden and Norway “fired” the top 1 percent of people who set the direction for society and thereby created the basis for something different. When the 1 percent was in charge, both countries had a history of horrendous poverty as hundreds of thousands emigrated to avoid starvation. … Read more

Wall Street Analysts Have Outsourced Their Brains.

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There is a short-sighted methodology for calculating the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) on an investment. It causes some investors to focus on smaller and smaller wins. If something doesn’t pay off for years, the IRR is so unattractive that the addled investor will focus capital on shorter and shorter term wins. The other myopic … Read more

Throughput Accounting

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Throughput Accounting (TA) improves profit performance with better management decisions by using measurements that more closely reflect the effect of decisions on three critical monetary variables (throughput, investment (AKA inventory), and operating expense. It is thus part of the management accountants’ toolkit, ensuring efficiency where it matters as well as the overall effectiveness of the … Read more

The Decline of Manufacturing — A Chain Reaction

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“Once manufacturing is outsourced, process-engineering expertise can’t be maintained, since it depends on daily interactions with manufacturing. Without process-engineering capabilities, companies find it increasingly difficult to conduct advanced research on next-generation process technologies. Without the ability to develop such new processes, they find they can no longer develop new products. In the long term, then, … Read more

Where the Customer Base is Our Most Important Asset

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“Hi Scott, this is Steve.” Scott Steckley asked: “Steve Jobs?” “Yeah,” Jobs said. “I just wanted to apologize for your incredibly long wait. It’s really nobody’s fault. It’s just one of those things.” “Yeah, I understand.” Then Jobs explained that he expedited the repair of Steckley’s computer. “I also wanted to thank you for your … Read more

Three Types of People to Fire Immediately

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When confronted with any of the following three people—and you have found it impossible to change their ways, say goodbye. These people passive-aggressively block innovation from happening and will suck the energy out of any organization. 1. The Victims “I wanted a happy culture. So I fired all the unhappy people.” — A Successful CEO … Read more

The Lightest Material on Earth

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The material has been dubbed “ultralight metallic microlattice,” and according to a news release sent out by UC Irvine, it consists of 99.99% air thanks to its “microlattice” cellular architecture. It is so lightweight that the research team consisting of scientists at UC Irvine, HRL Laboratories and Caltech say in the peer-reviewed Nov. 18 issue … Read more