Weapons-Grade Wisdom

Best Buy has closed more US stores than it opened every single year since 2012. This year that ends. The company told investors it expects net domestic store growth for the first time in more than a decade. Here is the part worth your attention. The stores driving that growth are roughly a third the […] Read More

What Did Apple Actually Cut? The ITW 80/20 Rule: Subtracting the Product Tail What 80/20 Squared Does Differently The Three-Move Exit Nobody Connected The Price Tag on the Tail: $1B and $2.2B Why the Offer Got Wider While the Work Got Narrower What 1,847 Combinations Taught Me About Ranking How to Run 80/20 Squared on […] Read More

Proprietary Strategy Framework: The Four Deadly Myths That Kill Profitability STAGNATION ASSASSIN / CHAPTER 4 / TARGET SELECTION THE FOUR DEADLY MYTHS Before you build the 80/20 Matrix, kill four myths that are probably destroying your profitability right now. Not just wrong — deadly. 01 THE MYTH “All revenue is good revenue.” THE TRUTH Revenue […] Read More

Stagnation Slaughters. Strategy Saves. Speed Scales. Table of Contents The Orthodoxy Everyone Accepted Without Testing Case File: Ford Hired 350 Gray Beards Why the Reorganization Alone Would Not Have Worked How Far the Other Direction Went The Convergence Test Nobody Ran The Seven Laws, Read Through Dearborn What This Demands of You on Monday Morning […] Read More

Proprietary Strategy Framework: The Four Capacity Dimensions STAGNATION ASSASSIN / CHAPTER 6 / CAPACITY DIMENSIONS THE FOUR CAPACITY DIMENSIONS Most organizations obsess over Dimension 1 while ignoring 2, 3, and 4 — where the biggest constraints actually hide. 01 DIMENSION 1 TECHNICAL WHAT THEY MEASURE Equipment utilization, uptime, throughput specs. WHAT THEY MISS Gap between […] Read More

Proprietary Strategy Framework: The Three Meta-Orthodoxies That Block Transformation STAGNATION ASSASSIN / CHAPTER 8 / SMASHING ORTHODOXIES THE THREE META-ORTHODOXIES Orthodoxies about orthodoxies. These three self-sealing beliefs prevent organizations from recognizing that questioning fundamental assumptions is even possible. 01 META-ORTHODOXY 01 “OUR INDUSTRY IS DIFFERENT.” WHY IT’S A TRAP Every industry believes it’s special. Every […] Read More

What Is the Hypomanic Operational Turnaround (HOT) System? What Are the Warning Signs That a Company Is Stagnating? What Is the Operating-Tempo Advantage the HOT System Builds On? How Does the 80/20 Reality Matrix Find Hidden Profit? What Is the Karelin Method of Concentrated Intensity? How Do You Find Hidden Value Through Pattern Recognition? What […] Read More

What Is Value Stream Mapping and Why Is It Critical for Bottleneck Identification? How Does Value Stream Mapping Differ From Traditional Process Mapping? What Are the Essential Components of a Current-State Map? How Do You Conduct a Value Stream Mapping Exercise? What Are the Most Common Value Stream Mapping Mistakes? How Do You Calculate the […] Read More

What Is the Theory of Constraints and Why Does It Matter? How Common Are Manufacturing Bottlenecks and Underutilized Capacity? What Are the Five Focusing Steps of the Theory of Constraints? How Do You Actually Identify Your Manufacturing Bottleneck? What Does “Subordinate Everything Else” Actually Mean in Practice? How Can Industry 4.0 Technologies Eliminate Bottlenecks? How […] Read More