Geof Fountain writes about an equation posited by Ely Goldratt;
profit=revenue-cost:
> Instead, he says management should focus on growing the revenue, which
>due to the amount of energy on our planet (he's a physicist by education),
>is unlimited in our life times and that of many generations. But doing so
>means changing mindsets and how we think, as well as taking a long-term
>view and refocusing on providing new solutions (revenue growth) to the
>market based on new ways of thinking. Perhaps a true learning organization
>would have already anticipated the changes and developed new skills,
>markets, and services and adapted, rather than react by laying off.
(snip)
Yes, IMHO, a true learning organization will be capable of making such
decisions.
>There are some questions in my mind though. If the strategy is to seek a
>dominant competitive edge, that means others are losers. Is it only the
>winners that avoid the downsizings ? As long as the strategy includes the
>word "competitive", we will always have winners and losers (and therefore
>we will always have downsizings). Doesn't the word "collaborative" have
>some use in this strategy ? Or is that wishful thinking ?
I knew there was something I liked about Geof! A reader of Goldratt...And
you've done a marvelous job of summarizing what some might consider hard
to swallow stuff. First and foremost is a shift in thinking from a cost
accounting view of the world (which is characterized by feeding the
short-view thinkers) to a longer view information system that measures
throughput, operating expenses, and inventory.
Personally, I don't believe the strategy or tools Goldratt offers is
_contingent_ on "competition." I believe the phrase is a buzz word
they're using to get the point across to those who can only see the value
in something new if they perceive a contribution to the bottom line.
Possibly, I'm giving him more credit than he deserves. But I'm with you,
until we adopt collaborative strategies, we'll always have losers.
My personal vision incorporates what Goldratt has to offer for developing
information management systems with all the organizational concepts
espoused by Senge, liberally seasoned with Alfie Kohn's insights into the
corrosive affect of competition--with a deep understanding of the message
from _Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance_ by Pirsig.
-- Ginger Shafer The Leadership Dimension "Bringing Leadership to Life" vshafer@azstarnet.com