The ancient industry of glass blowing in Venice is threatened by a grim economy, changing taste, and cheaper alternatives. A recent article from The Economist concentrates on the famous island of Murano and the challenges facing the centuries-old tradition. One glass-blowing studio in Murano has found success by working with fine artists to produce rare […]
Connecting in a Network? Its usefulness is all about affinity.
Is all that effort to make connections in a network a waste of time? Network theory has something to teach us about all that. A lot of energy is consumed every day by people, groups, and organizations who frantically try to make as many connections as possible. They do so for a reason: to increase […]
Everything Is Connected: A New Economics
After a hiatus over the New Year and preparations for a big move West to British Columbia, the Intelligent Management Blog is back! What do a Theatre Director, an entrepreneur and an organizational scientist have in common? When it comes to creating a New Economics, a great deal. Last weekend in Los Angeles, I had […]
A Mining Company With A Heart of Gold
In a recent article by Dawn Cranfield in The Guardian Express entitled A Mining Company with a Heart of Gold – Comstock Mining, Inc., the author draws attention to what makes Comstock a very different kind of mining company: “Comstock Mining, Inc. had their first pour of gold and silver doré, unrefined gold bullion, on […]
Management and Control: a New Perspective
The traditional model for control is the hierarchical model, and the reason for its existence is because personal capacity for control is limited, and adding hierarchical levels increases personal capacity of control. On the other hand, if we want to increase the capacity to listen to the customers and the suppliers, in order to satisfy […]
Intelligent Emotions the Statistical Way
All processes, human and non, whether we are aware of it or not, are affected by variation. If we want to be able to predict the outcome of our processes, i.e. manage them, we need to understand, measure and manage the variation in those processes. The alternative is to manage by the seat of our […]
CEO Explains Systemic Methodology Behind Responsible Mining Success
How did a mining company succeed where others had failed in reviving mining responsibly in a historic mining district? Comstock Mining CEO explains in an interview how Intelligent Management’s systemic Decalogue methodology has brought his company to mine successfully and in a responsible manner. This is an extract from an interview with Corrado De Gasperis […]
When 1 + 1 Doesn’t Equal 2: Understanding How Combined Efforts Affect Overall Performance
What happens when more than one person or more than one entity work together in the same direction? Is the result just the simple sum of their efforts? What happens when more than one person or more than one entity work together in the same direction? Is the result just the simple sum of their […]
Why Management Decisions Must Consider Variation
What is the guiding rule that should inspire any managerial decision? The job of Management is to work on the system and create a predictable environment; as Dr. Deming reminds us “the job of managers is to reduce variation”. Management and predictability A company is a complex system ruled by non-linear interactions that make it difficult […]
Variation and Processes
Everything we do in an organization can be considered as a process, and, whether we realize it or not, every process is affected by variation. We need to understand and manage this phenomenon of variation if we want to achieve the best results. Let’s look at the process of sales In our last post […]
