How much time do most people spend thinking about success and how it is achieved? Likely not as much as we should because the world really revolves around success or elements of success.
Erik Larson’s latest book begins with this quote. If you’ve ever read a book about a serial killer and the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, the last crossing of the Lusitania, an American family in Hitler’s Berlin, the inventor of wireless and Britain’s second most famous murderer, or the 1900 Galveston Hurricane, you may be familiar with Erik Larson.
Almost all organizations set performance targets for departments and/or individuals to conduct their operations and to deliver products and services to their customers. Although managers attempt to ensure their processes can handle all the issues that may arise in their business, in today’s complex world, these processes often fall short.
President John F. Kennedy famously said, “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” This was his challenge to every American citizen to contribute in some way to the public good.
Today’s world has never been more dynamic, and it’s constantly changing at an accelerated rate by adopting more advanced technologies. Industry 4.0 refers to these accelerated changes to the way we live, work, and communicate.
As graduation season continues without any graduations—or rather, abbreviated ones online along with a cap and gown photo on your front porch—it reminds me of Anne Patchett’s graduation speech turned book, “What Now?”
Since change has been constant since the dawn of man, it might be reasonable to think that industrial management has the process institutionalized...but that simply is not the case, at least in many organizations.