Welcome to yet another Business Excellence Article. I have been travelling a lot over the past couple of weeks and as I have an interest in studying how service is given and how people work together. I have had plenty of time for that with different airlines. One aspect is also how effectively the service is given. Firstly I have…
This is a small and interesting book. I say small, as it is no more than 80 pages. It describes how by thinking in the opposite way to traditional thinking, one gets results that are fantastic. These thoughts make you overcome the fear of getting a “NO!” That NO can be the answer that you get from the invitation to…
Welcome to this issue of the Business Excellence Newsletter. Today I’m going to describe an experience from a customer project. This customer project took place within a municipality in Sweden. The municipalities in Sweden have a large range of responsibilities when it comes to giving service to citizens. They have the responsibility for roads and other infrastructure, education, welfare and…
When I train kids and youngsters in Ju Jutsu I, from time to time, hear the expressions “I cannot do that”, “I am no good at that”, “That is impossible”, “I can never learn that”, and other similar things. The other day when I was in the dojo, I had to stop the whole group and remind them about their…
The Toyota Way is a very interesting book. It has become a classic in the description of the success of Toyota. Toyota have through a focused and resilient work become the largest car manufacturer in the world. That is amazing, as they started out during a tough time after the second world war, and later on had a reputation of…
You need an extraordinary mindset to meet the potentially overwhelming challenges that await you and your organization. Challenges such as increasing demands for speed and quality. Challenges that are further complicated by rapidly changing demographics, globalization and exponential technical development. Matts Rehnström, with more than 20 years of experience in Business Development, describes the keys to truly taking your organization further.…
By Matts Rehnström, Brian Tracy and other World Leading Experts. “Nothing endures but change.” This phrase, which we have attributed to Heraclitus, was probably around in one form or another since the beginning of time. Each one of us, without exception, will change as we age. Why do we change? Change is a basic survival mechanism. Changes may be seen…
Welcome to this Business Excellence Article. There have been some severe issues with cars that do not work as expected. They have even caused severe injuries and death. A couple of years back Toyota had problems with the accelerator in a couple of their models. It made the cars accelerate uncontrollably and caused accidents. At the same time, but not…
On December 27th 1991, the Scandinavian Airlines flight SK-751 took off from Arlanda airport. The plane was a MD81 with the engines at the rear, close to the fuselage. Shortly after the take off the pilots found themselves in big trouble. Ice from the wings broke off and flew into the engines, which after a while broke up. That made…
Welcome to this edition of the Business Excellence Article. Spring is here and as the sun is shining and the warmth returns, new ideas are flourishing as well. I often meet employees who say that the leaders of the organization “do not understand anything” about what is needed for the business and what improvements need to be done. The workforce…
The winter Olympics is over and many athletes have achieved amazing results. In the world of sport it is natural to measure the accomplishment. Sometimes the measurement is in time, other times it is in the number of goals or points scored. The way that the sport is measured is also the basis for how the athletes perform. The ice…
Welcome to this Business Excellence Article. I observe many organizations that start their improvement work without a thorough plan. They start with a fuzzy decision about “making some improvements”, but they do not follow it up by creating the right conditions for the work to be successful. Therefore the person who takes on the responsibility will be unlikely to succeed…
Welcome to the second Business Excellence Article of 2014. This one was written in a Budo dojo and the inspiration comes from my experience of Jujutsu and other Budo disciplines. In the dojo belts are worn to show the level of development that has been achieved. It is a clear symbol of how far you have come. When I started…
In this Business Excellence Article I have decided to tell you the story about when I was involved in helping Santa and his Christmas Organization to perform better. It is not every day that you have a personal visit from an old elf asking you very politely to come to a meeting with Santa at his North Pole headquarters. I…
I received a tip off about an article discussing a suggestion for the legislation of salaries in Switzerland. As you may know there is a special rule in Switzerland whereby the citizens can call for a referendum, if 100.000 of them sign a petition. In this case it is a suggestion to limit the differential of salaries in a business.…
Some years ago there was a study which investigated a groups’ impact on the behaviour of individuals within a specific group. A group of monkeys were housed in a large cage. In this cage the investigating scientists hung a large quantity of bananas. A surveillance camera was installed to capture the moment when a monkey might close in on the…
This week I will talk about time – an appropriate time span to hold a position. I have just studied a survey that showed the relationship between the tenure of a leadership or management position and the quality of results from an organization. It showed that when a new tenure is started for a position – the results increase and…
All large and/or complex things in our world (as we know it) contain numerous small parts. An organization contains several sub-units: some are called divisions whilst others are called units or departments. Ultimately within an organisation, there are always numerous individuals involved. A family contains numerous members. A car contains numerous parts. A body contains numerous cells, and so on.…
In my previous blog post I spoke about my involvement in helping children to grow up in a safer and better environment. In this post I would like to highlight a spin-off from that. I suggest that it is always cheaper to do things correctly and well from the beginning than to handle the consequences of poor quality and corner…
This weeks Business Excellence blog-post is focused on something out of the ordinary, or maybe not really… I write, speak and teach about increasing the efficiency in your organization whilst giving an outstanding value to your customers. I also address the fact that it is important to have a happy crew onboard. I have a vision of a better tomorrow…
For those that had their holiday during the summer it will soon be time to go back to work. I hope that the vacation has been enjoyable and that you now feel that it is good to be going back to work. The fact is that if you feel happy about yourself and your work, then you are going to…
If you are working within a large organization there is a risk that you are not as flexible as needed. We know that there are several challenges that arise in our prospective business, and those challenges are coming faster and are more changeable than ever before. Therefore we all need to be flexible within our organizations. When a prerequisite changes…
You are familiar with the beautiful sight of a rainbow in the sky. It tells us that the rain has passed by and that the sun is shining again. What is actually at the end of the rainbow? Is it a pot of gold as I was led to believe when I was a child? If we transfer our thoughts…
A couple of months ago I flew to the US with Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) and whilst there I also took some domestic flights within the US. During my return trip to my hometown in Sweden I had an experience that prompted me to think about SAS’s service, and the service that other airlines offer. The flight was full and as…
You may well have heard the song “School’s out” by Alice Cooper. I remember, when I was young, I always listened to that particular song at this time of the year. I really liked the song and consequently enjoyed listening to it. The reason for playing it was clear – now it is time for summer break – no more…
A couple of days ago I held a seminar. My speech was entitled ‘The Power in a Learning Organization’. The other speakers at the event spoke about the necessity for good communication within an organization and also about the new generations Y and Z, and their demands upon the workplace. These subjects provided very good material for my speech: ‘The…
During the springtime in Scandinavia, every two or so years, there is much discussion about new agreements between the employers organizations and the employees organizations. The need for renegotiation is dependent upon how long ago the last agreement was made. This can also mean that there is a risk of conflict at this time in some work places. To reach…
Last week I was a speaker at the Vitalis Conference. This was for the health care sector with a focus on the e-Health. My speech was entitled The Patients Experience Equals the Process. In my speech I focused on the fact that the person who does not feel well, experiences several organizational units through their “travels” from being ill to feeling…
For those of you who attended the Vitalis fair in Gothenburg and are interested in the slide show, please click the link.
I assume that you have heard the expression “the devil is in the detail”. To have a more positive attitude I would like to say that the “the detail contains the divine”. Either way the statements tell us that detail is very important. Some may say that it is the big picture that is important and that we should not…
Sometimes I experience something that makes my Business Excellence-focused heart race. Today I had such an experience. It felt like going into a zone of joy with full focus on the customer. Today, I was one of the customers. The amazing thing is, that you can actually sense that zone, even though it is not visible at all. There are…
Last week there was a lot of discussion in the Swedish media regarding reports coming in on poor performance within the health-care sector. Reports show that health-care all around Sweden has extended waiting times in both Accident and Emergency departments and to get specialist treatment for identified illnesses. Reports also highlighted the fact that hospitals are overcrowded. Politicians were interviewed…
How does your organization perform? How do you perform within your organization? I bet that you and your organization have a huge potential. I also bet that maybe not all of it is evident to the world. All too many people and organizations settle for a mediocre performance. That is why so many are alike. They all seem to be…
I sometimes wonder how people think when they formulate a policy for an organization. It would be interesting to be a fly on the wall and hear the, hopefully, vivid discussions before the decision is made. One such interesting example is when a public organization decides to charge the employees for tea and coffee. The argument for this decision is…
When you design your process, who is going to view the graphical description? Who is the consumer of the information provided? It is important to consider this, otherwise you may end up having a fantastic graphical description that is not understood by those viewing it. In the first instance when you conduct a survey of a business you usually end…
My first blog post was about having a positive attitude towards things, and I’m going to deal with this subject again here. We start a new year and we have 365 brand new days to make a really astonishing impact on our world. For those of you who conduct business around the clock it also means that you have 365…
I have over the years reduced my watching of TV news bulletins and reading the newspaper. I can’t help noticing that they mostly focus on bad things. They convey to me a sense of a world where we have to be scared of each other and a world where we have to be afraid, suspicious, and constantly watchful for things…
Now we have a New Year ahead, at least according to the Gregorian calendar, and New Year’s resolutions are abundant. I have a suggestion for a business related New Year’s resolution: “I, as a manager am going to construct an environment where I give my staff the authority to conduct their business with the customers. I will trust them with…
This weeks blog post could be conceived as a little introspective, in that I’m writing about my book release. The Swedish version of my book is released today, December 10th. You may agree with my friend Matz Engman, the CEO of the Luleå Business Agency, commenting during the the book release party; “Matts is really cocky, to have his book…
The fact that we live in a time where technology is rapidly changing, could not have escaped anyone, but do you choose to be an active participant or do you just talk about it with amazement during coffee breaks? According to Ray Kurzwail, writer of the New York Times best-selling book, The Singularity is Near, the time in-between big changes…
During the past summer I visited one of the larger amusement parks in Sweden, Gröna Lund (means the Green Grove) in the middle of Stockholm. I was there with my family. What struck me on arrival at the park were the friendly faces and the friendly way that people spoke to us. It was “Hello and welcome” everywhere. Smiling people…
Have you ever had an experience where you have an important meeting in a conference room and some of the gadgets in that room do not really work as they are supposed to? I Bet you have! I also bet that there is a high possibility that this conference room was on your own premises. I was once working with…
Have you ever travelled abroad and found yourself technically transported 15 years back? Not because the country you are visiting is not as developed as the one you have come from, but rather because you are not able to use your mobile devices in the same manner as you are used to doing at home. From being used to having…
I had the pleasure to visit the US. Entering through the US Immigration does however, not always equate to the pleasure of the rest of the trip. I saw that they had put up new signs by the immigration checking booth stating that they are the Face of America followed by list of items that they commit to, such as…
An amazing event is going on above our heads, at least if we live in New Mexico, USA. At 36.000 meter (120.000 feet) a very brave guy called Felix Baumgartner is about to jump out of a stratospheric balloon. He is going to free-fall towards Earth and he is aiming to reach supersonic speed. This has never been done before.…
