Author: Chet

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Toyota gets its mojo back

But unfortunately Jaguar, Mercedes, and oddly, Porsche do not.

Toyota took five of the 10 categories listed by CNN Money as Consumer Reports Top Car Picks:

  • Family sedan: Camry Hybrid
  • Small SUV: RAV4
  • Van: Sienna
  • Green car: Prius
  • Family SUV: Highlander (disclosure — I have a 2008 Highlander)

No other brand received more than one recommendation.

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2012/autos/1202/gallery.consumer-reports-top-picks/index.html

On the other hand, in the category “Worst Value Luxury Cars,” Jaguar, Mercedes, and Porsche each had two “winners,” and all were dinged for mediocre or worse quality.

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2012/autos/1202/gallery.worst-value-luxury-cars.fortune/index.html

This is particularly strange in the case of Porsche, which had been making great strides in quality by adopting lean production.

Speaking of which, this post might have been subtitled “The Toyota Production System is Back.”

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Boyd, TFPWCTAW, on GEN Odierno’s Reading List

General Ray Odierno, Chief of Staff of the US Army, has added Robert Coram’s Boyd, The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War, to the Army Professional Reading List. Incidentally, Boyd is now in its 7th printing.

In his intro, GEN Odierno said: “This reading list is an important element in the professional development of all leaders in the Army. We can never spend too much time reading and thinking about the Army profession and its interaction with the world at large.

‘These readings will deepen our understanding of the history of armies, the critical role of leadership in combat, and the strategic environment of today and the future. There is simply no better way to prepare for the future than a disciplined, focused commitment to a personal course of reading, study, thought and reflection. I challenge each of you to tackle these books and improve your power of critical thinking and understanding of the profession of arms.”

—GEN Raymond T. Odierno

It’s a very thorough and thought provoking list. You can download it from the February edition of Army magazine.

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Strategy subsumes culture

So writes Venkatesh Rao, author of Tempo, in a great new post on his Tempo Blog.

One tidbit to get you hooked: He joins John Boyd into a trio including Mahan and Clausewitz. At first, this may seem like strange bedfellows, but Boyd did cite Clausewitz often in Patterns of  Conflict, second only to Sun Tzu.

I’m somewhat hampered in commenting on Venkatesh’s post because it’s difficult to know what “culture” means in Boyd’s scheme of things. Other than in phrases like “cultural heritage” and “respect our culture,” Boyd doesn’t use the term.

On the other hand, he did talk about qualities that organizations need in order to be successful. In addition to the four German words from Certain to Win plus Behendigkeit (agility) there’s IOHAI from chart 144 of Patterns of Conflict. And “common implicit orientation” / “common outlook” from Patterns and Organic Design.

These qualities don’t just come from anywhere. So one might argue that any demarcation between culture and strategy is somewhat arbitrary. In other words, the duty of a commander is not only to create brilliant strategies:

 In the Clausewitz-Mahan-Boyd tradition, strategy is about human insight operating on chaotic shared mental models, seeking special, unfair advantages to exploit. The resources you have available, and the strengths and weaknesses of those resources (people and culture included), naturally get accommodated in this model. (Rao)

But also to create the platform that makes them possible.

Anyway, read the post and see what you think.

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Industrial blitzkrieg

Milliken.  Wonderful article in today’s Wall St. J. about how the old line textile manufacturer, Milliken & Co., in Spartenburg SC has used the principles of lean / maneuver warfare to thrive against global competition. OK, they don’t call it “maneuver warfare”, but read the article and see what you think (subscription to the WSJ required).  This is no coincidence: the late Roger Milliken was a keen student of Tom Peters, who was influenced by John Boyd.

The basic idea, which applies to any form of human conflict, is to get everybody in the organization to use their creativity and initiative to achieve the goals of the organization. Boyd’s FESA climate is designed to do just that. But it takes a lot of effort to build the culture where this climate can operate. For example: “A common outlook possessed by “a body of officers” represents a unifying theme that can be used to simultaneously encourage subordinate initiative yet realize superior intent.” (Patterns, 74)

Apparently, Milliken has gone through this process over the years and built an effective climate. As Boyd insisted in Conceptual Spiral, the driving force must be the creation and exploitation of novelty — before competitors can understand what you’re doing and before customers get tired and go somewhere else.

Not all their ideas work, of course. Roger Milliken was an ardent protectionist for many years and spent a lot of money trying to erect and maintain barriers to foreign competition. Fortunately, though, he didn’t bet the company on this version of the Maginot Line.

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Boyd’s Conceptual Spiral – New Edition

Download Conceptual Spiral (152 KB PDF), Boyd’s take on the origin and importance of novelty:

Novelty is not only produced by the practice of science/engineering and the pursuit of technology, it is also produced by the forces of nature, by our own thinking and doing as well as by others. Furthermore, novelty is produced continuously, if somewhat erratically or haphazardly. Now, in order to thrive and grow in such a world, we must match our thinking and doing, hence our orientation, with that emerging novelty. (28)

Adds the original page numbers, which may seem a little odd because for readability this edition spreads several of Boyd’s originals over two or even three pages.  All of these will have the same number.

Also corrects a number of typos, esp. in the “Examples from Science and Technology,” pp. 9-12 (and note that p. 12 in the original takes three pages here).

This version replaces the one dated February 2011.  It should also appear shortly in the John Boyd Compendium on DNIPOGO.

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The Help

Or, “Ole Miss Strikes Again,” the first time being, of course, The Blind Side.  (A post in our Southern Ambiance series.)

I was living in Mississippi in 1963 when the story takes place, and despite some of the criticism you may have read, the movie accurately portrays the attitudes of part of the white elite of the time.  For one thing, unlike some of the uneducated redneck population, the white power structure did not, by and large, consider itself racist.  There’s a line in the movie where Hilly (wonderfully played by Bryce Dallas Howard, Hollywood elite herself, and raised in Connecticut) tells Skeeter to be careful because there are racists out there and she could get hurt. This is while Hilly is pushing a law to require bathroom facilities for the black help to be moved outdoors.

For more on this attitude, which seems so patronizing to us today, read William Alexander Percy’s 1941 memoir, Lanterns on the Levee, where he writes in all seriousness, for example, that every southern white man is “owned” by at least one black man (who essentially regards him as another parent and funding source.)  And Percy was considered scandalously liberal for his day.

Continue reading →

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Lion: Just what I expected

Getting a little bored waiting for the mortgage company to decide on our loan (or ask for yet more information), so I decided to upgrade my old (2008) MacBook.  This time yesterday, it was running Leopard (not Snow Leopard) and had a badly full VMWare Fusion / Windows Vista installation that I no longer need.  Today, as we speak, I’m up and running with Lion!

Continue reading →

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God bless the USMC

As my wife and I were walking into the commissary at Parris Island this morning, just ahead of us was a Marine master sergeant — a DI, a Hat.  From the look on his face, he didn’t much care whether he went in through the door or the wall.

Just for a second, my blood froze.  Primal memories of military training long ago.  Then I told myself:  Get a grip!  You’re retired.  You’re Air Force.  You’re a colonel, fer crissakes!!  It seemed to help.

Sure glad he’s on our side.

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Tempo — A Review

[Note:  An earlier and slightly different version of this review was originally posted at http://fabiusmaximus.wordpress.com]

Tempo:
Timing, Tactics and Strategy in Narrative-Driven Decision-Making

by Venkatesh Rao
(Ribbonfarm, 2011; 154 pages)

Reviewed by Chet Richards
July 25, 2011

A good book is read more than once while accumulating copious notes in its margins and on the blank pages that the publisher has thoughtfully provided before and after the text. Venkatesh Rao has written a good book. Continue reading →

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More adventures of zheng and qi

One of the pillars of Boyd’s framework is the idea of playing off the expected (zheng) against the unexpected (qi).  It’s an ancient principle, a component of shih, the title of the fifth chapter of the Sun Tzu text.  In some form or another, it is incorporated into all frameworks that descend from Sun Tzu, including the Marine Corps’ maneuver warfare doctrine and the various forms of lean.

Occasionally the principle itself gets rediscovered.  You may be familiar with the “Wow! Factor” or Tom Peters’ “the Pursuit of Wow!”

Here’s one of these from the Wall St. J. last Friday.

A couple of comments:

1.  “Exceeding expectations” is OK, but it makes it sound like “expectations” is a linear scale and all you have to do is score higher.  He’s on the right track, but there’s more to zheng / qi than a freebee every now and again.  For one thing, if that’s your approach, then customers will come to expect it.

2.  And there’s something I don’t like about “under-promise, over-deliver.”  Something about it just makes me uncomfortable.

Still, his conclusion that “… when you give them something more than they expect — faster service, extra help, more options, early delivery and so on — you end up with the loyal, raving fans you need to propel your business into the stratosphere” is certainly consistent with what we expect from zheng / qi.

How to Turn Customers Into Loyal, Raving Fans

By MIKE MICHALOWICZ

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304203304576447823427183788.html

Do you want satisfied customers or do you want customers who are so thrilled with your company they become loyal, raving fans? I’ll take option No.2. Satisfied customers may come back a second or third time; they may even become regulars. But unless you exceed expectations, your satisfied customers could just as easily become your competitors’ satisfied customers.

Read more (subscription required)

About the Author

Mike Michalowicz is the author of “The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur.” He is an advocate of a business philosophy by the same name, believing the greatest business successes come from underfunded, inexperienced entrepreneurs. His website is http://www.ToiletPaperEntrepreneur.com.